TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

The men allegedly involved in the brutal beatdown of Tekashi 6ix9ine appeared to have had a plan in place to get to the rapper ... as evidenced in new surveillance footage from the gym.

Check out the video, obtained by TMZ, showing one man already inside the South FL LA Fitness location chatting on his cell phone. The man approaches the front door of the gym to let another man in, and after a brief convo with the front desk employee, they beeline it to the gym's restroom and sauna area joined by a third man.

It certainly looks like the two men were in on some sort of plan ... but it's still unclear if they knew Tekashi was going to be at the gym all along, or if one man possibly saw 6ix9ine and called his buddy to help.

TMZ broke the story, Tekashi was rushed to a hospital Tuesday night after the attack, suffering from injuries to his face, back, ribs and jaw. Sources close to Tekashi tell us he's still receiving treatment in the hospital.

Video from inside the gym's sauna area shows a group of men punching, kicking and cussing out the rapper for being a snitch.

Freddie Gibbs is still going full steam ahead with his "SSS" album ... with plans to roll out the track "Zipper Bagz" as the next music video.

TMZ Hip Hop obtained stills of Gangsta Gibbs we're told are from the upcoming visual, which we're hearing could drop sometime this week.

The video's plotline is still under wraps but the Grammy-nominated rapper appears to be having a terse conversation with a woman in one scene ... while another shot features Freddie in front of a motel sign — and later suspiciously peering out of the window!!!

"SSS" marked Freddie's major label album debut and he's been pretty visible since its release ... most recently, rocking "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" with Anderson .Paak and The Roots.

The Securities and Exchange Commission is cracking down on Crypto companies ... and some big-name celebs -- including Jake Paul, Lindsay Lohan and Soulja Boy -- who praised the currency companies while getting paid without disclosing it ... and they've agreed to cough up some dough to make it all go away.

Jake and Lindsay are among the celebs named in the SEC's filings Wednesday ... they're charged with illegally touting Tronix and BitTorrent. Others charged include Lil Yachty, Ne-Yo, Austin Mahone, Kendra Lust and Akon.

The SEC says these celebs failed to disclose they were getting paid for promoting these companies.

Almost all of the celebs agreed to pay a total of $400K to settle the charges.

Reputed Inglewood rapper Boskoe100 is placing the blame on PnB Rock for his own murder ... all because he failed to recognize the restaurant he was killed at was located in the middle of a danger zone.

The Philly rapper was shot and killed inside a Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles in a sometimes-rough part of Los Angeles back in September 2022 ... and Boskoe100 thinks PnB should've known that, comparing him to an amateur camper attempting to impress his girl in the wilderness, only to be eaten by wolves and bears.

Boskoe100 thinks PnB mistook his rapper status for street cred and the hood only sees rich artists as dangling carrots in the food chain.

LAPD arrested a family of three in connection with PnB's murder shortly after the shooting ... father/son duo Freddie Lee Trone Sr. and Jr. as well as Trone Sr.'s wife Shauntel Trone ... but it was PnB's girlfriend Stephanie Sibounheuang who was vilified online the most after she posted pics from inside the Roscoe's shortly before the murder.

SZA's red-hot "S.O.S." album has led her to strip down for Kim Kardashian's SKIMS as the face of the new "Fits Everybody" underwear campaign.

The new photoshoot coincides with the closing of SZA’s S.O.S. tour blitz, which concludes tomorrow at The Forum in Los Angeles, and caps an amazing run for the album -- which spent 10 weeks on top of the Billboard 200.

“SZA’s honesty, confidence, and dynamic energy are unparalleled. She’s truly the woman of the moment, and I’m so honored for her to be featured in SKIMS’ latest campaign,” Kim Kardashian said in a statement ... with SZA adding, “I’m excited to be in SKIMS’ latest Fits Everybody underwear campaign and to align myself with a brand that strives to make women feel both comfortable and sexy.”

The "Fits Everybody" campaign will be promoted heavily on the billboards around The Forum to celebrate the concerts, that is, if SZA makes it to the stage.

Tekashi 6ix9ine's enemies are rejoicing in the fact he was savagely beaten inside a gym sauna ... with Boosie Badazz and Chief Keef both leading the LOL charge.

Boosie pounces at the chance to target all snitching activity within rap and called for the start of a GoFundMe account for 6ix9ine's still unidentified attackers.

"Lmao SNITCHES GET STITCHES," the Lousiana rapper beamed on Twitter while sharing the video, before adding "real ones" deserved to be rewarded.

Chief Keef also found the situation humorous ... amassing over 1 million views with his reaction to 6ix9ine's attack with a pair of laughing emojis.

