TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

Usher took the stage Saturday night at the "Lovers & Friends" music festival, after a physical confrontation with Chris Brown Friday night that left him bleeding.

Here's the thing ... Chris performed right before Usher, and never made reference to the fight.

As we reported, the confrontation went down at a roller rink party, after Usher and Chris got into a heated confrontation that turned physical. TMZ obtained video of the lead up to the fight.

Thing is ... Usher and Chris were super close, and the party was to celebrate Chris's 34th birthday with lots of celebs on hand.

As we reported, the fight was over Chris' scrapped AMAs performance last year -- when he was set to do an MJ tribute, which as 86'd at the last minute. As for what led up to the fight ... Teyana Taylor, who was at the party, was being confronted by Chris because he blames her for his canceled MJ tribute.

Chris demanded that Usher show her the door, and things escalated quickly.

Bad Bunny impressed Kendall Jenner in addition to millions of wrestling fans Saturday night, after defeating Damian Priest in a featured event.

BB made his grand entrance to his 2017 hit, "Chambea," as fans sang along.

The show went down in Bad Bunny's OG stomping ground ... Puerto Rico.

Kendall's BF is on a roll ... he defeated The Miz in a tag team match at WrestleMania 37.

It's kinda interesting ... both Bad Bunny and Priest are from Puerto Rico, but the crowd was squarely on BB's side.

Grammy-winner Robert Glasper is thankful for Chris Brown's temper tantrum about this year's Grammy ceremony ... mainly because the controversy helped line his pockets!!!

We caught up with Rob at LAX, where he told us he's still raking in the residuals from his "Black Radio III" album.

If you remember, the project took home the "Best R&B Album" Grammy in February -- and Chris cast a bigger spotlight on Robert's win with a sore loser reaction ... asking his 130 million+ followers "Who The F*CK is Robert Glasper?"

Rob eventually got an apology from Chris, but even better than that -- he sold the negative question on t-shirts, which he says earned him enough to buy a really nice car.

Our only question now is ... are we talking a Bentley or a very brand-new Buick?!!

He also says Chris' viral outburst scored him around 20,000 new followers and several musicians flooded his DMs hoping to collaborate.

Usher's squabble with Chris Brown isn't going to affect his performance later tonight in Las Vegas -- because the guy's taking the stage regardless ... TMZ has learned.

Sources with direct knowledge tell us Usher -- who's currently scheduled as the headliner for Saturday's "Lover & Friends" music festival -- will take the stage as planned ... meaning, the show will, in fact, go on despite what happened earlier this morning with CB and co.

We're told that Usher was, indeed, injured during the brouhaha at the skating rink ... and that his nose and face are kinda jacked up right now. And yet -- our sources assure us he's going to power through and put on a good show. He may, however, be covering up a bit.

In other words ... be on the lookout for him wearing sunglasses of some sort tonight, and perhaps rocking some fresh battle scars that might pop out through any stage makeup.

As for Chris -- who was also in the lineup as one of the big acts slated to perform -- we're told it's unclear if he'll do his set tonight. Chris hasn't said anything publicly as of Saturday.

There's more ... TMZ can confirm reporting by B. Scott, who said the drama appears to have stemmed from Chris' scrapped AMAs performance last year -- when he was set to do an MJ tribute, only to claim he got the rug pulled out from under him last minute.

Our sources say that is, indeed, true -- and the reason he went after Teyana here is because we're told she was actually involved in the planning of that performance ... but something went awry before the day of. This makes sense, as it's been widely reported of late that TT has stepped into the role of a creative director lately for a number of artists/their shows.

Anyway, Chris clearly felt some type of way, and was confronting her -- which only escalated when she snubbed him. Not just that, but we're told Chris actually demanded Usher make her leave ... in addition to asking her to get out himself, seeing how it was his bday party.

We're told Usher refused, and the rest is history ... some of which you can see on video.

Time will tell, we suppose, if Chris will come out himself, or if he'll address this further. BTW, it looks like Teyana -- who was once a fierce CB defender -- has unfollowed him on IG.

We'll also keep our eyes peeled for anything Usher might have to say later today. Something tells us he just may talk about it.

Machine Gun Kelly has entered the chat for the "second greatest white rapper" debate after Jack Harlow declared himself heir apparent behind Eminem ... and he might have a claim.

MGK -- who's been much more about rock and roll lately than he has about rap -- just dipped his toe back into the genre where he cut his teeth ... dropping a new freestyle in which he's spittin' pretty ferociously, and where he also takes an explicit shot at Jack.

Check it out for yourself ... Kelly is rapping over Jay-Z's "Renegade" beat, which also features Em -- something that surely wasn't lost on MGK when he was picking an instrumental.

