TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

Tory Lanez's legal team either has some sort of trick up its sleeve to get him out of jail by this weekend, or the people at Rolling Loud are living under a rock ... 'cause he's still on the festival's Cali roster.

Tory was in court Tuesday in L.A. where his sentencing hearing was pushed yet again, this time to April 10. After the hearing, Lanez -- who was dressed in a jail-issued orange jumpsuit -- remained in custody without even an attempt to convince the judge to let him out on bail.

This would seem to pose a big issue for Rolling Loud organizers, who still have Tory slated on the website's flyer to play the festival Sunday.

We should say, it's possible, and likely, when the actual artist set times are released, Tory's name will be left off completely ... but it's odd he's still on the flyer, considering he was found guilty back in December.

There is, however, fine print on Rolling Loud's site to cover Tory becoming a no-show -- "Opening acts, as well as festival performers, are subject to change or cancellation at any time without notice. No refund will be owed if an opening act or festival performer is changed or cancelled."

Tory is facing a maximum of 22 years behind bars. Outside court Tuesday, his attorney David Kenner said the artist is holding up well. He didn't offer much more detail on their efforts to get him out on appeal.

J. Cole gave fans chills Tuesday with the ultra star-studded lineup for his 2023 Dreamville Festival ... because it includes himself, Drake, Usher and Burna Boy as top headliners!!!

The elusive North Carolina rapper only uses social media to get straight to a point -- and this one was directing fans to the fastly approaching festival dates of April 1-2 with a series of head bomb emojis.

A wide range of artists rounds out the bill, including several Dreamvillains, JID, Bas, Lute and Ari Lennox ... and various star power from Summer Walker, GloRilla, City Girls and Lil Durk.

Raleigh's Dorothea Dix Park will serve as the event location and tickets range from $250 in the GA and $1500 for the VIP.

Cole's Dreamville is providing the music for the upcoming "Creed III" soundtrack and his manager has been hinting at him dropping his next album as well.

G Herbo got a taste of what it took to bring his 3 kids into the world by messing around with a birth simulator and taking things to the max ... his internal organs be damned!!!

The Chicago rap star was the latest guest on Kai Cenat's live stream and was eager to flex his toughness until he felt the power of the initial setting rupturing his insides.

Herbo first described the feeling as "tingly" as he attempted to use his past labor room experience to guide him through the pain. That didn't really work out for him.

He also took a couple of shots of alcohol as a cheat code, but still managed to successfully get through setting 10 on the simulator. Not exactly the equivalent of a woman having an hours-long labor before birth, but Herbo made sure to give a shout-out to all the mothers who push out babies for real.

He's an extremely active father, but we're sure this experience will make him think differently about making some more!!!

The internet has practically burst into flames after a fake dating rumor was seemingly made as a joke -- one that pinned Pete Davidson and Ice Spice as an item.

The fake rumor is the latest to grab people's attention, and it's becoming a growing trend -- while similar posts like "Curious George found dead on the highway" garners virality while obviously being a joke, this one didn't get the same results.

Twitter clearly ran with it, albeit missing the "this is satire" warning -- with many freaking out online over the dating "news."

The comedian's been compared to Marvel's Thanos, dating beautiful women like the villain takes infinity stones ... and one person even made a hilarious reference to "Breaking Bad," saying Pete "can't keep getting away with this!"

Of course, we know it's all BS -- as we reported, Pete's currently entangled with Chase Sui Wonders. The couple was recently packin' on some PDA at the Daytona 500.

Artificial intelligence now has the ability to mimic Kendrick Lamar's voice almost perfectly, and Young Guru says that's cause for concern -- not just in the music biz, but for all mankind.

The venerable studio engineer, who's worked on the bulk of Jay-Z's award-winning albums, sounded the alarm by posting video of a dude rapping bars into an audio filter which magically makes him sound exactly like the legendary Compton rapper!!!

It really is uncanny, and Guru felt compelled to share it with the public with an ominous warning ... "It’s not the tech, it’s the evil that men do with the tech."

He also highlighted another slippery slope: Voices aren't protected by copyright law, and he fears if the situation isn't addressed ... "deep fake" will become the new "I got hacked."

The hip hop community's already had a brush with AI thanks to Capitol Records' failed experiment, FN Meka, who was quickly shuttered by the label once it was deemed an offensive take on Black rapper stereotypes.

Dozens of music industry pundits, including superproducer Hitmaka, frowned upon the move ... fearing the end of human artists as we know them.

With so much concern over the digital landscape, all eyes will be on Def Jam this year -- the label recently signed a virtual NFT band consisting of a bunch of cartoon whales.

