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Luke Combs' cover of Tracy Chapman's hit, "Fast Car," has been dominating the country charts -- but amid its success ... some have wondered if racism is afoot in the genre.

Here's the deal ... think pieces have been published of late that delve into this topic -- including one from WaPo, which really kick-started this conversation -- and they're all posing the same question ... why didn't TC resonate with the same audience Luke has???

The answer that a lot of these articles seem to land on -- after interviewing subjects, etc. -- is that, even today, it's hard for Black artists to break through in country. And they're using the example of Luke thrusting new life into "Fast Car" as their exhibit A for that argument.

Of course, in reaching this conclusion ... the word "racism" is getting thrown around a lot.

In fact, the author of the WaPo article put it quite succinctly in promoting her work -- writing, "As Luke Combs's hit cover of Tracy Chapman's 'Fast Car' dominates the country charts, it’s bringing up some complicated emotions in fans & singers who know that Chapman, as a queer Black woman, would have an almost zero chance at that achievement herself."

Unfortunately for her, it doesn't sound like the Internet's accepting her theory at face value ... and pushing back on the implication that "Fast Car" was some obscure song that's only now getting mainstream recognition -- while also trolling WaPo as reaching for outrage.

You can see how folks are reacting for yourself, but as many of them are pointing out ... "Fast Car" was a monster hit when it was released in '88, and helped Tracy break out into music, not to mention accolades that followed after, including Grammys and other awards.

Even commercially, the song killed ... soaring on a number of charts around the world, and peaking at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 list at the time. Bottom line ... it seems like people are scoffing at the notion that Tracy's missing out/getting snubbed amid Luke's use of it.

And as others are also clarifying ... "Fast Car" was not originally released as country song -- and that, perhaps, the reason it's booming in the country scene right now is because a huge country star did their own rendition with it. That's also known as ... a crossover cover.

We're also just now getting to a huge part of this ... namely, the fact that Tracy has gone on record to applaud Luke for his cover -- and more importantly, the enormous amount of royalties this has generated for her ... seeing how she's the original songwriter here.

Tracy said, "I never expected to find myself on the country charts, but I’m honored to be there. I’m happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced 'Fast Car.'" In other words ... she seems to be more than fine with this.

Tom Holland is playing a gay man in a new TV show ... but it's not sitting well with some of his 'Spider-Man' fans while others are defending him.

Holland -- who recently announced he will return to the superhero role in "Spider Man 4" -- came under fire on social media Friday for his part in the Apple TV series, "The Crowded Room."

In one scene, Holland and another man have steamy sex, which sparked the online outrage.

One person tweeted, "Tom Gone Wrong #NotMySpiderMan."

Another wrote, "LMAOOOOOOO dis is really somebody’s favorite Spider-Man"

It's probably a mix of unabashed homophobia and people who think only a gay actor should play a gay role.

But some of Tom's fervent supporters responded to the online haters by arguing previous 'Spider-Man' actors had taken similar LGBTQ roles, such as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.

Lincoln Riley can cook opposing defenses with his playbook, but he still needs some serious help when it comes to preparing food ... 'cause USC's head football coach is getting ripped apart AGAIN for his most recent kitchen creation.

Two years after he was mocked to hell for his awful-looking Easter brisket, the leader of the Trojans' sideline still hasn't learned his lesson ... and this time, his victim was an innocent tuna.

The 39-year-old coach shared a pic of a cooked fish caught by his WR coach Dennis Simmons (sorry to bring ya into this, coach) this week ... and a lot of his followers struggled to figure out what it was by the time he was done with it.

"Did you smoke a red velvet cake?" one confused Twitter user said.

"Feed the team this before the Oregon game," another user added. "Will clear a locker room out faster than Rona."

There's more -- "IDC if this is filet mignon or tuna. I don't trust this dude on the grill any more than I do with a defense."

"You can afford a private chef, for the love of god get one," a pretty logical tweet pointed out.

Some users were trying to help out by suggesting different temperatures and using other seasonings... but ultimately, the general consensus is the dude is pretty much hopeless.

Despite the backlash, it doesn't seem Lincoln will be feeding into the hate anytime soon ... and who knows -- maybe you'll see him on a future episode of "Worst Cooks in America!!!"

Usher is back to his smooth, serenading ways -- only this time, it's Saweetie who was in his sights ... and fortunately for everyone, her significant other doesn't seem to be trippin'.

The singer was doing yet another show at his Vegas residency Friday -- where none other than Saweetie showed up to see the man in action. Welp, like he's done with other stars in the recent past ... Usher honed in on her and started belting out slow jams right to her face.