As for the bars themselves ... we gotta say, they're pretty damn good. Solid flow and rhyme scheme -- and the references he's making are a cut above your average mumble rap verse these days. Of course, he eventually called out Jack by name with a telling few lines.

Kelly raps, "Make sure there's no confusion // I'm a great white, I can eat these barracudas." Then, he goes for the jugular ... "I see why they call you Jackman // You jack man's whole swag // Give Drake his flow back man." Indeed, it's pretty vicious, and there's no ambiguity.

This is clearly in response to what Jack said on one of his tracks from his new album -- in which JH rapped ... "The hardest white boy since the one who rapped about vomit and sweaters // And hold the comments 'cause I promise you I'm honestly better // Than whoever came to your head right then." That claim caused a firestorm on Twitter.

Other names got thrown around as possibly being better than Jack ... including the underrated Action Bronson, Lil Dicky, Mac Miller and, yes, Machine Gun Kelly too.

Usher and Chris Brown got into a heated argument last night -- which apparently led to some sort of a scuffle that got violent outside ... and TMZ has video of the lead-up to that.

Check out this footage that we obtained, which we're told was taken very early Saturday morning at the Skate Rock City roller rink in Vegas ... where CB was celebrating his 34th birthday among a lot of celeb pals, including Usher -- with whom he's incredibly close.

While Usher and co. sang to Chris earlier in the evening when everything was fine, things unfortunately got ugly in the wee hours of the morning ... when eyewitnesses tell us Chris was attempting to talk to Teyana Taylor, who was also in attendance and sitting on a bench just outside of the rink. We're told, for whatever reason, Teyana was ignoring him.

Our sources tell us this pissed Chris off, and he started to yell at her ... and that's when Usher intervened and tried to calm him down. You can see that in our video here.

We're told Chris wasn't having it, cursing at Usher and Teyana -- but then, mostly focusing his anger directly at Usher. Eventually, our sources say Chris told his crew they were leaving and they exited the facility. We're told Usher took off his skates and went after them.

Our eyewitness -- who says they were present for this -- tells us they saw Usher go behind a string of charter buses that were parked in the lot ... where Chris and his crew were at. We're told a short time later, Usher emerged with what appeared to be a bloody nose.

Unclear if he went to the hospital, or if a police report was filed. We've reached out to Vegas Metro -- but haven't heard of anything even remotely resembling this being called in.

Meanwhile ... Usher, Teyana and Chris have all been radio silent this morning -- with none of them having said a thing yet to confirm or deny a report initially put out by Hollywood Unlocked, which broke the news of a fight between the two R&B superstars/friends.

Pras says folks are reading way too much into his guilty verdict for fraud -- the ex-Fugees rapper tells TMZ Hip Hop the widespread rumor he secretly worked out a deal with the feds is one big lie!!!

We caught up with Pras in Bev Hills, and while the reality of his case has to be kicking in, he told us he can't react too much for legal reasons. As he put it, "We got work to do. We'll be okay."

As we reported, a jury in federal court found him guilty of all 10 counts he was facing. During the trial, rumors he acted as an FBI informant were fueled by fake social media headlines and over-the-top reactions from 50 Cent.

Pras sternly tells us he never worked for the FBI or CIA -- he says his testimony proves it, and encourages everyone to check the transcript. He refuses to be lumped in with Tekashi 6ix9ine who cooperated with the feds while testifying against fellow gang members in court.

He makes a fair point -- Tekashi pled guilty, but Pras was found guilty by a jury. If he'd struck a deal to work with prosecutors, he would have entered a plea, and not left his fate to the jury. That's just how it works, folks.

The veteran MC solidified his place in rap history as a member of The Fugees with Wyclef Jean and Lauryn Hill, but the megastars were noticeably MIA following his guilty verdict.

Jennifer Hudson and Common aren't just comfortable together, they've jumped to looking like a longtime married couple that takes romantic strolls in the middle of the day.

They were out together Thursday afternoon in the Chicago suburb where Jennifer currently lives, and they were not in a hurry. We're told the couple strolled around the neighborhood for about 90 minutes ... arm in arm, looking as cozy as ever.

Folks in the area tell us they've seen more of J Hud this week. She shoots her syndicated talk show in L.A., but with the writers' strike in full swing, she's got time to chill at home with her man.

Of course, their romantic walk isn't all that surprising. Common and Jennifer first fueled dating rumors back in February, when they had a date night at celeb hot spot Nobu in Malibu.

Before the outing, fans had been speculating they were a thing ... pointing to the fact that they were spending more time together after connecting on the set of the upcoming movie, "Breathe".

