TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

Nicki Minaj has finally dropped her long-awaited "Pink Friday 2" album ... and, as expected, she sent plenty of shots in hot verses.

For starters, on the song "FTCU," Nicki gets into her metaphor bag with the lyrics, "Stay in your Tory lane, bitch, I'm not Iggy," ... a line that's got fans wondering if she's taking shots at Megan Thee Stallion.

Nicki and Meg have been at odds for years and of course, Meg and Tory Lanez have a horrendous past ... a chapter recently closed after he was convicted of shooting the "Savage" rapper.

Ahead of his sentencing, Tory and Iggy Azalea were collaborating on music and even entertaining dating rumors ... loyalty paid in full when Iggy put her rep on the line when she penned a letter to the judge on behalf of Tory.

Iggy even ripped reports last year that she had issues with Nicki, but may change her tune as she's now being used as a punchline.

Nicki's track stands for "F*** the Club Up" -- the same message Cardi B's friends Latto and GloRilla spread on their track of the same name last year ... but it's clear Nicki wants the title for herself.

Fans also note Nicki used wordplay to shade Latto later on the track "Fallin' For You" ... "Picture not listenin’ when I said you would dread that/I mean locs, ho, you’s a chop ho/ I’m number one, y’all go argue over top four ..."

Post Malone has become so synonymous with the Dallas Cowboys -- he's now joined the famed "88 Club" group text that includes Drew Pearson, Michael Irvin, Dez Bryant and CeeDee Lamb!!!

Pearson revealed the eyebrow-raising fact to TMZ Sports this week ... saying Post has demonstrated so much love to Dallas over the past few years that he and other Cowboys legends have now opened their arms -- and their text messages -- to the "Congratulations" crooner.

It's, of course, a huge deal ... because the "88 Club" has long been limited to Dallas players who have starred while wearing jersey No. 88 -- and only those players.

But, Pearson explained Post has just become that good of a friend and that big of a fan.

"Our honorary guy on the '88 Club' is Post Malone," Pearson said.

Pearson then told us Post actually chimes in on their group chat during games ... saying, "You know he's going crazy!" while watching the action on his TV screen.

"He's on the group text with us," Pearson reiterated. "He's a big fan."

Post has professed his love for the Cowboys for years -- but most recently, he's really kicked things up a notch. In October, he opened up a Dallas-themed Raising Cane's ... and a month later, he helped design a Cowboys clothing line as well.

Ginuwine's throwing water on at least one story from Britney Spears' memoir -- because he has no recollection of Justin Timberlake wiggin' out when they all ran into each other back in the day.

In "The Woman in Me," Britney claimed that JT royally her embarrassed when they were dating by throwing on a "blaccent" for Ginuwine -- going full-blown "fo shiz" with his slang. 🙈

Well, Ginuwine has a different memory of things ... telling People he's the same 'ol G he was back in the early 2000s, so he would've remembered Justin trying too hard to fit in, and would've questioned him on the spot.

Now, Britney also claimed *NSYNC intentionally mingled with Black artists, while the Backstreet Boys positioned themselves as a white group.

Justin hasn't responded to any of Britney's allegations about him -- but his *NSYNC buddies made it clear they have his back this year. They even returned to the Billboard charts with their new song "Better Place" for the 'Trolls' movie.

Kodak Black is behind bars after getting arrested for cocaine possession ... and cops say he tried to hide the evidence right in front of them.

According to the report, cops in Plantation, FL say they spotted a black Bentley SUV blocking a roadway Thursday morning ... which, obviously, they saw as an accident waiting to happen.

Plantation PD says the SUV's window was halfway down, and they found Kodak asleep in the driver's seat ... with a strong odor of cannabis coming from inside the vehicle. They say Kodak admitted there was weed in the SUV, but when the officer noticed a Styrofoam cup that reeked of alcohol ... he told Kodak to exit the vehicle.

The officer says he noticed Kodak turned his back to him, and saw white powder falling on the ground next to Kodak ... as he was standing in front of the patrol vehicle's beaming headlights.

According to the report, the officer then noticed Kodak's mouth full of white powder, and later observed several white rock-like objects on the ground ... which Kodak allegedly said was Percocet.

However, the officer tested the powder on the scene and says it came back positive for cocaine. Kodak was ultimately arrested for possession, tampering with evidence, and violation of his existing probation. On the lesser end, he got a traffic violation for obstructing the road.

His Bentley SUV was towed and cops say the ride looked like it had been in an accident, noting damage to the bumper and door.

New York may be hip hop's birthplace, but New Jersey rappers have plenty of rights to the legacy -- just ask the Garden State All-Stars leading the charge for 'MTV Unplugged's resurrection.

