TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

Polo G's generosity is shining through on the set of his latest music video, where he's hooking up cast members with a stack of cash after getting inspired by their individual journeys.

Sources close to the situation tell TMZ Hip Hop ... Polo handed off $10,000 to each of the individuals who helped make his "Barely Holdin' On" music video last month a reality.

The gripping video showcases Diana, an organ transplant survivor, Bobbi, a single mother, Deon, a substance abuse survivor and Willie, a 12-year-old gunshot victim-turned-paraplegic hooper -- all overcoming their individual obstacles, and Polo's donation will undoubtedly provide an added boost!!!

"Barely Holdin' On" director SixTwentySix's Arrad tells us the moment was no publicity stunt, and more about Polo just feeling it in the moment -- "It was an emotional roller coaster for many. Nobody was expecting to get the cash at the end. It was a huge surprise and everyone was in complete denial! Polo was very generous and wanted to make sure he could thank each and every person - he expressed his gratitude multiple times and gave them all the cash at the end. It was extremely nice and heartwarming of him."

The track was supposed to be on Polo's 4th studio album, "Hood Poet," but the album has since been delayed due to his pending legal troubles.

As we previously reported, Polo is facing felony gun possession charges after the LAPD conducted an August raid on his home.

LeBron James is giving his personal review of Diddy's new project ... and it's safe to say the rap mogul got the King's approval -- 'cause Bron actually took the time to learn the lyrics!!

Well ... some of them.

The Los Angeles Lakers superstar is infamous for his backseat jam sessions whenever new music drops ... and it was only a matter of time before he gave his two cents on the Bad Boy founder's latest effort -- "The Love Album: Off the Grid," which dropped last week.

Bron went through three of his favorite tracks -- "Pick Up," "It Belongs To You," and "Brought My Love" ... vibin' out as each tune blasted in his Maybach.

James even tried his best Jacquees-esque falsetto at one point ... singing along until a fast-cadenced part of the song seemed to catch him off-guard.

The four-time champ rolled with the punches, though ... pretending to crush each word. In reality, it was more like the time he tried to do karaoke to a 6lack song.

"Man O Man!!!!!!!," James captioned his vid ... calling the project "an ABSOLUTE FKN STONE COLD VIBE!!!!!"

Tamar Braxton says her car was broken into and ransacked -- and she's lamenting the fact she doesn't feel safe, even at home ... which is understandable considering the video.

The singer posted 4 clips on IG Monday, which show a handful of men going through a vehicle in a covered, seemingly subterranean garage ... rummaging around and removing various items as they appear to be staging a getaway in another car.

Tamar writes, "I got robbed. At home. I’m not safe anywhere. I don’t know why I keep getting violated. I had a lot in my car cause I don’t live anywhere cause I’m not safe anywhere or with anyone."

It's unclear when exactly this took place, but if it was on Sunday ... that's shocking, because she was at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta to sing the National Anthem ahead of the Packers-Falcons game. Tamar is known to have property in the ATL area, too.

The other notable thing about this is the fact that Tamar says she doesn't "live" anywhere anymore because of situations like this ... which has sparked concern online.

112, the peaches-and-cream blending R&B group from Diddy's Bad Boy era, has been operating as a duo for years -- but recent events have one of the ex-members calling for a reunion, stat!!!

OG member Quinnes "Q" Parker left the group in 2018 but says he had a change of heart on Sunday.

According to Q, he was shaken to the core over the weekend by the sudden passing of 702 singer Irish Grinstead, who died on Saturday after a "long battle" with illness her family says ... and once again when his homie Brandon Casey of Jagged Edge posted the aftermath of a car accident he recently survived.

Q says he now realizes life is precious and publicly asked remaining members Marvin "Slim" Scandrick and Mike Keith to return his calls so they get back to biz.

112 were a key part of Diddy's musical empire back in the day ... the Atlanta-bred quartet released several platinum albums with Bad Boy and even won a Grammy in 1997.

Q's timing could possibly net some traction too. Slim recently appeared on "TMZ Live" to confirm Diddy had indeed returned their publishing rights after all these years.

Slim and Mike have momentum as a duo so it'll be interesting if they let Q back into the mix.

Kim Kardashian knows how to carry herself in front of paps who are snapping away, but it seems one of her sons is still learning the ropes ... or, maybe, he just thinks he's #1.

