TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

Ne-Yo is a famous conductor of talent and as fate would have it, he crossed paths with Lucky Daye long before the "Roll Some Mo" singer became a Grammy winner.

However, things didn’t pan out between them on the professional level, because of a very personal matter. Ne-Yo revealed what went down when he went on Fuzzy West and Quincy Harris' "FAQ" Podcast.

He says he recruited Lucky in hopes of signing him, and even had him write Jaime Foxx’s part on 2008’s “Miss Independent Part 2” ... aka “She Got Her Own.”

In an act of friendship, Ne-Yo says he gave young Lucky access to his crib while he was away on business -- but with one very important restriction: do NOT treat my master bedroom like an OnlyFans set!

Well, according to Ne-Yo that's exactly what Lucky did, and that's when he knew their partnership was over.

Luckily, Mr. Daye bounced back … signing with RCA/Keep Cool and winning the 2022 Best Progressive R&B Album Grammy for his “Table for Two” LP.

As for his side of the Ne-Yo's bed story -- Lucky's been radio silent.

Lil Wayne's hometown concert event, Lil WeezyAna Fest, is ramping up again for its 6th run in New Orleans.

For this year’s fest, Weezy's recruited Moneybagg Yo, Coi Leray, Babyface Ray and Rob 49 to light up the stage with their performances.

The Live Nation Urban-sponsored event will take place at Champions Square on August 27, and Wayne shared his excitement by getting on IG to plug all the performers.

One key part of the event for Wayne is the fact 50 cents of every ticket sold will be donated to NOLA students' educational opportunities within the culture.

Young Money Records President Mack Maine added ... “As always, we will be honoring the many lives lost in Hurricane Katrina as this year marks the 17th year anniversary.”

Rick Ross and Birdman have a scarred history … and the Cash Money Records bossman clearly has NO issue with picking at that scab very publicly.

Baby was on DJ Akademik’s “Off The Record” podcast discussing his top CM artists like Drake, Nicki Minaj + Lil Wayne and the Hot Boys (although his mind went blank when thinking about something nice to say about Turk 👀) -- but he also listed off several other eventual superstars he had under his wing.

He proudly named Yo Gotti, Future and DJ Khaled as other protégés … but puckered up like a Lemonhead at the mere mention of Rick Ross’ name.

Birdman claims Ross sat in the shadows studying, and stealing moves that would lead to his own MMG imprint gaining traction several years later.

The 2 ‘bawses’ actually recorded an album together back in 2008 … only for it to be released with extra tardy sauce in 2013, but without any friendship to generate buzz for the record.

In 2017, Rozay went at Birdman's throat on the song “Idols Become Rivals” … ironically over his own claims Lil Wayne and DJ Khaled were in terrible label situations.

T-Pain's not exactly shocked about Chris Brown's outburst about his "Breezy" album kinda bombing, because he says CB's got a bit of "princess" in him.

Teddy Pain was chopping it up with Akademiks on Twitch when the topic of CB’s record sales for his 10th album came up.

The "Breezy" rollout didn’t go as planned … debuting at No. 4 on Billboard and CB reacted in a fit of blanguage, promising to be on his "gangsta sh*t" once again -- which sounds like an adventure in and of itself!

T-Pain says it’s all because he’s been enabled his entire career and said his condition is far worse than being spoiled. When Ak tried to explain all artists have ups and downs in their careers, T-Pain pointed out CB’s lack of “adjustments.”

DJ Drama’s executive radar is zeroing in on New York City, where he's found the next rapper he thinks can blow: Badda TD!!!

The 18-year-old artist and Generation Now founder recently connected on “The World Is Yours: Gangsta Grillz” -- the latest installment in his legendary rap catalog.

Drama tells TMZ Hip Hop ... “Gangsta Grillz has always been about spotlighting artists defining their own lane and Badda TD is definitely up next out of New York."

The project features fellow NYC red-hot upstarts Ron Suno and Dusty Locane, and follows Jim Jones and Tyler, The Creator in the GG series.

Drama recently gave aspiring hip hop artists gems on how to get signed when we last saw him in person.

He and his GN co-execs recently inked a big extension with Atlantic Records and are doing it even bigger with Lil Uzi Vert and Jack Harlow.

Griselda rapper Conway The Machine isn't playing nice with NYC DJs Funkmaster Flex and Suss One -- he's telling the old-school vets is time to hang it up for good.

The slick words targeted the city’s top 2 hip hop stations: Hot 97 and Power 105 … while sharing his tales of seeing Flex in public, and claiming he's clueless about the current hip hop scene.

Conway also essentially called a Suss One a sellout for nabbing "The Wendy Williams" gig, and shrugged him off on live TV after a fan stated Conway was in his Top 5 ... with the likes of Nas and Jadakiss.

Suss One has collaborated with numerous Mariah Carey, French Montana and several other big names -- and he joined the 'Wendy Show' in its last couple of seasons.

He says despite Flex and Suss One’s lack of radio support, he and his Griselda team of Benny The Butcher and Westside Gunn have been been given stamps of approval by Raekwon and the Wu-Tang Clan.