Last month, several Garden State rap pioneers such as Queen Latifah, Wyclef Jean, Redman and Naughty By Nature's Treach, took over the Newark Symphony Hall to celebrate their specific contributions to Hip Hop's 50th anniversary.

Other Jersey-grown talent for the special includes Def Jam's first female act Heather B., Poor Righteous Teachers, Lady Luck, Lords Of The Underground, and "Rapper's Delight" creators The Sugarhill Gang.

Adam Blackstone, the music director who helped Rihanna break Super Bowl numbers back in February, is steering the ship here and is also part of the frat ... he hails from Trenton.

Queen Latifah is one of the co-executive producers for the special, which airs on December 14 on MTV before encoring on BET on Friday and VH1 the following Tuesday.

Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons is speaking out about multiple rape allegations made against him years ago ... and he's continuing to deny sexually assaulting anyone.

The music mogul opened up about the claims against him on Wednesday's episode of "In Depth with Graham Bensinger" ... saying, "I've never been violent to anybody" -- adding all his relationships "have been consensual."

He owns up to being insensitive and using "crude" language during sexual encounters over the years, but shoots down the notion he's been "forceful" with any past partners.

Further, he complains he's suffered greatly due to the allegations ... saying, "All my five charities have gone down." However, he applauds the #MeToo movement -- which fueled the heat on Simmons in 2017 -- by saying, "It's done a lot of great work for women. It sensitized men in ways they were not sensitized, and for that I'm grateful."

Simmons stops short of flat-out calling his accusers liars, and instead, suggests this is more about changing times and attitudes toward sex. He says he's had thousands of sexual partners over the years, but thinks it's not fair to compare the climate of today to how it was 40 years ago.

As we reported, multiple women came forward claiming Russell sexually assaulted them over the years. He was also sued by Jennifer Jarosik in 2018 over similar allegations -- but the case was dismissed months after she filed. Simmons maintained her allegations were "absolutely untrue."

By the way, Graham flew to Simmons' home in Bali -- where he's lived since 2017 -- to do the interview, but Simmons denies fleeing, saying ... "Because I left and I spend so much time here, people assumed that I really left and ran even though I'm back in America all the time."

There's a good reason Taylor Swift called out Kim Kardashian in TIME over a now 7-year-old phone call with Kanye West -- it's an incident for which Kim still has not apologized ... TMZ has learned.

Sources with direct knowledge tell us Kim has never said sorry to Taylor over the notorious "Famous" phone call between Taylor and Kanye in 2016 ... the one Kim and Ye released, attempting to show Taylor was cool with the song's racy line about her.

Remember, at the time of the track's release, Taylor expressed outrage over Ye's lyric ... "I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex // Why? I made that bitch famous." In response to Taylor's anger, Kim posted her version of the recorded phone call in an effort to prove Taylor understood exactly what the song would include.

However, the full unedited version of the recorded call eventually came out, and it became clear Kanye had not revealed he'd refer to Taylor as a "bitch."

Our sources say Kim's never apologized to Taylor for the call -- and even after the Time article, it's still crickets.

Interestingly, we're told Taylor would actually accept an apology from Kim on this issue, even all these years later, but only under one specific condition ... it would have to be done publicly.

As one source put it to us, a public shaming calls for a public "I'm sorry."

Our sources say Taylor still feels like Kim and Kanye were in the wrong ... and she was dumbfounded when Kim doubled down on her position even after the full, unedited version of their call got published.

From Kim's POV -- which she made clear in tweets at the time, and in subsequent interviews -- the fact Taylor was looped in on the song, period, vindicated her and Kanye ... but we're told Taylor's position has always been about the use of the word "bitch."

Kim downplayed that in a GQ piece ... saying all rappers use that term, and that it was NBD -- and while this might sound like a lot of hair-splitting ... we're told Taylor still feels she was seriously wronged in the framing of all that, something she touched on in her TIME interview.

Again, we're told Taylor is still willing to bury the hatchet with Kim -- who has since divorced Kanye -- but at this point, our sources say the 2 women have no relationship.

Even more context to all this is, of course, Kanye's infamous tirade interrupting Taylor's 2009 VMAs acceptance speech -- an old feud that got relitigated with the phone call saga in 2016 ... and is now being reopened yet again in 2023.

Houston rapper Sauce Walka is free on bond after police say he attempted to flee at a crazy high speed ... only to find himself in the hospital after wrecking his car.

Harris County Sheriff's Office tells us deputies observed Sauce running a red light Wednesday night and attempted to pull him over -- but he darted away, eventually reaching a top speed of 130 mph during a pursuit that lasted just over 2 miles.

