TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

Kodak Black didn't let a quick stint in the slammer jack his groove ... the "Super Gremlin" rapper made bail and quickly hit up a charity event where he raised thousands of bucks!!!

Bradford Cohen, Kodak's lawyer, tells TMZ Hip Hop, his client was released from the Broward County jail only 40 minutes after being booked. He was arrested for failing to check in for a mandatory drug test.

Kodak almost immediately put the short jail stint in his rearview... jamming out to his classic, "No Flockin'" record ... as G Herbo looked on. He drew a big crowd and everyone was celebrating.

The money raised went to the Innocence Project, which works to free people wrongfully convicted of a crime.

The concert went down inside the Pompano Beach Amphitheater ... with performances by Herbo, Rico Cartel, iCandy and Sniper Gang.

Travis Scott is in the crosshairs of a Texas grand jury ... facing possible criminal prosecution for the deadly Astroworld tragedy.

The rapper's lawyer, Kent Schaffer, tells TMZ ... the Harris County Grand Jury is meeting now, to decide whether his client should be prosecuted for continuing to perform at the 2021 festival as thousands of people in the crowd stampeded ... causing 10 people to die and an untold number injured.

Travis' attorney tells us the rapper will NOT be testifying and his team remains hopeful the jurors will agree Travis did not commit any crime.

Travis has maintained from the beginning he had no idea there was a stampede and points to the fact many police officers in the crowd who were responsible for the safety of the fans were clueless as well. In fact, you see in the videos some cops dancing as Travis performs.

The deadly concert sparked a number of civil lawsuits against Travis and the festival's organizers ... but he has never been criminally charged.

We reached out to the Harris County District Attorney's Office ... and they declined to comment.

Kanye West's behavior, both publicly and behind the scenes clearly tore his estranged wife, Kim Kardashian, and their family apart ... as evidenced in scenes recorded right around the time of his antisemitic attacks.

In a preview for next week's episode of "The Kardashians" Kim sobs in Khloe Kardashian's arms -- explaining the Kanye of today is not the one she married back in 2014 -- and she'd do anything to try and get the old version of Kanye back.

While the preview doesn't specify exactly which Kanye incident led to Kim's breakdown, the timing of other events in the episode line up with when Kanye launched his online attacks, including a tweet where he claimed he was going "death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE."

It was also in the middle of Kanye's attack on Jewish people that their divorce, which she filed in February 2021, was finalized ... so there's also a chance she's sobbing over the weight of the entire situation.

Remember, Kanye faced a TON of hate after his comments about the Jewish community -- after his shocking tweet, he tried clarifying, telling Piers Morgan he only wished harm on Jewish people that did him dirty in the music industry ... which really didn't help.

He went on to deny parts of the Holocaust on Alex Jones' "Infowars," bizarrely claiming to love Hitler -- digging the hole even deeper.

What was most frightening about the whole thing was the minority of people who supported Ye in the wake of his comments, including a group of people over an L.A. freeway performing a Nazi salute and hanging a banner reading, "Kanye is right about the Jews."

Ye was dropped from brands left and right -- including millions in losses from Adidas -- and was even named "Antisemite of the Year" by watchdog group StopAntisemitism ... so it's easy to see the pain and frustration Kim was facing during the downfall.

DC Young Fly is staying strong with the support of God and his children following the sudden death of his partner Jacky Oh! ... telling us it's important to stay positive, even when things get tough behind the scenes.

DC was back to work in NYC Wednesday, sharing he's understandably broken up over Jacky's death. DC admits his wounds are still raw, and he still cries over her loss ... but he's not someone who will post his emotional heartache online.

Overall, DC says his new mission is to continue to inspire people who may also be down after a significant loss.

DC and Jacky have three beautiful kids -- ages 6, 2 and 10 months -- and admits the conversations with his young ones have been tough. Admittedly, DC says you really truly understand what those emotions are like until you experience a personal tragedy.