Not the song, mind you -- he was actually crooning his hit, "There Goes My Baby," and was seeking a little assist from Saweetie ... who did help him, albeit somewhat off-key. 😅

It proved to be a sweet and funny moment, no doubt ... and Saweetie certainly seemed to be in on the fun. Of course, what everyone almost immediately thought of when seeing this was the whole Keke Palmer debacle -- where her man lost his s*** over her doing the same.

You'll recall ... Darius Jackson -- with whom Keke shares a child -- publicly aired out his grievances about Keke getting special a little treatment from Usher this past week.

His main gripe, it seems, was more so about her outfit ... which he apparently thought was a little too revealing, and which he made known by reminding her that she was a mother now.

The dude got dragged by the Internet at large, and he has since deleted his social accounts. Keke, meanwhile, also seems to have been down to stick it to her baby daddy -- doubling down in her wardrobe and posting even more sexy shots of herself in the sheer dress.

And with all that in mind, everyone was looking for a reaction from YG in this new Saweetie instance ... perhaps expecting him to be bent out of shape, but not finding a damn thing.

YG -- who Saweetie has recently been romantically connected to, and who was with the guy as recently as last week -- hasn't said anything about Usher singing to his girl ... and rightly so. There's nothing to complain about, really, and it would appear YG recognizes that.

Former WNBA star and ex-Tennessee Lady Volunteers hooper Nikki McCray-Penson has tragically passed away at 51 years old.

The heartbreaking news was confirmed to The Tennesean on Friday by Rutgers University, where McCray-Penson had been working as an assistant coach for the women's basketball team.

The school did not provide a cause of death ... but Univ. of Tenn. reporter Maria Cornelius said McCray-Penson passed away after battling breast cancer for a second time.

The former guard starred at Tennessee in the 1990s ... winning SEC Player of the Year twice (1994, 1995) -- as well as earning Kodak All-American honors twice.

Following her stint with the Vols, she went on to become a three-time WNBA All-Star ... while playing eight seasons for the Mystics, Fever, Mercury, Silver Stars and Sky.

She also won two gold Olympic medals with Team USA in her career ... and was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.

Her coaching tenure began in 2006 ... when she was hired to be an assistant on Western Kentucky's staff. She later became a head coach for Old Dominion, where she won C-USA Coach of the Year in 2019-2020. She then had a stint as Mississippi State's head coach ... before she began her career at Rutgers in 2022.

McCray-Penson also had a significant impact off the court ... she was selected by Bill Clinton to be a member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. She was also picked by the Library of Congress as a speaker for the Women's History Month Address in 1999.

News of the death has rocked the basketball world ... with many stars remembering her fondly after learning of her passing.

"Nikki McCray : Sweet person and cold hooper!," ex-NBA star Chris Webber wrote. "Rest in Peace."

Added Dick Vitale, "I am so heartbroken hearing this news a few minutes ago about Nikki McCray - Penson . Loved everything about Nikki - she was a Hall of Famer as a player & as a person . May Nikki RIP."

Lady Vols senior Rickea Jackson, who played under McCray-Penson at Mississippi St., also tweeted her condolences to the McCray-Penson family.

"One of the most beautiful souls I've ever met," Jackson said. "The one who genuinely went out their way to understand me when I was so misunderstood. The one who was always there."

"You fought so long and hard and I am grateful to have known you. I love you. Rest easy."

Mark Zuckerberg apparently can't wait to get into an Octagon with Elon Musk to take shots at the billionaire ... he spent plenty of time Wednesday night throwing keyboard jabs at his nemesis -- as part of the rollout of his new app, Threads.

The Twitter rival made its debut right around dinner time ... and just a few minutes into its kickoff, Zuck took to the site -- which many are calling the "new Twitter" -- to go after Musk and his bird app.

First, Zuckerberg tossed shade at Twitter while explaining to Mark Cuban he hopes Threads is a more "friendly" area for people to interact.

"That's one reason why Twitter never succeeded as much as I think it should have," he wrote, "and we want to do it differently."

Later, the Meta founder told UFC fighter Mike Davis he's got hopes Threads will outgrow Twitter one day.

"It'll take some time," Zuckerberg said, "but I think there should be a public conversations app with 1 billion+ people on it. Twitter has had the opportunity to do this but hasn't nailed it. Hopefully we will."