Cops say the rapper then lost control of his vehicle, crashed and ended up needing to be rushed to a hospital. We're told doctors treated him for non-life-threatening injuries.

Sauce was eventually released from the hospital, and booked into the Harris County Joint Processing Center for felony evading in a vehicle.

We're told Sauce was released on $15k bond, and has a court date this Friday ... which he doesn't seem to be worried about.

After getting sprung from jail, SW phoned his homie Sauce Money JC and described the incident as a "catastrophic accident,” but downplayed it by promoting his new music.

Drake's latest Turks & Caicos vacation seems to include a blossoming romance with a bartender named Flacka, who's got the boy's nose wide open ... as he serenaded her in her off-hours.

On Wednesday, Drake and his crew hit an intimate beach club named Noah's Ark which reunited him with Flacka -- he's already nicknamed her “The Pride" of Turks and made sure to get additional face time with her at the bar.

Besides serving up cold drinks, she also helped Drizzy model his T&C-inspired Nike x Nocta drop in March ... and their friendship doesn't end there.

Drake previously shouted her out on his “Her Loss” track “P***y & Millions” and had no issues putting her all over his IG ... for his 144 million followers to see.

The evening ended with more canoodling -- a candlelit dinner where Drake sang his tune "Feel No Ways" ... leaving Flacka blushing!!!

They later posed for pics where she called him a "cutie" and Drake described her as "the one and only!"

50 Cent is getting ready to roll out a documentary on Diddy and his recent drama, but the money made from the project is slated to benefit a good cause.

The "Get Rich Or Die Tryin'" rapper's upcoming documentary plans to highlight the many accusations hurled Diddy's way in the past few weeks -- and he announced on Wednesday that the profits are going to charity.

A rep for 50 Cent and G-Unit Film and Television confirmed to TMZ Hip Hop that this documentary is currently in development and all G-Unit Film & Television proceeds from this Documentary will go to victims of Sexual Assault and Rape.

To accompany the announcement, 50 shared a new interview clip featuring former Bad Boy artist Mark Curry ... where the "Bad Boy 4 Life" rapper claimed Diddy used to host parties and give spiked bottles and pills to the women in attendance.

50 also threw sly shots at his other foe Rick Ross in his teaser trailer ... by using Rozay's controversial "U.O.E.N.O." lyrics about slipping females molly in their champagne when they weren't looking.

Diddy isn't letting all this smut go to his name without a fight ... earlier today, he emphasized "enough is enough" and denied all the allegations as a money grab as a response to yet another lawsuit.

50 has yet to set a release date for the doc, but he's been posting about Diddy a lot lately, so you gotta imagine it's top of mind.

Joe Budden is backtracking on his recent NBA YoungBoy slander, apologizing with his chest ... and admitting that hearing playback of his rant made him cringe!!!

The opinionated rapper and host took accountability, saying his comments about NBA were out of pocket in the new episode of "The Joe Budden Podcast," which is titled, "Vanity King."

Joe had nonchalantly dismissed YB's music as grade-A garbage on the previous episode ... but now cops to just rambling at that point in the convo, and says he should've composed a better argument.

The way Joe sees it, criticism from a rap OG should be geared toward encouragement as opposed to embarrassment. He also felt uneasy about the coverage his loose lips caused.

There's no telling if YoungBoy was embarrassed, but he dared JB to repeat any of the disrespect to his face ... and even theorized Joe was in desperate need of Viagra.

Low blow, for sure, but that's where we're at these days!

The threat was echoed by his big homie Birdman, who responded with a barrage of cryptic messaging -- but Joe is clearly waving the 🏳️here.

Diddy's just been hit with a slew of new heinous allegations ... from an anonymous accuser who says she was still in high school when he, and others, sex trafficked her and gang raped her.

The lawsuit, filed by Jane Doe in federal court, alleges she met Bad Boy Entertainment President Harve Pierre in 2003 in the Detroit area, where Pierre allegedly called her "hot," dropped Diddy's name and invited her to jump on a private jet to go meet the mogul. The accuser says she was a 17-year-old, still in the 11th grade, when this meeting happened.

She says she accepted the invitation and ended up in NYC, where she met Diddy in a studio -- there was a recording session going on -- and she claims he invited her to sit in his lap ... and then they began plying her with drugs and alcohol.

The accuser included photos of that studio meeting in the lawsuit ... and you do see someone sitting on his lap. She's blurred her face in the images.

She says everything's a blur after that, but she remembers Diddy taking her into a bathroom where he penetrated her from behind as she was bent over a sink. She says she didn't consent to having sex. The accuser also claims Pierre and another man who she doesn't name ... also had forced sex with her during this night in the studio.