Unlike Boosie, the Chicago drill pioneer has a direct beef with Tekashi ... Kintea "Kooda B" McKenzie — a former associate of the rainbow-haired rapper — was released from prison early on March 17.

Kooda plead guilty to assault with a deadly weapon in aid of racketeering for his connection to the 2018 Chief Keef shooting attempt in Times Square in 2020 ... and Almighty Sosa obviously hasn't forgotten about it.

Tekashi 6ix9ine was savagely beaten by a group of men inside a South Florida gym ... with injuries so bad the controversial rapper was rushed to a hospital by ambulance.

6ix9ine's attorney, Lance Lazzaro, tells TMZ ... the rapper was inside the sauna Tuesday at an LA Fitness when all of the sudden he was attacked by several guys without warning.

Lazzaro says 6ix9ine tried to fight off the combatants, but there were too many of them, beating him to a pulp before fleeing. Lance notes 6ix9ine did not have security with him at the time of the attack.

Gym staff heard the commotion and immediately notified a manager. Police and EMS were then called to the scene, and he was transported to a hospital by ambulance.

We've obtained a photo of Tekashi taken from the hospital where you can see the damage to his face -- with gashes and swelling. We're told he also suffered injuries to his jaw, ribs and his back.

The next step, Lazzaro says, is he plans to call the Feds to make sure 6ix9ine gets the protection he clearly needs. Remember, he was granted early release from federal prison after cooperating with authorities to land several of his gang member cohorts behind bars.

It's currently unclear if the gym attack had anything to do with Tekashi's cooperation.

Sydney Leday, a woman who claims she too was injured by the bullets flying the day Takeoff was killed, has been on the long road to recovery, one that she says has racked up medical bills in the 6-figures.

The 24-year-old spoke to "The Shade Room" on her lingering traumas and revealed she owes over $200k to the hospital where she stayed for a week after slipping into a coma.

Sydney was left with a bald spot where she was shot in the head, and now attends therapy sessions to treat her PTSD ... admitting loud events like New Year's Eve are triggers.

She called the November 1 shooting "senseless" and says the other witnesses are still traumatized all the same.

Houston Police arrested a man named Patrick Clark who they believe is responsible for shooting Takeoff but have still not named a suspect for the bullet that struck Sydney.

Afroman is being dragged to court by the same Ohio sheriff's deputies who searched his home ... because the deputies are pissed the rapper's using footage from the raid to make money.

Several deputies and sergeants are suing Afroman, claiming he's using videos and pictures from the August raid at his Ohio home in music videos, and selling merchandise with their images.

According to the lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, the deputies claim Afroman was not home at the time of the raid, but his wife was in the home and she whipped out a cell phone and recorded the search. The officers also claim Afroman's home was full of security cameras, which also recorded deputies during the raid.

Their main gripe is this ... deputies didn't give Afroman permission to use the footage in music videos, or to slap their faces on merch ... and he's profiting off their images and likenesses.

In the suit, the officers say Afroman's music videos, social media posts and merchandise related to the raid amount to an invasion of privacy and misappropriation of their likenesses ... and they say it's causing them emotional distress, ridicule, humiliation, loss of reputation and embarrassment.

For his part, Afroman says deputies raided his home in search of narcotics but came up empty ... and he claims deputies ended up seizing cash during the search, $400 of which wasn't returned. The Clermont County Sheriff's Office investigated and found that the Adams County sheriffs had miscounted the money seized and the correct amount had been returned.

Latto can see daylight in her airport loaded gun arrest ... it's been a lengthy process, but we've learned she's nearing the finish line to finally getting the charges dropped.

Records show Latto was busted in May 2021 at LAX and charged with carrying a loaded firearm and carrying a concealed weapon. She subsequently entered a year-long diversion program which started in April 2022.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... the program required Latto to complete a gun safety course, perform 120 hours of community service and avoid all firearms.

We're told if she completes all the requirements, both charges will be dismissed -- and there's a hearing set for late April to see if she's satisfied all the conditions.

If ya missed it, Latto made a pretty public confession when she featured on Mello Buckzz's new track, "Boom Pt. 2" ... rapping the lyric, "I got locked up in the airport, goddamn forgot the gun."

Before J. Cole was smoking his rap competition, he was regularly smoking cigarettes in elementary school -- but he credits his mother for setting him straight!!!

Cole made the shocking confession on Golden State Warriors General Manager Bob Myers' "Lead By Example" podcast and admitted to taking his first tobacco puffs at just six ... attempting to impress the older kids in his Fayetteville, N.C. neighborhood.

Cole says he didn't have a strict upbringing but when his older brother, Zach, got wind of his shenanigans, he told their mom ... and she immediately smelled the cigs on his breath and proceeded to give him a "life-changing" ass whooping!!!