There were some veiled comments from Zuck about a potential fight with Musk too ... while replying to new signups throughout the night, he consistently made references to winning "round one" of Threads. He also laughed at the prospects of the billionaire superfight being called "The Meta Threada." He spent a whole lot of time interacting with MMA stars like Jon Jones as well.

Zuck even appeared to get back on Twitter after an 11-year hiatus to get in another little ribbing at Musk ... with an account apparently associated with him tweeting out the Spider-Man meme.

No date has been set for the potential Zuck vs. Musk superfight -- there's a lot of hangups over the size discrepancy between the two -- but it's clear, the guys are more than content battling each other behind computer screens while it all gets sorted out.

Keke Palmer's boyfriend Darius Jackson -- who's also the father of her child -- isn't backing down after publicly shaming her wardrobe choice for Usher's show and now says her sheer fit reflects poorly on their family.

Darius is defending his initial comments on Keke's sexy outfit after catching a ton of heat for his critique -- specifically, he said she shouldn't wear such a revealing outfit because she's a mother.

In doubling down, Darius said Wednesday ... "We live in a generation where a man of the family doesn’t want the wife & mother to his kids to showcase booty cheeks to please others & he gets told how much of a hater he is."

Unapologetically, he added ... "This is my family & my representation. I have standards & morals to what I believe. I rest my case."

The controversy started Wednesday afternoon when Darius quote tweeted a video showing Keke in a sheer dress as Usher serenades her at his Las Vegas residency. Darius said, "It's the outfit tho.. you a mom."

Tons of folks lashed out at Darius in the replies, but now he's sticking to his guns.

LeBron James traded in his signature Nike kicks for a polo and clipboard on Wednesday, coaching up son Bryce James at one of the most heralded H.S. hoops tourneys in the world!

It all went down Wednesday afternoon at Nike's Peach Jam in North Augusta, SC ... which features some of the best high school players from around the country, competing against each other.

16-year-old Bryce hoops for SVG -- Strive For Greatness -- and while LeBron isn't technically the head coach, he shared some of his wisdom with the squad as they took on the Florida Rebels.

And, the King wasn't alone ... 2x NBA champ Rajon Rondo was also there, assisting.

FYI, Bron and Rondo aren't the only big names around ... Chris Paul, Bradley Beal, Carmelo Anthony, and several other NBA stars also have teams.

Rivals reporter Krysten Peek even captured video of Bron drawing up a play during a timeout, while the former Celtics star coached up one of their players on the side.

SVG won their first game on Monday ... where 6'4" Bryce, who recently transferred to Campbell Hall from Sierra Canyon, dropped 12 points (on 4-of-9 shooting).

Mark Zuckerberg's new Twitter-like app is just days away from taking flight -- and it seems Elon Musk's not happy about the competition ... further fueling the two techies' beef.

In case you've forgotten ... the reason Mark and Elon are talking about fighting each other (for real) is because of this new service that Meta is rolling out called 'Threads -- which is said to be the "new" Twitter, if you, will ... only, it'll be rolled out under Mark's watch.

When Elon caught wind of MZ's new toy last month, he jokingly said he was willing to battle the guy -- and now, it's full-steam ahead on negotiations as they prepare to duel.

Welp, the impetus for this all came full circle Monday ... with word of Threads' supposed launch date being revealed as July 7 -- with the option to pre-order it now available on Apple's app store. There's more info as well as to what sorta data it's going to harvest from users ... something EM couldn't help but comment on Monday, taking a swipe.

In response to all the ways Threads is going to manage personal data (mining a helluva lot, frankly), Elon replied ... "Thank goodness they're so sanely run." That carries significance.

Reports have suggested that a Meta executive told staffers recently that Threads would be "sanely run" compared to Musk's wild west on Twitter lately -- but it sounds like Elon's scoffing at how much freaking user data they're going to control in order to do so.

Of course, you could argue Elon's probably a little worried about this new foe on the market -- especially in light of his absolutely hated decision to limit Twitter users' daily tweet count ... as far as being able to see new content. He's upped the count since the debacle this weekend -- but folks are still pissed and certainly looking for an alternative for news.

Presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis and his team might wanna take things back to the drawing board because one anti-Trump Pride Month ad just didn't quite stick the way they had hoped.

A video shared by the official DeSantisWarRoom campaign account on Twitter with the caption, "To wrap up 'Pride Month,' let’s hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate it…"

The video went on to show images of Trump posing with a rainbow flag, talking highly of his friend, Caitlyn Jenner, and vowing to protect the LGBTQ community.

