TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

Nicki Minaj is fully in the corner of the Chicago 14-year-old who shot and killed a man to protect his mom while she was being attacked, saying she's willing to help him go to college.

The rapper chimed in on the viral case, which has spurred a lot of conversation online over the past week or so. She took to IG to sound off, and it's clear she believes the 14-year-old and his mother did absolutely nothing wrong here ... even if it cost a life.

Nicki passionately writes, "That 14-year-old boy that backed dat hammer out when that grown ass man was punching his mother in the face as if she were a MAN; is a true hero."

She continues ... "If he wants to go to college, I'd love to help. It's what ANY son should've done for their MOTHER. She raised a dope kid & should be so proud. Also, God knew b4 she knew; that she'd be attacked that day & made sure they had protection on DECK."

NM finishes with a simple message, "God is GOOD." Now, as for her offer of assistance for higher education -- she didn't really elaborate ... but ya gotta figure she's talking about cash here. If the kid sees this, it'll be interesting to see if he takes her up on it.

As for the case itself ... it's a doozy. Carlishia Hood and her son were charged with first-degree murder after the teen shot and killed 32-year-old Jeremy Brown on June 18 at a restaurant ... this after an argument ensued inside, and Brown was filmed repeatedly punching Hood in the head.

Right as he's wailing on her, her son enters the restaurant from outside and opens fire on Brown. Cops say Brown then fled, but allege that Hood ordered her son to finish the job and continue shooting him outside ... which he then did. Brown died from gunshot wounds.

Amid a lot of uproar, Cook County prosecutors dropped all the charges against the mother and son ... saying they didn't have enough evidence to proceed with a prosecution. Since then, Hood has sued the City of Chicago and a few cops too ... claiming she was unjustly arrested/charged -- and that the whole ordeal has caused a lot of emotional distress.

Her legal team has been echoing what a lot of others have argued -- namely, that the use of deadly force here was justified and that Hood/her son were simply defending themselves.

Diddy's ongoing lawsuit with alcohol dealer Diageo just took a nasty turn, with the booze brand announcing they were cutting ties after he filed suit last month ... but Diddy is firing back.

Diddy's attorney John C. Hueston tells TMZ Hip Hop Diageo's attempts to shut out the Bad Boy mogul is essentially like "firing a whistleblower who calls out racism. It’s a cynical and transparent attempt to distract from multiple allegations of discrimination."

Hueston says Diddy repeatedly raised concerns regarding Diageo's senior execs allegedly using racially insensitive comments prior to filing the lawsuit, which they claim caused biased decision-making on the company's part.

For it's part, a Diageo spokesperson tells us, "We are saddened that Mr. Combs has chosen to recast a business dispute as anything other than that and chosen to damage a productive and valued partnership. Mr. Combs’ bad-faith actions have clearly breached his contracts and left us no choice but to move to dismiss his baseless complaint and end our business relationship. Mr. Combs has repeatedly undermined our partnerships and threatened to publicly defame Diageo if we did not meet his unreasonable financial demands."

They continue, "Diageo believes strongly in the CIRÔC and DeLeón brands and remains committed to their success, which is why we tried for years to salvage the broken relationship with Mr. Combs. We funded the purchase of DeLeón for the joint venture and proceeded to invest more than $100 million to grow the brand. Despite having made nearly a billion dollars over the course of our 15-year relationship, Mr. Combs contributed a total of $1,000 and refused to honor his commitments. We have exhausted every reasonable remedy and see no other path forward."

Diageo is said to have acknowledged the issues by specifying in Diddy's contract that they'd treat his DeLeon tequila the same as other tequila brands, and he only filed the lawsuit in hopes to enforce the contract's fine print.

Young Thug's prison-time album "Business is Business" just got a boost ... with new raps from Nicki Minaj and the late Juice WRLD.

Album executive producer Metro Boomin fired off his personalized deluxe version of the recently released project on Tuesday ... introducing the "Money" track which features Nicki and Juice, and an additional song that closes the album titled "Sake Of My Kids."

Several other songs on the tracklist are rearranged from the version that dropped last Friday ... and Metro says the current edition is the vision he originally had for the album.

Drake, Future, 21 Savage, Travis Scott and others also helped Thug complete the album as he sits courtside for his RICO trial in Georgia.

Hits Daily Double projects Thug's album could sell upwards of 100k units in its first week and could be rap's first #1 project this year ... if Morgan Wallen doesn't stand in his way.

Bow Wow isn't mincing his words ... he thinks today's wave of hip hop is complete trash and it's to blame for the lack of #1 hits!!!