Hurricane Chris recently claimed the late Pimp C threatened him and his crew with deadly force -- but the UGK rapper's widow is saying the only thing he planned on killing was a track!!!

On Friday, Chinara Butler got wind of the Lousiana rapper recalling Pimp C getting the boot from his star-studded 2007 "Ay Bay Bay (Remix)" ... and getting an earful about it afterward.

Chinara says she remembers the moment vividly, as she was the one who intercepted the email, and burned the instrumental on a CD for Pimp to drop his vocals.

According to Chinara's memory bank, Pimp C took about 2 days to submit a fire azz verse ... but was told it was sent too late to make the cut.

In true Pimp C fashion, Chinara says he grew enraged and floated the idea of doing a remix titled "A-K-K" ... as in the assault rifle, and "kill all his competition!!!" The finalized track featured E-40, The Game, Boosie Badazz, Jadakiss, Birdman and Angie Locc. Pimp clearly missed out on a banger!!!

HC remembers things a bit differently, claiming Pimp C angrily called his phone with detailed knowledge of his location.

Rich the Kid is inadvertently agreeing with Tekashi 6ix9ine ... calling out Billboard's newly minted bundle initiative as a bad move for the music biz.

We caught Rich out at LAX and he told us he's fine with "floppy artists" getting the extra boost in sales, but also feels Billboard's move could seriously water down the quality of music that ends up charting.

Billboard announced this week it's re-allowing bundle sales under the tag "fan packs" -- which allows for a limited amount of physical merch to be counted toward sales on the album chart.

Tekashi had a cow over the news ... after seeing thousands of his unit sales discounted back in 2020 when Billboard eliminated the merch rule.

Rich doesn't think sales trickery will stop his shine and says he doesn't plan on hopping on the bundle bandwagon with incentives like crappy Crocs.

Antonio Brown can't help but put that s*** on, even if he's up to his eyeballs in controversy ... 'cause the ex-NFL star hit up an Albany bar and performed his hit song for a bunch of college kids Thursday night -- and TMZ Sports has the video!!

Witnesses tell us AB arrived at Wolff's Biergarten unannounced shortly after midnight Friday ... and the whole crowd was shocked over the surprise appearance, but loved every bit of it.

Once AB was in the bar, we're told he walked right up to the DJ booth and told him to -- well, this is confusing to say -- put "Put That S*** On" on.

Our video shows the Super Bowl champ standing on a platform above the patrons ...  getting the students hyped before starting his viral song.

We're told AB stayed for close to an hour before dipping ... but he didn't leave folks empty-handed -- witnesses say he was passing out free Empire tickets to anyone in attendance.

After the bar, AB seemingly hit up a frat house ... where he crowd-surfed as more students freaked out over his presence.

AB's impromptu concert comes right on the heels of accusations he's an owner from hell for the National Arena League's Albany Empire ... with former coaches and players claiming they weren't paid and lost access to their team hotel rooms, among many other issues.

Brown denies the accusations.

On top of that, Brown has been sued by his jeweler for $1.1 million ... and a judge ordered cops to arrest him over unpaid child support payments, which he claims he made.

Young Thug's brother, Unfoonk, is a return inmate at Fulton County jail -- law enforcement sources tell TMZ Hip Hop he's been arrested and booked for firearm possession by a convicted felon.

Unfoonk joined Gunna last December in entering a plea in the high-profile YSL RICO trial ... but his latest run-in with the law could lead to a violation of his probation terms.

Cops in Atlanta say Unfoonk (real name Quantavious Grier) was pulled over in his neighborhood around 4 PM Thursday ... and during the stop, officers claimed to have smelled burnt marijuana inside the black Mercedes sedan.

We're told officers also say there was excessive tint on Unfoonk's windows, and the YSL rapper wasn't wearing his seatbelt.

They called in a police K9 to help with the narcotics search of the vehicle, and during that search ... we're told officers located a handgun in the driver's side door panel. As the owner of the car, Unfoonk was arrested for gun possession.

According to the docs, he was also dinged for criminal street gang activity -- and the much smaller infractions of improper window tint and a safety belt violation.

Add 50 Cent, Shaq and Kenya Barris to the growing list of high-powered celebs interested in buying BET, we've learned the group is making a massive push to strike a deal.

Sources with direct knowledge tell us 50 and Kenya were spotted at the Paramount offices in NYC earlier this week to talk business, and the possibility of buying the network.

As for the cash ... we're told 50, Shaq and Kenya are fully loaded and ready to make an offer with some help from CVC -- an investment company.

Of course, there's still a lot to be worked out before anything is finalized, as one source told us, "It's not a done deal, but they're deep in it."