Maino is maintaining his now viral throat grab of YouTuber Buba100x was completely planned ... and, in fact, he says his theatrical performance should be his big break in Hollywood!!!

We caught the BK-bred lyricist fresh off his guest hosting gig on Angela Yee's 'Way Up,' and he tells us Buba100x intentionally failed to post the choke out ... in order to make folks think it was authentic. No one would flaunt themselves getting genuinely beat down ... right?

The incident happened a couple of weeks ago during the most recent Daniel's Leather fashion show ... Maino is seen slowly losing his temper as the vlogger continues pressing him to try on his chain, only to see the rapper grab him firmly by his throat!!!

Maino says jaws were dropping at the party because he and Buba100x sold it so well.

Social media users haven't reacted kindly to Maino's actions -- prank or not -- but he assures us he's not worried about backlash because that's what the internet does ... no matter what.

What Maino's not opposed to, is extending his stay on 'Way Up' to a more permanent situation.

He says Angela called him an on-air "natural," and having that kinda finesse is vital for a radio career.

The pouring rain couldn't cool down Wallo267's anger towards Gillie Da Kid when he ruined his motivational speech -- but the storm sure did ruin Gillie's concentration.

On Monday, Gillie posted a video that showed him royally pissing off his "Million Dollarz Worth of Game" cohost after his cousin took a little too long with his motivational speech.

Wallo was yammering for over a minute when Gillie interrupted his train of thought ... urging him to hurry "the f*** up!!!"

Gillie's spew was like a domino effect ... Wallo immediately grew enraged that his one-take shot was ruined with Gillie admitting the tensions didn't subside for a couple of days!!!

Wallo's a veteran speaker for troubled youth and probably had a much more successful time speaking on Capitol Hill with Pooh Shiesty's father by his side.

Drake is wishing he didn't include so many past flames in his lyrics ... a regret Angie Martinez says is understandable because guys shouldn't do that!!!

TMZ Hip Hop caught the IRL Podcast host out in NYC and she praised Drake's maturity ... but also feels he can make things right by sending those affected some shiny new jewelry to ice their pain. After all, diamonds are everyone's best friend!!!

Drake infamously made girls like "Courtney from Hooters on Peachtree" famous in his raps and made the confession to Lil Yachty during their feel-good interview on a Turks & Caicos beach last week.

The megastar rapper's Young Money boss Lil Wayne just made a confession of his own ... he deserves to be ranked over Jay-Z when it comes to the best rappers in the game.

Angie's interviewed Jay several times in her career, so she knows his competitive spirit first-hand, but she feels that Wayne (and any rapper worth their mic skills) should feel like they're #1 at all times.

The veteran radio host admitted she wasn't a good rapper back in her heyday due to her lack of braggadocious audacity and applauded Wayne watching Jay's throne.

We milked Angie's hip hop expertise for all that it's worth and picked her brain on one last topic ... GloRilla's crazy Anyways, Life's Great Tour.

During her last stop in Philly on Sunday, fans tried to snatch Big Glo's wig ... which she later tossed in the crowd to avoid the ruckus.

The scalping capped off a string of wild incidents during the rap rookie's inaugural tour and Angie thinks the "FNF" artist will be fine down the line ... with a few adjustments to her security staff!!!

Wiz Khalifa is all set to portray George Clinton in the upcoming film "Spinning Gold" ... an A-1 pick as far as the iconic musician's book is concerned ... mainly because it increased his cool factor!!! 😎

We spotted the P-Funk legend at LAX, rocking the latest fabrics in Erykah Badu wear, right on the cusp of him going to meet with Wiz to exchange experiences, among other things.

George tells us he loves Wiz's acting chops -- just as much as he loves his smoking skills and was already looking forward to their sesh.

Although George didn't handpick Wiz for the role, it still will be a symbolic moment -- his grandkids costar as Parliament-Funkadelic band members and will be featured throughout the film!!!

George's been busy in other avenues too ... he recently joined Will Smith and T.D. Jakes in helping raise $10M for Ben Crump's Law School.

George and Ben have a lot in common ... they're both Omega Psi Phi frat guys who hail from North Carolina and reside in Tallahassee -- and Ben's helping George and the gang get their royalties back on track.

They just re-recorded their funk classic "Atomic Dog" ... with several other records on the horizon.

Maino was caught in 4K disciplining popular YouTuber, Buba100x after one too many questions about his chain ... but the Brooklyn rapper is claiming it was all for clicks and views!!!