The veteran rapper didn't hold back on the BET Awards red carpet when asked by Power 106 about the state of today's music.

He says his ears have been incredibly offended this year ... every male rapper he hears talks about "slidin' on the opps" while the women only care about landing a rich dude.

Bow hasn't released an album in over a decade ... opting to make a living performing his classics on his successful Scream Tours instead of forcing creativity in the studio

He thinks talent will eventually creep its way back into the game ... and thinks its best bet is contributions from Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and Drake ... the latter star who's about to drop a new album titled "For All My Dogs" soon. Ode to Mr. Wow?

Bow's not alone in his thinking. Ty Dolla $ign says he's pivoting to dance and Atlantic Records signee Symba just took a dump on this year's XXL Freshman list ... which is supposed to signify the new crop of artists leading the charge.

Snoop Dogg's biopic is being set for a big-scale movie production ... and Tha Doggfather personally selected Allen Hughes to direct his life story!!!

Allen recently had Snoop take part in his docuseries "Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur" and says Snoop's request caused Universal to fast-track the film -- and they're currently looking for their leading man!!!

Allen famously got his start directing rap videos with his twin brother Albert before they went on to achieve legendary status in the culture for shooting the films "Menace II Society" and "Dead Presidents."

He hasn't done an actual movie since 2013 but says the Snoop biopic will give him and the fans a chance to relive the grit of 'Menace' ... seeing they've been asking for a sequel for eons.

Allen also says he's still on board for the Marvin Gaye biopic but it's currently taking a back seat to the Snoop production.

Rapper Trina is not pregnant, TMZ has learned ... despite some serious fan speculation after her recent performance at the BET Awards.

ICYMI, Trina took the stage over the weekend to honor 50 years of hip hop with Trick Daddy at the big award show ... however, her performance sent fans into a debate about whether or not she's in fact pregnant.

A rep for Trina tells TMZ ... "She is not pregnant despite fans' speculation following her performance at the BET Awards. Just like any other woman, her weight fluctuates. She is asking for fans to just move on from this."

Trina's debunked pregnancy rumors before, having to shoot down theories back in 2021 after the BET Hip Hop Awards -- and she's spoken out about her struggles with her weight in the past, but it looks like people are assuming yet again.

Nicki Minaj and Ice Spice can thank Margot Robbie for getting their Barbie-themed song into the new movie -- this despite a lot of bad blood between the brand and the OG 'Barbie Girl' band Aqua.

The actress revealed in a new interview Monday that she actually begged director Greta Gerwig -- who's heading up the "Barbie" film -- to somehow get Aqua's '90s hit song "Barbie Girl" into the production.

Margot goes on to say she pled with Gerwig to get this track into their project.

Here's how she explains that effort ... "I was like, 'Greta, how are we going to incorporate this song? We can’t do a Barbie movie and not have a nod to Aqua’s "Barbie Girl." It has to be in there.' And [Greta] was like, 'Don’t worry, we’re going to find a cool way to incorporate it.'"

Welp, her wish was granted ... because Mark Ronson -- the EP of the "Barbie" soundtrack -- included Nicki and Ice's collab on the official album ... and it sounds like we're actually going to hear it as the movie plays out on screen. We're already hearing it in some promos.

Here's how MR says she reacted when she learned the two rappers were coming out with a Barbie tune ... "I was like, 'Together? Are you joking?!' I just knew immediately that all my girlfriends were going to lose their minds."

It's interesting ... a lot of people assumed Nicki and Ice might've been in coordination with Warner Bros. for their single -- but it doesn't sound like that's what was going on ... they were coming together independently, and Margot made their fortunes align. It's kismet!

The team-up is even more significant when you consider the creators of "Barbie Girl" -- the iconic '90s song by Aqua -- were in a years-long legal feud with Mattel over their hit. The dust has settled on that ... and it seems the brand's honchos are ready to turn the page.

We must say ... all the "Barbie" PR has been spot-on, and all the rage going back almost a year now. This movie is kinda all anyone's talking about as far as summer blockbusters go ... which is funny seeing how a Christopher Nolan movie is coming out the same weekend.

No one's really talking about that film though ... it's all pink dresses, flowery shoes and bright colorful scenery, it seems.

It also doesn't hurt that Barbie has her foot in real estate, which has jumped off the toy rack and into real life. Airbnb has launched a Malibu Barbie listing ... but made it all about Ken.

Drake rescheduled his Memphis stop of his "It's All a Blur" tour without warning ... but his ties to the city still have some serious perks.

The Toronto-born rapper was honored with a key to the city by Memphis City Council Monday for name-dropping the city throughout his lyrics over the years.