The trio makes a lot of sense, 50 had a ton of success on Starz, and recently signed a multi-year deal with FOX that's sure to net him a boatload of cash. Not to mention, he also just announced his global "The Final Lap" tour to celebrate 20 years of "Get Rich or Die Trying" ... so he's clearly still super connected in the music biz.

Then there's Shaq and Kenya who have massive TV deals -- and Kenya with an impressive resume of producing, directing and writing credits.

As we reported ... Diddy is also among the names that have thrown their hat in the ring as an interested party. TV moguls Tyler Perry and Byron Allen are also reportedly in serious talks to buy the network.

Tekashi 6ix9ine is ripping Billboard's decision to allow artist merchandise to count toward record sales again, because he's claiming his success was the only reason it stopped doing that in the first place!!!

Billboard revealed Thursday its new rules would become effective on June 30 ... prompting Tekashi to share his own soured experiences.

Back in May 2020, Tekashi kicked off promotion for his sophomore album "Tattletales" with the single "Gooba," and accused Billboard of screwing with his numbers after its No. 3 debut ... while also alleging Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande's teams were buying their own releases to cheat the system.

Tekashi says he sold 3 million in merch for "Gooba" alone but was betrayed by Billboard, who later denied all wrongdoing, as did reps for the Biebz and Ariana.

A couple of years back, Nicki Minaj and Travis Scott faced similar controversies after Astroworld tour tickets influenced the top Billboard spot ... but Tekashi is telling his fans and haters alike they definitely made the change because of him.

Billboard is calling the newest rule change "fan packs," which allows for a limited number of merch items to be counted toward the album charts ... and Tekashi says it's all smoke and mirrors to make struggling artists appear bigger than they are.

The publication also highlighted a "day-long meeting" they conducted with record labels where one exec practically begged them to bring back artist bundles.

Sources close to the situation tell TMZ Hip Hop Fat Joe was able to regain his masters from Atlantic Records after all this time. The streaming profits are all his!!!

Fat Joe is looking back at his time spent on major labels with regret ... comparing the setup to Ponzi schemes that do anything BUT benefit the artists' bank accounts.

The Bronx-bred hip hop legend was recently the keynote speaker for The Wall Street Journal's "Future Of Everything Festival" ... and recalled being signed to Atlantic Records during the CD era of rap.

Joe says his experience was constantly having to convince execs who knew nothing about hip hop culture to prop up his releases, and he ripped the hypocrisy of artists selling millions of records ... while only receiving pennies for their musical thoughts.

He reminisced, and not fondly ... "You had to be like The Fugees, who sold 30 million records, to make a dollar. I was talking to Jennifer Lopez about it -- and you know J Lo’s a megastar -- and she was like, 'Man, you know these guys, they only give you this [amount] and you never recoup.' So, it’s a funny math."

Joe says after he dropped his 2002 album "Loyalty," the Atlantic president called him a failure to his face ... all because he was getting slaughtered by Jay-Z's "Blueprint 2," Missy Elliott's "Under Construction" and Mariah Carey's "Charmbracelet" on the charts.

To add insult to injury, Joe says they replaced his life-sized poster with one showing T.I., who had just made the execs happy by going double platinum.

After mapping out his career, Joe decided to bet on himself and negotiated his release from the label. It proved to be a wise and lucrative decision for the Terror Squad founder.

He released his next album independently ... 2006's "Me, Myself & I" and says his Lil Wayne-assisted smash hit "Make It Rain" netted him a cool $4M and the Atlantic president is still eating crow to this day!!!

Joe's always going to bat for the lil' guy. We recently got him out in D.C. campaigning for the healthcare industry to stop shady practices against its patients.

Sounds like a familiar scenario.

Ne-Yo is looking to get parental rights for his 2 youngest kids -- the ones he has with his current girlfriend that triggered the divorce from his ex-wife.

According to legal docs, obtained by TMZ, the singer's asking the court to establish parentage for his kids which he had with Sade (not THAT one) -- and he's requesting joint legal and physical custody of them, as well.

He says they had Braiden in 2021 and Brixton just last February ... and he's also hoping they'd be eligible to inherit from him as if they were born in wedlock.

As we reported, Ne-Yo's wife Crystal filed for divorce last year in Atlanta, and noted he had fathered a child to Sade during their marriage. Crystal claimed she'd been taking care of the 3 kids they shared together since their split.

Crystal was looking for primary legal custody of their children and joint legal custody ... as well as child support.

Sade's been keeping Ne-Yo in her social media posts recently, so it looks like they're at least hanging out -- but we got him at LAX last week, and he told us he's simply enjoying the single life for now.