Age is a touchy subject in rap. There’s always a tug-of-war between new energy and veteran talent.

Omarion's been a hot topic since his Verzuz battle with Mario -- where the other B2K members deemed "he got served" -- but now ya could say Omarion's hitting back with some docuseries tea.

The singer appeared Monday on "TMZ Live" and let us in on his secret to handling all the shots his ex-bandmates have been throwing -- not to mention all the drama from their infamous Millennium tour -- and he says it's all about staying "unbothered."

Omarion says his upcoming docuseries "OMEGA: The Gift & The Curse" will shine the spotlight on the truth of the band's nasty breakup, which came to a head when Lil Fizz began dating Apryl Jones, the ex-girlfriend and mother of Omarion's 2 kids.

Talk about must-see -- following his Verzuz, Omarion hopped on Instagram to thank Mario for the competition, but also fired back at the B2K crew, calling them little more than "backup dancers."

For their part ... Raz-B, J Boog and Lil Fizz ordered a side of extra petty with their responses. They unified to post a scene from the cult classic R&B flick "The Temptations" ... the one that depicts the lead singer looking like a sucker.

Fizz later followed with receipts proving there's no longer an "O" in B2K. At least legally, anyways.

Despite it all, Omarion says he doesn't hate his old crew, and revealed his inclusion in B2K has always been a point of contention -- having been the last member to join -- and he blames older music execs for pushing them to the breaking point.

This year's already given us the return of the reclusive Kendrick Lamar, and now there are strong signs Frank Ocean is getting set for his own grand return.

The R&B phenom debuted 2 new episodes of his "Blonded RADIO" show Sunday on Apple Music … cryptically discussing psychedelic drugs with Dr. James Fadiman on the episode titled, "Blonded Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" -- a play on The Beatles' ode to LSD.

The rollout happens to mark the 10th anniversary of his Grammy-winning "Channel Orange" album and he decked out his website with new merch and memorabilia ... which fans treated like $3 gasoline, snapping up ALL of it with the quickness.

During the recent Apple Music broadcast, Frank also hinted he had been working on new music in Malibu … something that has clearly worked for Anderson .Paak in the past.

Of course, he's already been announced as a headliner for Coachella 2023, so some fresh tracks would be well-timed and highly appreciated by fans.

R. Kelly is engaged to be married to one of his alleged victims, Joycelyn Savage ... at least that's what she's saying in a letter to the judge -- and her family says they had no idea.

According to legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Joycelyn revealed the engagement by writing, "I'm Robert Kelly's fiance" ... in her correspondence with the federal judge right before Kelly was sentenced. The letter, which she wrote asking the judge for a lenient sentence, doesn't say when they got engaged.

In the letter, she says ... "I’m not the victim that the government has portrayed me to be."

She goes on to say her relationship with Kelly is "amazing," noting he's the best thing that's ever happened to her. She claims he always made sure her needs were met, as well as "any other women he was with."

Obviously, she wasn't too successful in swaying the judge, who hit Kelly with a 30-year sentence.

Gerald Griggs, an attorney for Savage's parents, tells TMZ ... she never made the engagement known to the family, and they've never even spoken about the possibility beforehand.

Griggs tells us he finds it odd Savage didn't testify about it under oath, and instead slipped it into the letter submitted to the court. Savage's family "strongly doubts" the engagement story ... and are wishing to reconnect with her to get the full story.

Russell Wilson is clearly doing all he can to make sure he ain't the last NFL QB to come out of his household ... revealing Monday he's training Future Zahir to be a signal-caller too!

The Denver Broncos QB posted video of a recent workout sesh he had with Ciara's 8-year-old son ... and you can see, the kid appears to be a natural!

As Russ dictated how he wanted the boy to manipulate the pocket, Future Zahir complied with ease -- and then delivered a dart to the 33-year-old NFL star.

Russ also showed he's giving some quarterbacking lessons to the son of famous choreographer Jamaica Craft as well.

"Post workout work with the young fellas!" Russ said of the drills. "Future & Kingston young legends. Watch out @NFL."

Craft was appreciative of the time Wilson was spending with her son, penning a sweet thank you note to him on her IG.

"Kingston was learning from a living legend!!!!" she said. "Let’s Go God! So appreciative."

FYI, Wilson and Future Zahir -- Ciara's 1st child with rapper Future -- have been dabbling in QB drills for a couple of years now ... and in 2020, the 9x Pro Bowler called him his "best teammate" and a "QB in the making!"

Meek Mill and Jay-Z's Roc Nation are breaking up -- Hov's firm is no longer managing Meek's career after 10 years together.

Meek first linked with Roc Nation management back in 2012, and they nabbed plenty of triumphs and trophies together, collaborating on deals within the music biz.

The bombshell breakup comes shortly after the rapper vented extensively about his label situation with Atlantic Records.

Back in February, Meek lit up Atlantic on Twitter for allegedly dropping the ball on his last album, “Expensive Pain” and apparently ... it’s been downhill ever since.

The Roc unit was instrumental in helping him get out of jail in 2018, naming him a co-head for the social justice non-profit, Reform Alliance and putting him in rooms with tons of important people.