Drake's dad hails from Memphis and was also on hand for the ceremony ... he joked the only honor his hometown ever gave him was access to the local hotel up the street.

Also up the street is FedExForum ... which was supposed to host Drake and 21 Savage's "It's All a Blur" concert on June 29, which now has a new date of August 6.

His July 1 date in Columbus, OH has also been rescheduled for October 9 without any explanation.

Quavo and Offset stole the show at The BET Awards to honor Takeoff, and while the moment meant a lot for hip-hop, it doesn't mean fans should expect new Migos music any time soon.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ the former foes have actually been cordial behind the scenes for months. Obviously, Sunday night's performance was the first public display they'd worked things out ... but our sources say the reconciliation happened some time ago.

Of course, the next question fans want answered is what does the renewed friendship mean for Migos and the chances Quavo and Offset release new music together?

Our sources say as of now, there's not a plan in place to record anything as a duo -- the goal of the BET show was strictly to honor Takeoff, not a marketing ploy. In fact, it's still not even known if the two would ever use the Migos name again in releasing potential future projects.

What's more ... our sources say if Migos ever was revived, Quavo and Offset would never replace Takeoff with someone else.

TMZ broke the story, things were still nasty between Quavo and Offset during the Grammys in February when they got into it backstage ... but thankfully, that's now a thing of the past.

As we reported, the BET crowd erupted as Takeoff's verse from "Hotel Lobby" pumped through the speakers inside DTLA's Microsoft Theater before Quavo and Offset took over to perform the trio's signature breakout single, "Bad and Boujee."

Kodak Black made a pit stop Monday at a Florida jail for around an hour … but his lawyer says it's actually a good thing for the rapper.

Bradford Cohen, Kodak's lawyer, tells TMZ ... Kodak's been on a tight leash during his pretrial release for his prescription drug case and he's supposed to regularly check in with authorities and take mandatory urine tests, but he failed to check in recently and they went to court Monday over the issue.

Kodak went on Instagram Live Sunday night and complained about his situation ... leading to concern among fans.

Anyways, Kodak's lawyer says he argued in court to get rid of the stringent pretrial supervision ... and the judge agreed but also ended up increasing his bond from $75,000 to $250,000 ... and we’re told this is why Kodak had to go through the booking process again at the jail.

We’re told Kodak ended up posing for a new mugshot at the Broward County jail and posted the new bond before being released from custody. We're told Kodak was in and out of jail in under an hour and he had to pay $175k, the difference between his original bond and his new bond.

Kodak's attorney sees it as a win for Kodak because now the rapper will be able to travel and tour without the headache of checking in with pretrial services.

As we reported ... Kodak was arrested in July 2022 and charged with trafficking oxycodone after police say they found 31 oxycodone pills in his car.

At the time, Kodak posted $75,000 bail and was released with pretrial restrictions in place ... including mandatory drug tests.

Cardi B is publicly ripping Offset a new one after the Migos rapper announced to the world Cardi's allegedly cheated in the past.

If you missed the post-and-delete from Offset Monday, he wrote, "My wife f***** a N**** on me gang yall n***** know how I come."

Clearly peeved by his post, Cardi lashed out on Twitter Spaces only hours later denying the claims and saying even if she wanted to cheat on Offset, it's next to impossible because she's just too famous.

She even went as far as to say she'd smack Offset upside the head with a bottle if he made the claims to her face. Cardi referred to Offset as the "country man" to her followers and even alluded to him suffering some sort of downward spiral.

What's not clear is where Cardi and Offset's marriage currently stands -- but things don't seem great.

Cardi was conspicuously absent from Offset's side at the BET Awards last night, which was an emotional gut-wrencher after he publicly reconciled with Quavo to pay tribute to their late bandmate Takeoff.

Cardi also stayed home for Offset's big Paris Fashion Week.

As for fans, they're largely on Cardi's side. Offset's infidelities have their own storyline at this point and many people think the only thing he deserves is a tiny violin.

A new lawsuit accuses Nicki Minaj of straight-up stealing the beat for her song "I Lied" from another artist ... a scenario sources close to Nicki say is impossible considering she didn't handle the song's production.

The rapper, along with mega-producer Mike Will Made It, is being sued by Julius Johnson, who says the music playing under the vocals on Nicki's track from "The Pinkprint" sounds like a carbon copy of a song he created years before she dropped "I Lied."

However, our Nicki sources tell us she wasn't hands-on with the beat, saying, "Clearly Nicki is a lyricist, so the claim in terms of production will obviously have to be addressed by the applicable parties."

As for those applicable parties, it appears Mike Will was the one who brought Nicki the beat.