The Dreamville rapper recalls immediately growing remorseful for initially lying to his mother about smoking and changed his ways, which brought him to his true love for making music. Obviously, that panned out for him.

After five platinum albums, he's been hinting at retirement but still oversees his stable of Dreamville artists, who all just combined forces for the "Creed III" soundtrack last month.

The Weeknd is officially the G.O.A.T ... at least, according to the folks at Guinness World Records, whose data shows he's officially the most popular artist on the planet!!!

Weeknd just broke 2 new records on Spotify ... one for most monthly listeners in Spotify history by breaching the 111-million mark, and another for being the first artist to breach the 100-million monthly listeners' mark in general.

He recently joined Michael Jackson as the only artist with multiple No. 1 songs from 3 of his albums ... thanks to his recently released "Die For You (Remix)" with Ariana Grande.

The 2020 track "Blinding Lights" is also the biggest song EVER ... achieving the most Spotify streams, and it's also the longest charting song on the Billboard Hot 100 of all time with a total of 90 weeks on the chart.

XXXTentacion's family can finally turn the page over his tragic murder now that 3 men were found guilty of killing him -- so says his mother ... who's relieved justice was served.

The late rapper's mom, Cleopatra Bernard, tells TMZ ... she and her brood are grateful the jury delivered a guilty verdict, and thankful prosecutors were able to secure it through their work at trial. She says this has given them closure and will allow them to move forward in peace.

We're told she's also sending love and thanks to all of XXX's supporters ... who showed up for him in a variety of ways during this saga -- both digitally and, in some cases, in person.

As for whether Cleopatra anticipated this outcome, she tells us she actually did ... and went into court Monday expecting all three defendants would be found guilty of murder -- which, of course, they were after about 2 weeks of deliberations. She was also wearing an XXX shirt.

Cleopatra says the experience has been gut-wrenching but is glad it's all over now.

One last thing from Cleopatra here -- she tells us that the attempt to rope Drake into this trial from the defense side was a transparently desperate ploy just to raise doubt -- and insists she and her loved ones always knew who was responsible for her son's death.

Young Dolph was planning to expand his Paper Route Empire into the world of TV and film before he died ... a strategy the late rap star expressed to his team in this newly released footage.

In the conclusion of “Love For the Streets,” a track that appears on Dolph's posthumous LP "Paper Route Frank," Dolph toasts golden champagne bottles with his PRE team, urging them to get their life affairs in order for their 2021 takeover.

Unfortunately, Dolph was shot and killed in November of that year but his team has been keeping his name going strong with exhibits like his pop-up museum and drops like the new music video ... which also goes the distance in showing off his fleet of camouflaged luxury whips.

The 3 men accused of killing XXXTentaction have just been found guilty of murder in the 2018 shooting.

The verdicts came in Monday for Michael Boatwright, Trayvon Newsome, and Dedrick Williams. The decisions follow the jury's deliberations, which started March 8.

As we reported, 20-year-old XXX was at a South Florida motorcycle dealership almost 5 years ago when prosecutors say he became the victim of a robbery -- getting shot while in his vehicle. They say the men ran off with $50K in cash and a Louis Vuitton bag.

The 3 were charged with first-degree murder with a firearm and armed robbery ... and in closing arguments last month, defense attorney Joseph Kimok claimed evidence clears all 3 men from the crime -- saying the DNA found on the rapper's body and necklace didn't belong to them.

You'll recall, a 4th man named Robert Allen was also arrested in connection to the killing ... but he pled guilty last year to second-degree murder and agreed to testify against the other 3 suspects, adding he was hesitant about the robbery and even asked the others to ditch the idea in the moment.

In a discovery and bail hearing for Allen back in 2018, surveillance video from the dealership was shown -- which appeared to show the entire thing going down in real time.

Rick Ross is grateful one of his neighbors is pointing out he has a problem with stray pets ... a few of his cattle and bison are roaming a little too freely.

Rick says he always manages to corral the livestock on his "Promise Land" estate ... no easy feat, seeing as how the property sits on 235 acres of land. Rozay compares it to the popular TV series "Yellowstone" ... AKA it's the wild wild west when it comes to the wildlife!!!

The level of damage the bison caused to the neighbor's yard doesn't seem like the equivalent of returning a lost pooch ... but the MMG rapper explained they're actually peaceful animals that will graciously accept carrots on request!!!

We broke the story -- one of Rick's neighbors of his Fayetteville estate grew INFURIATED his bison were destroying her yard ... but he urged his neighbors to be courteous and reminded them to keep collars on their pets.