7-year-old Saint was walking into an Islands burger joint in L.A. Friday after his basketball game, accompanied by a couple of pals, plus his mom ... not to mention a bunch of bodyguards. Naturally, paparazzi were all over the place too.

As the whole group was heading toward the front entrance, Saint let the photogs on hand know how he felt about their presence ... throwing up a middle finger.

The sight of a little kid throwing up the F-U signal is pretty funny in and of itself, but the way KK reacts to Saint's gesture is even more hilarious, TBH.

Let's just say she's very much in mom mode ... softly trying to muzzle her kid and get him to behave -- but she's not going very hard. Perhaps he's telegraphing how she really feels!

Now, in terms of who exactly he's channeling between his 2 parents ... Saint's leaning into his Kanye genes here. We've seen Ye flip his lid at paps over the years. It's definitely funnier when the kid does it, though.

Do you think Kim Kardashian was actually angry about Saint West flipping off paparazzi, or was it just for the cameras? Vote below.

People might've thought they were seeing Tina Turner's ghost last week in London, but it was just Kanye West's wife doing her best imitation ... with her own unique spin.

Bianca Censori turned heads for London Fashion Week Friday as she and hubby showed up at the Mowalola SS24 catwalk show. Ye himself was dressed down, going for a subdued all-black look with his head completely covered. But BC ... well, she was baring it all.

Take a look ... she's wearing some kind of burlap body suit that shows off a lot of leg and a lot of her ass, too.

It's not quite as risqué as some of the outfits she's been wearing in Italy lately -- where her boobs were on full display in very sheer tops -- so we suppose it's a step forward in that regard.

The big takeaway from Friday's getups, however, wasn't even on her body ... it was perched on top of her head. She was wearing some sort of mane-like headdress that ran down her back and completely covered her eyes. Indeed, SIA would blush over this one.

It's certainly a fashion statement, no doubt, and you can bet KW had a hand in dressing her.

50 Cent's 'Final Lap' tour just summoned its biggest guest yet -- Eminem, who gave the crowd the surprise of a lifetime just outside his hometown.

The tour stopped in Clarkston, MI Sunday night at Pine Knob Amphitheater and you can hear the place practically erupt when Em hit the stage to perform his "Patiently Waiting" verse from Fif's classic LP "Get Rich or Die Tryin."

Em also stuck around to perform "Crack a Bottle" from his own "Relapse" album, and fired up the crowd in celebration of the ongoing HipHop50 celebrations -- a milestone heavily influenced by both artists.

As you've surely heard hundreds of times ... Dr. Dre signed Em, who signed 50 and together they all sold like a kajillion records together!!!

Em called 50 one of the "best friends" he's ever known" -- and the union is still going strong with several other projects scheduled to release in the near future and 50's due for his Diamond cert for 'Get Rich' any minute now.

Halle Berry is still firin' shots at Drake after using a pic of her covered in slime for his new song ... clarifying that he did reach out for her permission, and she said no way.

Folks have been chiming in all weekend about the cover art for Drake's new track, "Slime You Out," featuring SZA ... one fan asked why Halle's so pressed about a photo that's owned by Getty Images.

She had an answer --"Cuz he asked me and I said NO that’s why." She added, "Why ask if you intend to do what you want to do ! That was the f*** you to me. Not cool You get it?"

Halle went online shortly after Drizzy dropped the single Friday, cryptically shading him.

She said Drake didn't get her permission to use the photo of her from the 2012 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards -- "When people you admire disappoint you you have to be the bigger person and move on!"

Drake still hasn't responded, but he also went the cryptic route Sunday, sharing a snap of him at the cards table with a shirt that says, "What the hell is going on?"

Is Halle Berry overreacting by being mad about Drake using her photo for his new track's cover art? Vote below.

Tinashe says she regrets her collaboration with Chris Brown -- something he heard loud and clear, and which he didn't kindly to ... trashing her by suggesting she's not big time.

The singer was on a podcast earlier this week and at one point, she was asked about her R. Kelly and CB joints in 2015 ... which made Tinashe cringe, not to mention explain. She actually laughs out loud in distancing herself, saying she didn't want to work with them.

For the R. Kelly team-up -- 'Let's Be Real Now' -- she says she blocks that memory out of her mind. Tinashe also says it was strictly a label decision ... and says the same thing applied for her Chris collab. From her POV, having him on the song didn't make sense.

Of course, most media outlets ran headlines pointing out Tinashe seemingly bashing Chris -- even though she really didn't go all that hard on him -- and Chris caught wind of it.