The melee went down at the Daniel's Leather fashion show earlier this month ... as Buba100x and Maino were conducting his typical TikTok style of interviews.

Buba100x made a crack about "beating Maino's ass" ... which immediately aged terribly when the Brooklyn rapper grabbed the jokester by his throat after his fuse was lit!!!

Further footage shows Maino pinning Buba100x down by his neck while reminding him of the consequences of ruffling his feathers!!!

Maino's co-hosting on Angela Yee's new show 'Way Up' this week ... and there's no way they were ignoring this topic, which was addressed head-on.

Maino claims he was 100% acting in the clip and wanted to sell the prank by making it look real with his angry emotions.

Drake is looking back at his entry into Lil Wayne's Young Money Records camp with fondness -- considering their relationship hit the ground so fast, they didn't even get properly introduced!!!

During his Turks and Caicos convo with Lil Yachty, Drake admitted Wayne first thought his name was "Drizzy Drake Rogers" when he rapped it on one of their collaborations ... the 2008 track "Ransom."

Rogers is actually the name of one of Canada's top internet providers and Wayne thought that was Drake's last name, seeing they were sending tracks via email.

When "Ransom" dropped, Drake says he realized the error but didn't have the heart to correct his mentor.

They went on to record plenty of successful collabs following the flub -- both recently earning a spot in the Top 10 of Billboard's Top 50 rappers list, although Wayne largely disagrees with his ranking.

The YM stars were weirdly placed next to each other ... Drake at #8 and Wayne at #7 ... but Wayne recently told Apple Music not Jay-Z, Eminem or even the late greats Tupac and Biggie should be considered better than him!!!

1501 Certified Entertainment honcho Carl Crawford is admitting errors in dealing with Megan Thee Stallion, and wants all fences mended going forward -- but says they haven't spoken since 2019!!!

TMZ Hip Hop sat down with Carl and his newly installed 1501 President Kai "Verse" Tyler ... as their label enters a new chapter without the H-Town hottie.

Carl openly admits, as an ex-MLB star, his competitive drive is high but his knowledge of the music industry is somewhat limited ... and that's where Verse enters.

Verse is an industry vet who's had experience dealing with artists' publishing and publicity campaigns ... which led to a convo about 1501's current flagship artist, Erica Banks, and their plans for her career.

Carl also walked back his past vitriol toward Jay-Z and Roc Nation -- he'd previously blamed them for planting evil seeds in Megan's head -- and he came clean about his association with Tory Lanez.

Fans knew the Megan beef was real when Carl and Tory flicked it up last year inside a club, but Carl's admitting he and Tory don't know each other ... and the encounter was just trolling to get back at MTS. Ultimately, he regrets the stunt.

Verse says his focus is boosting the label's artistic reach, and he thinks Erica starting an OnlyFans page is just another aspect of dealing with today's social media generation.

That aside, he's certain the "Bust It" rapper has a banger with Kehlani, and even a cooking show coming up!

Hip-hop heads have been debating for weeks about a new all-time greatest rapper list that has Jay-Z at #1 -- but now Lil Wayne has entered the chat ... and he says he's the G.O.A.T.

Weezy said as much this past week during an appearance on Zane Lowe's Apple Music podcast show, where the topic of Billboard's 50 Greatest Rappers of All Time -- which they published on Feb. 8 -- came up ... and to LW's surprise, he clocked in at only #7, below several others.

The outlet has Biggie, Eminem, Tupac, Nas, Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z ahead of him, respectively -- but Wayne begs to differ on all of them, especially among those still living. He says straight up, he's #1 ... and even dares survey-takers to ask the guys ranked higher than him how they feel about it. In his view, he thinks they'd agree ... Wayne is greater than them.

Per usual, this is all subjective ... and it's not really clear what sort of criteria Billboard is even following in deeming anyone better than the other. From the looks of it, it seems like they're pegging Jay as top dog because of overall success -- which he's certainly achieved.

But, if you check Twitter ... it appears many are agreeing with the notion that Wayne is, in fact, better than Jay-Z -- both in terms of rap skill and cultural impact, which really should be how these things are measured. Fact is, Weezy is still spittin' fire in 2023 (see the new DMX collab) ... whereas one could argue Jay isn't really rapping like he used to at his peak.

With that said, their numbers are comparable ... Wayne has 3 #1 hits (Billboard Hot 100) and Jay has 4 #1s of his own. However, Wayne has 25 of his songs in the top 10 historically, whereas Jay only has 22 in the same category. So, on a song-for-song basis ... they're close.

Even on an album count, Jay's 14 #1s to Wayne's 9 (Billboard 200) has 'em almost tied.