Whether or not Trump has kept those promises is another discussion ... but Twitter users unleashed on the DeSantis campaign, confused about how they truly thought the whole thing would land.

Some of the most popular comments included, "Is Ron Desantis running for President of Iran?" "Lol bro this just made me like trump for 2 minutes." "This is the most Trump thing DeSantis has ever done ... keep it up" and "This might as well be a pro-Trump ad."

Michael Imperioli isn't happy with the Supreme Court's decision in further allowing business owners to turn away customers from the LGBTQ+ community ... making his outrage clear.

The former "Sopranos" star took to social media this weekend to blow off some steam over the mega-ruling that came down Friday -- with a majority of the justices siding with a web designer who refuses to work on a gay couples wedding sites on religious grounds.

In the end, they said she has every right to refuse gay couples her services ... on account of the First Amendment. Remember, another ruling for a wedding cake shop owner also seemed to back that up ... albeit in not nearly as clear terms as this one was. In any case, MI's pissed.

He posted a photo of the web designer in question with a headline attached, and then added this commentary ... "i’ve decided to forbid bigots and homophobes from watching The Sopranos, The White Lotus, Goodfellas or any movie or tv show I’ve been in."

Mike adds, "Thank you Supreme Court for allowing me to discriminate and exclude those who I don’t agree with and am opposed to. USA ! USA!" He went on to say hate and ignorance were not a legitimate POV ... and America was becoming dumber by the minute.

The response he's getting to this is interesting ... seems like a lot of people who agree with the high court's decision are not on board with his take, and many appear shocked he was this passionate about the topic.

Welp, Michael's made no bones about where he stands on this -- and considering that conservatives appear to be boycotting anything they consider "woke" ... ya gotta wonder if they'll take him up on his suggestion and stop watching his TV shows and movies.

Lil Nas X is the latest celeb to have crap thrown at them in the middle of a performance -- but, fortunately, this one amounted to more laughs than bruises.

The rapper was performing at the European Lollapalooza in Stockholm Saturday, and right in the middle of one of his songs -- a loose item sailed in the air and landed at his feet. Nas X stopped the show and bent down to see what it was ... as it turns, it was a sex toy.

Then came his obvious question ... "Who threw they p**** onstage?" The reason he's asking that is because is something that's meant to mimic a vagina -- yep, we're going there!

Anyway ... it was no harm, no foul in the end. Nas X wasn't hit, and it doesn't seem like the interruption sidelined the show at all ... like we said, it amounted to more comedy than anything else -- but this is still very much part of a larger trend that's becoming concerning.

Bebe Rexha's phone-to-face incident certainly stands out as one of the more gruesome acts of stage chucking that have gone down recently -- but she's far from the only one who's had to deal with intrusive fans in the crowd. It's a thing lately ... and it's not great long-term.

It pays to be a Travis Scott fan in the front row, especially if you can match his energy and recite his lyrics -- 'cause the dude might just throw you a bone ... like he did for this bloke.

The rapper was overseas this weekend, performing at Rolling Loud in the Netherlands ... where he was at a 10 in terms of the hype and throttle. At one point during his set, he came down to the front row to mingle with the crowd, and one dude caught his eye.

The reason ... this fella was rapping TS's own lyrics right back to him, seemingly perfectly and just as animated as Travis too -- almost like they were mirroring each other, really.

Watch what happens next ... Trav appears to be impressed by the fact that the fan was able to keep up, so he rewards him on the spot. He literally yanks his shirt off -- an unreleased "Utopia" tee, it seems -- and hands it to the kid ... and ditto for the shoes off his feet.

You can see a bunch of others in the immediate area trying to get their grubby paws on the stuff, but Travis makes sure it gets into the hands of the person it was all intended for.

BTW, the shoes also appear to be fairly unique -- not only are they Jordans that Travis had personally worn, but they seem to be similar (if not identical) to the custom "Utopia" Nike sneakers that he was recently rocking ... when he had his album handcuffed to a bodyguard.

This Dutch dude posted photos of the merch afterward and said it was the greatest night of his life. He got a 1-on-1 with his idol -- but more importantly, he's got valuable collectibles.

Twitter was experiencing mass outages this weekend -- and now, Elon Musk has explained why ... he's instituting a new policy that limits nonpaying customers to a daily tweet count.

The Twitter exec addressed a massive problem Twitter users at large were experiencing Saturday -- namely, the inability to see new tweets, dive into trends or refresh their main feed whatsoever. Everyone was getting hit with the same message ... Rate Limit Exceeded.