Billboard was first to report Meek's departure from RN.

As for why things soured between the 2 parties -- we're talking to sources on both sides, and we'll update this post as soon as we hear back.

Some tweets live forever -- a tough lesson Soulja Boy and Wizkid are learning the hard way, thanks to some ancient posts from the Afrobeats music star, and they ain't pretty from Soulja's perspective.

This tweet from May 10, 2010 popped up on Soulja's timeline -- “I swear soulja boy is wack!..jeeeezzzzz!”

The now-viral diss originally dropped about 3 years after Soulja's iconic “Crank Dat” hit, and nearly a decade before Wizkid linked with Drake to blow up on the American side with his “Come Closer” collab.

SB later launched an animated 15-minute Instagram Live session explaining “30 minutes or 30 years” still warrants a response ... and added that when you become rich and famous ... you should delete your old tweets that could lead to moments like this.

He’s not mad … just a lil mad. 😬

Kanye West's left his mark on a ton of industries -- shoes, clothing and even stem players -- and now he's laying the groundwork for what could be a retail store for all his wares.

Ye and his legal team recently filed to trademark "YZYSPLY" for retail stores, online ordering services and online retail store services. Fans might already be familiar with Yeezy Supply, a website Kanye has used to sell limited-release shoes or clothing in the past -- but the new trademark suggests he's going bigger ... possibly opening brick-and-mortar stores.

Kanye's latest filing, obtained by TMZ, includes just about every clothing item you can wear -- G-strings, shirts, socks, hats, visors and tennis wear -- and leaves plenty of creative room for "accessories" headwear and footwear.

Of course, he's already got a deal in place with GAP, and they recently dropped their first release of mostly black items ... including his now-famous full-face masks.

As more overzealous fans get handsy with rappers, the more consequences they face -- just ask this poor guy, who got ejected off stage through the force of Lil Baby's burly bodyguard.

The Atlanta MC was performing in Switzerland this week -- at the Openair Frauenfeld Festival, no less -- when at one point during his set ... some bloke crashed the performance and seemingly tried making contact with LB by rushing him.

You can see Lil Baby bracing for the dude, putting his arm out in what looks to be a deterrent move -- this while he was mid-rap -- but luckily ... security swooped right in the nick of time, and did so with some oomph.

As you can see, a guard bodied the intruder ... and sent him hurdling toward the front row barricade -- which he eventually slammed up against only to be left flailing on the ground.

Unclear what ended up happening to this man ... we imagine he was taken to a hospital, but may have also gotten rung up for the stunt. Interestingly enough, this isn't the first crazy encounter with a brave spectator. Roddy Ricch went through something similar this week.

That's not all ... even Cardi B had to unload on someone from the crowd who made contact during a performance of hers as well. In that instance, she handled the grabber herself.

All this going-up-on-stage-and-attacking-performers has been happening a lot more lately ... or at least we seem to be seeing it a lot more, anyway.

Nicki Minaj says she was just trying to make a funny ... and instead made all her fans believe she's pregnant again. Spoiler alert -- she's not.

Here's how it all went down ... before Nicki got on stage at London's Wireless Festival, she went Live on Instagram for a little pre-show chat with the Barbz. When one of them asked if she and Kenneth Petty were expecting their 2nd baby, she immediately responded, "I'm not fat, guys, I'm pregnant. Sorry" ... and then she rolled her eyes.

Of course, her screen was immediately flooded with congratulations and that's when Nicki realized ... "Oh wait. Did I say it wrong? I'm sorry. I think I said it wrong. I meant to say, I'm not pregnant. I'm fat."

Hmmm ... we're thinking Nicki's too social media savvy for that kinda screw-up. We smell a troll job, but a funny one. Nicki and her husband had their first kid, a baby boy, back in September 2020 -- and they still haven't revealed his name.

As we reported, Kenneth is gonna have a lot of face time with the kid, as he was sentenced to one year of home confinement -- in their luxurious Calabasas mansion -- for failing to register in California as a sex offender.

Travis Scott has the antidote for all the controversy surrounding his Coney Island concert -- a simple dinner date with Kylie Jenner ... 'cause no one could fault him for that. Right?

The couple was holding hands Saturday night in WeHo as they left Catch LA -- and while Kylie smiled for cameras, Travis seemed less than thrilled with the attention. He was rocking shades and a knitted cap, and kept his head down with zero facial expression.

As we've reported, Travis has been under fire for what went down at his show with Meek Mill over the 4th of July weekend at Coney Island. He stopped the show when some rowdy fans climbed up on a lighting truss, and made sure they got down safely.

That move set off some of the Astroworld victims ... in particular, attorney Alex Hilliard criticized the rapper, saying it showed he does know when to prioritize fan safety ... but chose not to do that during the tragic festival in Houston.

A rep for Travis fired back, though, saying, "It's beyond disappointing to see that - in a desperate bid to influence potential jurors – plaintiffs' legal team is criticizing Travis for pausing Monday's Coney Island show to ensure that fans can have fun safely. This is exactly the wrong message to send to fans and to artists."