We suppose this question is really in the eye of the beholder, but can probably be answered honestly with one simple question -- in your heart of hearts, whose music are you actually bumpin' at the function? And who, truly, has the more memorable repertoire overall???

Drake's picking sides in the Jake Paul - Tommy Fury feud, placing a bet on The Problem Child to knockout TNT ... and judging by the massive size of the wager, Drizzy's feelin' confident the 26-year-old YouTuber-turned-boxer will turn out Fury's lights.

Drake posted the Stake betting slip on social media Saturday night ... and he's risking $400,000. In order for the superstar rapper to cash out, Jake can't just win the fight, he must KO Tommy (in any round). If that scenario actually unfolds, Drake would receive $1.4 million ... which included his initial bet ($400k).

The payout's so large because statistically, it's a longshot ... the odds say there's a less than 30% chance the fight ends by Paul KO.

FYI, Jake's 6-0 ... and 4 of those fights have ended by KO. Tommy's also undefeated ... and obviously has never been stopped.

Drake's no stranger to making huge wagers. In fact, he bet $965k total on the Super Bowl ... and while he didn't hit on all his bets, he did pretty well. He's also bets heaps of money on UFC fights.

While the rappers riding with Jake, Tyson Fury is (obviously) siding with his brother. The heavyweight champion revealed earlier this week he put down over $100K on Tommy to win by stoppage.

"I've got 100 racks on it for an inside-the-distance stoppage, so if [Tommy] loses, then I'll lose 100 bags as well," Fury told iFL TV.

Jake and Tommy also made a bet during fight week (though, we'll see if it comes to fruition). If Jake wins the fight, he gets Tommy's money. If Fury wins, Jake double his money.

Bets aside, Paul and Fury flat-out hate each other ... and Sunday's fight is the culmination of years of trash talk. The men were supposed to scrap on two previous occasions, but Tommy pulled out -- once for injury, and the other over a travel issue.

Kodak Black is wanted by cops in Florida -- this after he allegedly violated his bail conditions by failing a drug test earlier this month.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, a judge signed off an arrest warrant in Kodak's name Thursday ... which just got filed in Broward County court yesterday. In the paperwork, it says Kodak is to taken into custody if any sheriff's deputies encounter him.

The reason ... a judge says he was found to have screwed up twice in recent weeks. On Feb. 3, the agency he's supposed to report to for random drug testing claims he was a no-show for a screening and failed to submit a sample that day. The following week, on Feb. 8, that same agency says Kodak did submit a sample ... but they allege it came back dirty.

According to them, he was positive for traces of fentanyl ... although it's unclear how much.

That was enough for a judge to tell authorities to go get him. If he's caught ... there's additional orders to hold him without bond until his next hearing in this Oxy case from last year.

You'll recall, Kodak was arrested in July for possession of a controlled substance without prescription and trafficking -- this after cops say they found upwards of 31 oxycodone pills in his car, which were found during a traffic stop in Ft. Lauderdale. He posted $75,000 bail and was released, but not without this restriction in place ... namely, keeping his pee clean.

Cardi B is getting her 15 days of community service done one by one -- and it looks like part of that load was designated toward NYC cops ... more specifically, their entertainment.

The rapper popped into the NYPD Police Academy in Queens Friday for what seems to be a formal appearance she set up with some higher-ups in the force -- part of which was caught on camera as officers in training cheered her on ... this according to the NY Post.

Unclear how long CB was there or what exactly she did -- other than dance around for a bit, which can be seen on camera -- but it sure sounds like this counted on her IOU for court.

After the appearance, she was talking about how this would, indeed, go toward her court-ordered community service. In one tweet, she wrote ... "My brains are burning from waking up early ,community service then studio….but I did the crime 'I only have myself to blame.'"

Of course, she certainly seems to be joking here ... considering real community service is often labor-intensive and out by the side of a freeway somewhere. In this case, it appears she just showed up to the Academy for a little face time with cadets and called it a day.

If this is how she's able to check the 15-day requirement ... ya gotta figure she'll be in for a relatively easy path forward -- and frankly, good for her for figuring out a way to skip picking up trash or scrubbing graffiti. Showing up and/or "performing" beats the hell outta any of that.

You'll recall ... Cardi actually missed her OG deadline to have her service done  back in January -- but was given an extension to finish by March 1, which is around the corner.

This all ties back to a strip club beatdown case she was charged in a while back, for which she copped a plea deal ... receiving 15 days of community service as part of her sentence.

Almost near the finish line ... just a few more in-person visits to go! 😅