He responded to an IG post that captured a headline which read, "Tinashe Regrets 2015 Collaborations with R. Kelly & Chris Brown: 'That Is So Embarrassing.'" In the comments, Chris wrote, "NAME 5 TINASHE songs or die ... EVERYBODY DEAD."

After Chris's burn, the Internet has reacted a couple different ways -- naturally, many people are slamming Chris for trying to diminish Tinashe's career ... and some are even saying they couldn't name 5 Chris Brown songs with a gun to their head. Twitter's calling cap, though.

Fact is, Chris has far more recognizable of a catalog than Tinashe does ... and a more decorated music career in general. Others are also saying the song they did -- that Tinashe now regrets -- is actually a bop ... going on to speculate that she's only saying this because it's fashionable these days to stiff-arm CB over his controversial personal history.

Joyner Lucas put it quite well in a video ... saying he'd defend Chris to the death, and that he wouldn't accept any slander of him. Per usual, everyone's divided on the issue.

As for Tinashe ... she's moving on. On Sunday, she appeared to respond to all the hubbub, taking to Twitter and writing ... "Anyways ... stream NEEDS." It's her new single, and that's clearly what she wants to focus on -- as opposed to ancient history.

Still, it is interesting that Chris continues to be as polarizing as he is. Anytime somebody works with him these days -- or even reflects on working with him -- it creates a buzz.

The saying, "keep your eye on the prize" comes to mind when ya hear the 911 audio from 50 Cent's hurled mic incident -- although a radio DJ suffered a head injury, the dispatcher wanted to know who was performing.

The drama unfolded on August 30 at L.A.'s Crypto.com Arena, and on the emergency call obtained by TMZ Hip Hop, a dispatcher is quite surprised to hear someone had suffered blunt forced trauma ... from a microphone of all things

As we reported, the mic smashed Power 106's Bryhana Monegain square in the forehead, and left her bleeding profusely ... prompting the call to 911. It's unclear why it would be relevant to the injury, but, for some reason, the dispatcher inquired ... "Who's performing tonight?"

Despite the lighthearted query, the dispatcher was sure to send medical assistance to the scene right away. To be fair, he did also ask if Bryhana was awake.

As it turns out, Bryhana suffered multiple lacerations to the head and face after being decked with the mic.

The device apparently had been malfunctioning, and 50 chucked the thing in anger ... but he might end up seriously regretting that.

Law enforcement sources tell us police have completed their investigation, and the case is now at the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office being reviewed for possible felony charges.

Drake's new single with SZA is all the rage among his fans, but one person isn't happy about it -- and that would be Halle Berry ... whose image he used to promote the song.

The actress took to IG with a somewhat cryptic post about being the bigger person in certain situations -- this shortly after Drizzy released his new track, "Slime You Out," which just dropped Friday. In the comments of that same post, though, Halle bashes him head-on.

Somebody asked what she thought of Drake using the photo of her from the 2012 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards -- where she famously got slimed while sitting in her seat. There's a close-up shot of Halle with all the green ooze on her, and Drake is using that on social media as a cover image. On the official audio upload, there's alternative art.

Anyway, HB isn't pleased. She responded, writing, "didn't get my permission. That's not cool I thought better of him!" She adds in response to another fan, "hence my post today. When people you admire disappoint you you have to be the bigger person and move on!"

There are other comments she made in response to people on her post, including one where she says it's about the principle of the matter -- which might allude to the fact she likely doesn't even own the rights to the picture in question.

And, of course ... there's also the graphic nature of the song itself, which alludes to sex acts -- and which some have taken offense to on behalf of Halle. She, too, questions this ... writing to one fan who commented on what slime refers to, "exactly! What does that mean?"

It's unclear if Drake got this picture of Halle cleared or not, but it's interesting that she's calling him out on it. He was recently caught up in yet another cover art scandal -- with Vogue, no less -- and that one reportedly cost him a bit of cash after they sued.

Nicki Minaj's husband and some goons were apparently waiting to see Offset outside somewhere on the streets of New York this week -- but the man himself was up in air.

A pal of Kenneth Petty went live on IG Friday night -- which, of course, was captured and reposted by the general public. In the lengthy clips, you can see him, KP and another man all standing on a sidewalk across the street from some building ... calling out Offset.

Seems they thought he'd be leaving this place and planned on confronting him -- evidenced in their ominous remarks in the videos. Kenneth, especially, looks ready for smoke.