Jacky died on May 31 after undergoing some sort of medical procedure, shedding light on a larger conversation about cosmetic surgery.

Nicki Minaj is pushing back the release date of her next album ... but as consolation for the fans, she officially revealed the project to be a sequel to her debut "Pink Friday."

The megastar rapper addressed her Barbz fanbase Thursday, assuring them the "Pink Friday 2" date switch from October 20 to November 17 won't be so bad, and thanked them for the years of undying devotion.

Nicki also promised a tour sometime in the first quarter of 2024 and promised to make another announcement where she'll unveil the "Pink Friday 2" album cover art.

There's no telling what songs will appear on the album Nicki's been dropping singles for the better part of the year. She's also got the lead single on the upcoming "Barbie" film with Ice Spice.

The first "Pink Friday" dropped in 2010 on Lil Wayne's Young Money Records ... instantly making her a household name, and going 3x Platinum.

50 Cent rarely misses the chance to have a laugh at Ja Rule's expense ... and laugh he did at Ja's recent performance stunt that involved paramedics and a stretcher.

On Thursday, 50 called the Murder Inc. rapper a "stupid ninja" after Ja entered his performance on a stretcher before rising up and rocking the mic.

Fans apparently weren't fooled by the charade, and 50 piling on the "😂" emojis only added insult to the non-injury.

Ja was one of the featured acts at Nelly's 'Hot in Herre' music festival in Toronto last Saturday, and many fans online pointed out his bit was possibly bitten from one of Ginuwine's famous performances.

Tiffany Haddish's rap career appears to be back in full swing -- evidenced by a pair of new songs she previewed last night ... one featuring E-40 and the other with Lil Jon.

TMZ Hip Hop obtained footage of the superstar comedian showcasing her new jams at the Hollywood Unlocked Impact Awards over the weekend from inside The Beverly Hilton ... make no mistake, there's nothing funny about her music, it's the real deal.

Lil Jon opens his track, urging everyone to drink and party until the club closes. Yeahhhh!!!

The E-40 track kept the same energy, sounding like an ode to big butts as the legendary rapper instructs listeners to look over their shoulder to peep both right and left cheeks.

We must admit that Tiffany holds her own on the track with her playful lyrics.

The HU awards brought out the likes of Babyface, Chloe and Halle Bailey, Law Roach, Muni Long, and Eric Bellinger. The outlet's founder, Jason Lee, tells us the turnout was nothing short of opulent ... as he thinks the culture is in critical condition.

Well by the sounds of her latest venture, Tiffany is doing everything she can for a cultural revival.

Jason Derulo wants everyone to follow their dreams and not be bogged down by following the silly rules drummed into their heads by their parents!!!

The "Swalla" singer checked in with "TMZ Live" as his new book “Sing Your Name Out Loud: 15 Rules for Living Your Dream" is flying hot off the presses.

Jason thinks the key to success is not to be afraid of failure. He says failed at the majority of the risks he's taken ... but still, the failures don't define him -- the successes do.

Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant are his inspirations — for the sheer volume of shots they missed to achieve greatness.

Jason says he's living proof being fearless in life works, and his book is the blueprint.

Nicki Minaj channeling a Barbie doll throughout her career worked to perfection, so thinks Issa Rae, who says she always associates the doll with the megastar rapper.

Issa plays President Barbie in the upcoming "Barbie" movie, and she and the rest of the cast did a full spread for TIME mag where she revealed, "My Barbie association is Nicki Minaj ... so it’s dope that she is a part of this movie in some way."

Nicki scored the lead-off single for the film with the track "Barbie World," a collaboration between her and Ice Spice where they pulled out all the stops for the colorful visual.

The song has been lighting up the iTunes chart in typical Nicki fashion ... but one person who may not feel the collab is so "dope" is Jason Martin.

Cam'ron is publicly supporting Jim Jones amid the brooding brouhaha with Pusha T ... saying it's very clear who's got the better rhymes.