As for the history, Johnson claims he published his song, called "onmysleeve," on YouTube in September 2011 ... 3 years before "I Lied" came out.

In the docs, Johnson claims he had the beat on a hard drive when he attended the Art Institute of Atlanta ... and he says in 2013 the hard drive was taken from a studio session without his consent.

Johnson claims associates of Nicki and Mike Will Made It were at the Institute around the same time and believes they somehow got their hands on his missing hard drive.

When Nicki released "I Lied" in December 2014 it obviously gained attention ... and Johnson claims when he finally heard her song in 2022, he immediately recognized the similarity to his beat ... insisting that, aside from the lyrics, Nicki's track has basically the same underlying instrumentation and beat as his track.

He's going after Nicki and Mike Will Made It for the profits they earned off his song ... and wants a judge to order them to stop using it or at least give him credit on "I Lied" for his contribution.

Symba is chalking up the XXL Freshman to be a lost cause ... but he could also be feeling some kinda way for being snubbed on this year's issue.

The Bay Area rapper ponied up his honest thoughts about the newest Freshman class in 92.3's BET Awards radio room ... and suggested hip hop culture's future is in shaky hands with XXL's picks.

Symba says rap music's lack of chart-topping music ... a first in 30 years ... is a direct result of XXL's insistence on putting TikTok-quality rappers on its cover.

He was plenty dismissive of the list as a whole. GloRilla, SleazyWorld Go, Luh Tyler and 2Rare are just a handful of the budding talent to make the 2023 cut -- but Symba's saying just trash the whole thing.

It may sound a little drastic for someone like K Camp ... who's been an XXL Freshman in the past. The Rare Sound rapper thinks when your buzz is as big as Ice Spice's, skipping the cover is cool but the look can't hurt at the end of the day.

Symba's wordplay and mixtape with DJ Drama attracted praise from his peers, especially from older rappers, for being a formidable MC ... but apparently, the publication felt differently and didn't select him during this period of eligibility.

Jadakiss is voicing his concerns that Jim Jones' and Pusha T's spiraling rap beef could spiral out of control and turn into a violent situation.

The LOX rapper admitted to Bootleg Kev he didn't have a dog in the fight ... but didn't want things to get ugly.

Over the weekend, Jim fired back at Pusha T's perceived jabs from the song he previewed in Paris ... and fire back he did!!!

The Dipset Capo used the Clipse's hit "What Happened To That Boy" to send slick shots at Push's bro No Malice's weight loss, accusing him of doing the drugs they're always rapping about.

Jada's had his share of rap beefs over the years ... he and the Ruff Ryders' once had Beanie Sigel outnumbered with goons at the height of their tension in the '00s.

Lil Uzi Vert and his City Girls girlfriend JT got into a heated argument during the BET Awards ... with many fans believing Ice Spice is to blame for the fight.

Video circulated of JT from the show Sunday night whacking Uzi Vert with her phone multiple times, accusing him of being a "groupie."

Fans speculated she was pissed about Uzi's performance during the BET Awards where he shouted out Ice Spice, rapping, "I got a nice wife/Wig came off twice/She got a little afro, she looks like Ice Spice."

Sources inside JT's camp tell TMZ Hip Hop her blowup with Uzi had nothing to do with Ice  ... she had become frustrated when she lost her seat after the audience shuffled around. We're told JT loves Ice and there's not even a shred of beef between them whatsoever.

A fan recount of the altercation appears to confirm the musical chair's confusion. Ice can also be seen explaining her side of the situation.

Uzi and JT left the building together without another scene ... seemingly confirming they're good.

Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott certainly have a history -- with two kids to prove it -- but they're not working on getting back together ... and are happily co-parenting their little ones.

Sources close to the former couple tell us Kylie's primarily the one with 5-year-old Stormi and 1-year-old Aire -- they both live at Kylie's house -- but Travis can see the kiddos as much as he wants.

Travis spent his Father's Day with Stormi in London -- so she's jet-setting with Dad as well.

Fans speculated Travis and Kylie might be working on their relationship when both were at Stormi's pre-k graduation earlier this month ... but our sources say it was solely to support their daughter.

Obviously, Kylie's fam has played a big part in helping with Stormi and Aire -- but Travis' family sees the kids as much as possible ... and also attended Stormi's graduation.

As far as we know, Travis isn't currently dating anyone new -- though he's popped up at a couple of SZA's shows on her European tour. Kylie's been tied to Timothée Chalamet, grabbing food and hanging out at each other's places, but there's no indication things have gotten super serious.

Kylie and Travis have split and gotten back together in the past ... so there's a chance it happens again, but our sources say this time it feels more permanent.