She claims she ended up in the fetal position on the bathroom floor -- and was eventually escorted out of the studio and flown back to Michigan.

This accuser says she suffered silently for 20 years, and although she knew speaking out would be difficult ... but felt confidence after seeing Cassie and several other women share similar allegations against Diddy.

The suit alleges Diddy violated NY State's Victims of Gender-Motivated-Violence Protection Law ... which has expanded the statute of limitations.

Diddy reacted swiftly to the filing, telling TMZ ... "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy.

André 3000 and Outkast's absence from the dozens of hip hop 50th anniversary celebrations this year was all intentional ... 'cause reelin' in the years isn't André's thing at all!!!

In a new interview with CBS to promote his rap-less, flute-driven album "New Blue Sun," 3 Stacks explained he wasn't wired to go through the motions, even to celebrate his own lifetime achievements -- like, for example, their 6 Grammy Awards.

He notes that he and Big Boi started the group as kids just for their love of rapping, and his interests have now shifted to playing his flute. He owns around 30 of them now, so yeah ... he's deadly serious.

The retired rap legend dropped his instrumental album in November and already cut his teeth in the jazz genre.

The opening track "I Swear, I Really Wanted to Make a 'Rap' Album but This Is Literally the Way the Wind Blew Me This Time" runs over 12 minutes long and is now the lengthiest Billboard hit ever -- and sinister statisticians note fans would rather stream his vibes than some of the hottest rappers in the game!!!

Even without Outkast's participation, several rappers of all generations delivered tributes that celebrated the culture's highlights and the party even reached the White House.

Flo Rida's performance at iHeartRadio's Jingle Ball Detroit brought good feelings out for Flavor Flav, surprising the crowd as Flo's hype man and running into an old friend backstage ... his 'Flavor of Love' Season 1 winner Nicole "Hoopz" Alexander!!!

The animated rap legend joined Flo for "Club Can't Handle Me" ... which ended in jolly fashion with Flo being carried off stage by a beastly Santa Claus.

A rep for Flav tells us he still has one more stop on the iHeart Jingle Ball Tour after making cameos in both Detroit and L.A.

As for his reunion, we're told Flav follows Hoopz on social media and loves watching her updates, but he hasn’t seen her in person in years ... neither planned on running into the other at the Jingle Ball.

As you can see in the video, the two were excited to hang -- they remixed the song "Hey Mickey" to insert Nicole's name in the lyrics ... a little inside joke from their past.

Cardi B's already making a New Year's resolution, promising to drop all "dead weight" in her life -- a vow that comes on the heels of unfollowing her husband Offset on Instagram. 🤔

Cardi recently told her followers on IG Live they should not wait for 2024 to change their lives because that's exactly what she's doing.

Of course, the outspoken NY rapper used much spicier language while explaining her rationale, saying she's "taking that s**t to the f**king heart!"

Cardi also vowed to make adjustments to her music career and personal life, pointing out that she knows where she wants to be.

Then, as she got emotional, Cardi said, "You gotta rid of dead weight, and when it comes to dead weight ... I'll say mentality, procrastination, laziness and people. A lot of people are dead weight, too."

She added, "Next year is gonna be all about me."

Cardi's blunt statements come one day after she and Offset unfollowed one another on their respective IG platforms. Clearly, there's trouble in paradise between the hip hop couple, but it's unclear what the issue is.

She clearly alluded to marital problems on Monday as she posted, "You know when you just out grow relationships." Cardi also added, "I'm tired of protecting peoples feelings...I GOTTA PUT MYSELF FIRST."

Then Offset posted a famous clip from the 1983 film, "Scarface," that suggests he's the brains behind all their achievements.

These ain't even subliminal, at this point, folks.

It is interesting, though, that they're not calling each other out by name. Not yet.

Kid Cudi isn't letting Rich Paul and Jake Paul slide after critiquing his loyalty and ties to Cleveland.

Rich recently shared his thoughts on the "BS w/ Jake Paul" podcast as to why "The Land" doesn't embrace the "Day N Nite" rapper after all his success over the years. Well, those words didn't sit well with Cudi, who says LeBron James' agent couldn't be further from the truth, and ripping him for making bogus assumptions.

Cudi says he actually returns to Cleveland all the time -- it's where his mom lives -- he's just not all about going to Cleveland sporting events or bars ... when he's back, it's family time.

He also noted his Moon Man's Landing festival in 2023 brought 20k people from the city together ... with plans to do it again in the future.

Jake Paul took shots at Cudi too, accusing him of leaving the city behind, while also revealing he asked Cudi to walk out with him when he fought Tyron Woodley in Cleveland a few years back. JP says Cudi wanted wayyy too much money, and wasn't about to give a hometown discount.