On Wednesday, Killa Cam fanned the flames and admitted he and Jim don't always see eye to eye ... but instructed Pusha NOT to use their past tensions as fuel for his future disses.

Cam says he's Team Harlem all the way and still acknowledged Pusha's rap skills. Nonetheless, he thinks Jim is currently winning the rap battle and won't give the Clipse rapper any points for using him as a prop -- he's retired as a rapper!!!

Jim took to those same Harlem streets to splash ether in Pusha's face with a fiery response. The Diplomat rapper threw jabs at Pusha, his brother Malice and their fashion sense, among other things.

Casanova was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison ... but the Brooklyn rapper's girlfriend says their fort is secured.

In a series of IG posts, Cas' partner Swaggy Jazzy disputed reports from earlier this month that Cas had his face damaged after being attacked in prison.

Jazzy scoffed at haters who predicted Cas would be slapped with the 60-year sentence he was facing and placed her focus on her fashion brand Dope Emporium.

Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, released a statement about the sentence sending a strong message, saying “Caswell Senior is not just a notorious recording artist, but he is also a high-profile leader of a vicious street gang and a magnet for gang violence. At a crowded Miami house party, Senior personally fired a gun that seriously injured and could have killed a victim, inciting a shootout."

He continues, "Further, Senior’s stature in the community was central to Gorilla Stone’s successful recruitment and nationwide expansion. Today’s sentencing — along with the other significant sentences that have been imposed in this case — shows once again that gang life is not worth it and will lead to many years in prison.”

Cas was hoping for leniency in the sentencing after renouncing his gang ties in a letter to the judge ahead of sentencing.

DJ Envy is barking back at Bow Wow's shots at the current year's output of hip hop music ... but is also predicting the tide will turn for taste buds all the same.

We caught "The Breakfast Club" host on the move at LAX and he had plenty of explanation as to why hip hop hasn't had a #1 anything for the first time in 30 years.

Envy put out a compilation with all the top rappers 20 years ago ... but notes how times have changed. He says today's volume of music releases makes it hard for songs to stick, as opposed to the past when people had time to memorize the music.

His veteran expertise picks Young Nudy, Toosii and Lola Brooke to be amongst the leaders of the new school ... but thinks Drake is set to blow the summer up with his upcoming album "For All the Dogs" ... a point Bow Wow also made during his red carpet rant.

All hopes are not lost like Envy said. There are also confirmed albums from Travis Scott, Lil Uzi Vert and Nicki Minaj ... and Future is swearing he's in "mixtape mode."

Zendaya and Tom Holland are clearly meant for one another -- jammin' out and singing one of Beyoncé's classics to each other at her latest concert!

The 'Spider-Man' costars and real-life lovebirds were spotted having an absolute blast at Bey's Warsaw concert Tuesday night ... singing "Love on Top" right in each other's faces as the legendary performer did it for the crowd.

Ya know, the one that goes, "You're the one I love, you're the one I need" ... obviously the 2 are still doing great as a couple -- and having a ton of fun, too.

The pair's been enjoying each other's company for a while now, going back to 2021 when they went public with their relationship. We've since seen them grabbing some Thai food, leaving Mumbai hand-in-hand, and even goin' wild at a Warriors game!

Most recently, Tom and Zendaya were spotted walking the dog earlier this month in London while she fed him some ice cream -- goals.

Jason Derulo is sweeping up his recent viral comments about never wanting to clean his own house ... but the fact still remains he never wants to clean his own house.

TMZ Hip Hop caught up with Jason out in NYC on Tuesday as he promoted his new book “Sing Your Name Out Loud: 15 Rules for Living Your Dream," which contains the quote many on social media deemed a little too rich for their blood.

Jason explained to us the quote is motivational and stems from his impoverished upbringing in Broward County, Florida. It even rubbed his mother the wrong way at the time but he ended up making it big time and he wants to share the wealth ... hence his new book.

He just celebrated his son's 2nd birthday ... and the party ran his pockets a cool $30k.

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.