Unclear exactly what this is all about -- but some have speculated it might pertain to the VMAs, where Nicki and Cardi both performed ... and where they may have even crossed paths. As we all know -- they have an ugly, violent history between them

Unfortunately for Ken and co. ... Offset never showed, and the reason for that is because he's had a busy past 24 hours. On Friday, he was noticeably live streaming with a famous YouTuber out in Atlanta -- and come Saturday morning, homeboy was in Colorado meeting HC Deion Sanders and raging with all the college kids ahead of the big game.

Offset hopped on social media upon touching down this AM, and he was kinda taunting the fellas who were curbside looking for trouble. Sounds like he finds the whole thing hilarious.

Moments after Blueface got stabbed in a boxing gym, his trainer dialed 911 and the call got pretty intense ... with the operator trying to get details of the attack, as the trainer tried to get medics to save Blue.

TMZ Hip Hop obtained audio of the 911 call that launched paramedics to the bloody scene on August 23 at the Kaminsky Boxing Gym in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley.

On the call, the trainer -- who also owns the gym -- tells the operator a random guy came in and "stabbed my client" ... and then the miscommunication begins.

Seems the gym owner couldn't really hear the operator's questions about whether the assailant was still there -- and the gym owner quickly grew frustrated as he urged the operator to send help right away for Blueface ... who was bleeding from his leg wound.

As we previously reported, the alleged assailant didn't get very far, before eventually surrendered, and LAPD arrested Brandon Henry Snell. We're told the L.A. County D.A. is now reviewing the case to determine charges.

Michael Blackson is feeling more confident about the power of Afrobeats music since the last time we talked to him -- he's now certain the wave will be at least as large as hip hop, if not bigger.

We caught up with Mike at Kids in Africa Afrikicks -- a charitable event put together by Oni Productions, and one which happened after Afrobeats star Rema took home an MTV VMA for his blockbuster hit "Calm Down" with Selena Gomez.

It was the inaugural award for "Best Afrobeats" song, and the vid has been crushing it, garnering over a billion views in just a year's time.

MB thinks the writing's on the wall for his culture to dominate music just as hip hop has for the last 50 years. The Nigerian-born comedian says Afrobeats is just too "fun and loving" to be denied.

He's also using American stars to prove his point ... namely Drake and Chris Brown, who started collaborating with the likes of Wizkid and Davido years ago.

It's obvious record labels are putting a heavy priority on Afrobeats now -- maybe even more than hip hop, which was shut out of Billboard's #1 spot for more than a year.

Hip hop legends Layzie Bone and Xzibit are particularly riled up about the quality of today's music, but unlike most haters, they're at least offering solutions to go along with their customer complaints!!!

They were part of a panel discussion Thursday night, moderated by Justin Hunte and organized by Layzie's manager Steve Lobel in conjunction with the Black Jewish Entertainment Alliance. The event was planned as a celebration of hip hop's 50th anniversary ... but it quickly turned into a convo about how to save the culture.

Layzie encouraged an aspiring female rapper to be true to herself, but didn't hold his tongue in discrediting a lot of the content some female rappers have used to get ahead in the current era. He clearly thinks social media is a big part of the problem, as Layzie flipped IG the bird at one point.

Xzibit called today's rap music "a mockery," and named the issues he says impact hip hop on a larger scale. For instance, he says the internet allows anyone to masquerade as a rapper without actually honing the craft.

Xzibit blames past generations for not unionizing and learning to own their property, and says he's still pursuing legal action against Sony/Columbia Records with Steve's help.

Kanye West and Bianca Censori are here to remind everyone the female body is a work of art -- yes, her boobs have been on display a lot lately, but now they've achieved museum status in Germany.

Ye and the missus are continuing their European getaway in Berlin after causing a stir all over Italy ... and they're still refusing to cover up.

Bianca is once again going out in public with her nipples showing through a skin-tight body stocking. Standards are different over here, hence the blurred-out nipples. Sorry. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Meanwhile, Kanye's back in black ... walking around in socks at Julia Stoschek's video exhibition at Berlin Art Week. He actually took off his head covering at one point, presumably to admire the art -- namely, Bianca! Oh, and the stuff displayed on walls, too.

Remember ... Kanye and Bianca's fashion choices got them banned from a water taxi company in Venice, with some Italians even calling for the couple to be arrested for their antics.