A lot of folks assumed there was some kind server capacity problem that Twitter was experiencing -- not the first time that's happened under EM's watch -- or that there was just a glitch in the system. Wrong on both counts ... which was confirmed by Elon himself.

He wrote ... "To address extreme levels of data scraping & system manipulation, we’ve applied the following temporary limits: - Verified accounts are limited to reading 6000 posts/day - Unverified accounts to 600 posts/day - New unverified accounts to 300/day."

He followed that up with a trollish joke, saying that people were hitting their rate limits by reading all the tweets about the rate limits being exceeded -- but then changed his mind on the drop of a hat (again) by promising to up the count on all fronts by a smidge.

He says verified users will soon get 8,000 tweets per day, unverified users will get 800 and new unverified users will get 400. Bottom line, he's setting a hard cap at the amount of tweets people can see in a day ... which is getting A LOT of pushback and backlash.

This appears to be yet another play to get people to sign up for Twitter Blue and pay to be verified -- something EM and co. have been trying to do for months now since rolling out the new service ... and coming up short on interested customers. Twitter Blue costs $8/month.

Of course, this comes in the wake of news a couple months ago that Twitter's valuation had been slashed by at least a third since the Musk takeover. He bought it for $44 billion, but it's now reported to be worth between $8 and $15 billion ... and Elon's also been forthright about economic challenges of late, including getting new advertisers and streams of revenue.

Now he's put his user base into a corner and is forcing their hand. As a result, several Twitter users are considering other options -- and the "death" of Twitter is trending too.

Damian Lillard is throwing in the towel in Portland -- the guy just requested a trade from his longtime team, the Trailblazers, and word is ... he wants to go southeast.

News broke Saturday that the PG asked Portland brass for a one-way ticket out of the franchise, and per NBA insider Shams Charania -- he's angling for a deal to be made with the Miami Heat specifically. Woj is reporting the Blazers will try to accommodate him.

Now, while Dame has apparently made his desired landing spot clear ... what remains to be seen is if he actually ends up going there. Woj is also reporting that other interested parties include the Clippers and 76ers ... that the Blazers will get as much as they can for DL.

In other words, if the Heat turn out to be a team that can't give them the most bang for their buck (draft picks/young players) ... they'll go elsewhere, and Dame could end up back in the west again, despite a reported interest in moving to the East Coast. Business 101.

Now, while a lot of Blazers fans are lamenting losing the bona fide face of the franchise -- who's been incredibly loyal to Portland for years now -- this is actually a move many anticipated in the wake of the team drafting Scoot Henderson recently ... an up-and-coming point guard who has a lot of potential and who the Blazers clearly want to replace Dame.

Many took that pick as a not-so-subtle message to Dame ... namely, it's time for you to go big dawg. For a minute, there was an unspoken game of chicken going on as to who'd blink first. As it turns out, Dame pulled the trigger and got the message -- time to move on.

Another element at play here that's made it difficult for the Blazers to sign other good players over the years is the fact that he signed a cash-rich supermax deal with the team a few years ago ... and while he's said he was dedicated to bringing them a championship, the reality is -- that was likely never going to happen with their salary cap issues.

Italians would riot in the streets if Rome's Colosseum staged a UFC fight between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg ... that's the prediction from a famed archaeologist over in Italy.

Darius Arya, a historian whose been on tons of TV programs about Ancient Rome, joined us on "TMZ Live" Friday from Italy's capital and we asked him about the Italian government contacting Zuckerberg about hosting his fight with Elon.

For Darius, the prospect of the billionaires doing battle at the same site as the ancient gladiators of old sounds super enticing ... telling us the Colosseum would come out on top of a list of potential venues, mainly because of its international fame as the ultimate arena of the ancient world.

Darius says there are inherent issues with staging a fight of this magnitude at the Colosseum, because it's a heritage site and tourist attraction ... and while he's confident it would never come to fruition, he's glad folks are talking about the venue and getting excited about history.

Logistics aside, Darius firmly believes Italians would take to the streets in protest if the nearly 2,000-year-old venue gets the green light to host the fight ... so that's another hurdle for Dana White.

There's been concerts and other events on the Colosseum grounds over the years, mostly outside the arena walls ... and we've been told Elon and Mark would love to fight there ... but it sounds like Las Vegas might be a more likely fight destination.

As we reported, the Ministry of Culture reached out to Mark Zuckerberg about the prospect of staging a Musk vs. Zuck fight at the Colosseum, and Zuck passed it on to UFC's Dana White, whose people were in touch with the Ministry. A Zoom call was set for next week.