TMZ Hip Hop - Page 9

Gunna just released his fifth album "One of Wun" at a time when hip hop is highly volatile -- rappers are feuding left and right, but he just wants to drop vibes!!!

TMZ Hip Hop got Gunna at LAX, while on a quick break from his 'Bittersweet' tour, and got a gauge on the reception from his latest project.

Gunna's new album is projected to do around 65,000 sales in its debut week. Not a bad showing at a time when Taylor Swift's 'Tortured Poets Department' has topped Billboard's album chart 4 weeks straight ... and Kendrick Lamar's "Not Like Us" single became one of the biggest rap songs ever -- at least on Spotify, where it has a record-setting 100 million streams in 9 days.

Lil Baby's planned music video in Atlanta sounded like a war zone after flurries of shots were fired in the area -- and TMZ Hip Hop's obtained video of the ear-shattering scene!!!

The video unfolds with dozens of staffers and people setting up filming equipment Tuesday afternoon when the shooting began from what sounds like a semi-automatic weapon firing relentlessly for about 6 seconds.

Naturally, the cameraman ducks for cover and the video gets shaky as he points the lens toward the ground, but the background conversation fills in a bit of the story's blanks.

2:38 PM PT -- After the story broke, DJ Akademiks hopped on his Rumble stream to elaborate further and summarized things as a shakedown retaliation orchestrated by lawyer Tyrone Blackburn.

Ak says police and prosecutors have all seen the footage and declined to pursue charges ... in the words of Young Thug, he's ready to take it to trial!!!

DJ Akademiks may want to put that legal money he's always bragging about to good use ... a woman he publicly clashed with last year has now sued him for sexual assault.

Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s battle may be over, but conspiracy theories are still flying -- including one about a journalist, who says one particular narrative about him is 100% false.

Christopher Alvarez -- a 26-year-old freelance reporter -- had his likeness intertwined with a cryptic countdown hinting at exposing Drake this past weekend, in attempts to validate Kendrick's salacious raps ... and the items used in the cover art from "Meet the Grahams."

The countdown came from the X user EbonyPrince2k24 -- who posted a laptop playing surveillance video of Alvarez sitting in his wheelchair inside a hotel lobby. It was a cryptic post, because no one understood what connection Alvarez has to the Kendrick-Drake beef.

But, Alvarez told the Brooklyn Eagle the entire firestorm is nothing but a smokescreen.

Celina Powell's storied dating history just added another layer and another body ... 'cause she's hooking up with a recent "Love Is Blind" alum ... and  they're looking real couple-y.

The OnlyFans model posted a video this week that shows her in bed with none other than Clay Gravesande -- who was just featured on the most recent season of the hit Netflix show ... and who was polarizing in his own right for a variety of reasons.

Now it looks like he's dating/banging Celina ... who, of course, is also controversial and has made quite a name for herself in the hip-hop space -- mostly in a not-so-flattering way.

50 Cent easily dismissed Diddy's son King Combs' diss track aimed at him today -- but here comes a new challenger to the online street fight ... one Meek Mill!!!

As 50 questioned King potentially telling on himself at his expense, Meek came out of nowhere and defended the Bad Boy heir while giving the G-Unit general a piece of his mind.

Meek accused 50 of being a snitch and a miserable master manipulator who picks on kids ... and brought up 50's estranged son Marquise to hammer home his point.

Flavor Flav's revving up the hype train for the U.S. women's water polo team, and one of its star players, Maggie Steffens, is still floored by how they landed the celeb endorsement.

Maggie, the team captain, and Flav joined us for a chat Monday on "TMZ Live" ... and she admitted she definitely didn't expect the rapper to answer her IG call for more support for her team.

Fact is, the team's won gold at the last 3 Olympic games -- but still needed something, or someone, to juice TV ratings this summer in Paris.

Kendrick Lamar dropping "Not Like Us" at the height of his battle with Drake sealed the deal for his victory ... and the numbers speak to his big win!!!

On Monday, Billboard unveiled the new Hot 100, with "Not Like Us" leading the charge and his other Drake disses, "Euphoria" and "Like That" (with Future and Metro Boomin), ranked at #3 and #6, respectively.

Hip Hop's birthplace, New York, is staging a different kind of battle involving rap lyrics -- while some prosecutors want to pin crimes on artists through their lyrics, but rappers and lawmakers are taking immediate action.

TMZ Hip Hop caught up with MCs Papoose and Torae following their impassioned appearance at the state Capitol in Albany, where they met with the Lieutenant Governor and other officials to campaign for Bill AB127.

The bill is intended to stop artists from having their lyrics used against them in court and Pap, Torae, Kevin Liles and other members of the Recording Academy all joined forces to raise the awareness.

They're both BK-bred from the true school of hip hop culture, and defenders of the nuanced and explicit detailing of crime-laden minority neighborhoods often heard in rap lyrics.

To be clear, they're advocating for MCs who rap about crimes ... not for people who are actually committing crimes. The bill aims to prevent prosecutors from using artists' lyrics against them in court.

We also got their take on the Kendrick Lamar and Drake beef, which from numbers alone, is hip hop's biggest battle to date.

Unlike some alarmed reactions to the lyrical battle ... Pap and Torae both feel you can't make an omelet without smashing eggs. In other words: rap is, and always will be, about competition, and the clash was, overall, good for hip hop.

Now that things have cooled off between K.Dot and the Canadian, Pap and Torae believe AB127 should be a priority for all MCs.

Marshawn Lynch is staying busy off the football field ... the former NFL running back was just spotted in the visuals for rapper Ian's new single!!

The music video for the "Figure It Out" track was released on Monday ... and Lynch -- who played 12 seasons in the NFL before hanging up his cleats -- was shown within the first 30 seconds.

Throughout the project, the 38-year-old drives a red pickup around a junkyard in Canada ... while Ian sits in the bed of the truck.

21 Savage is learning firsthand no good deed goes unpunished -- he's gone from trying to cool off the narrative between Drake and Metro Boomin, to being on the brink of joining the 2024 Rap Wars versus Soulja Boy!!!

The Atlanta rap star released chart-topping collaborative albums with both Drake and Metro, and explained to fans he believes both artists will move past this current beef, which has led to cyber hijinks on both sides.

Meanwhile, fans had dug up old Metro Boomin tweets, and found a Soulja Boy put-down from 2012 ... which infuriated the "Crank That" rapper.

Snoop Dogg and Michael Bublé just got hooked up with new gigs they're already familiar with ... as permanent coaches for "The Voice" Season 26!!!

Reba McEntire and Gwen Stefani are returning to the long-running series this fall -- that's country, pop, hip hop and jazz royalty all in one huddle!!!

Snoop Dogg served as a "mega mentor" in 2021 for Season 20 and Mike's "Voice" lineage dates back even further, having been an advisor to Blake Shelton during Season 3 in 2012.

Diddy's son Christian AKA King Combs is now knee-deep in the 2024 Rap Wars -- dropping a diss track tackling rumors about the federal raids, and taking aim at his father's biggest rival ... 50 Cent!!!

Akademiks got ahold of the unreleased track Sunday, and played it on his livestream feed where it featured KC addressing all the disrespect on his family's name, and you gotta imagine it met his father's approval.

King established himself as a legitimate rapper and opens the track with aggressive bars, "I dare one of you n****s to scream out ‘No Diddy’ ... f**k that n****a up!!!" -- and then answers the constant question about Diddy's whereabouts, "Asking where my pops at?/He on a G6 getting a lineup."

Lil Meech had a memorable Mother's Day celebration -- 'cause he took his mom and grandma to the strip club ... and the internet is torn on whether it was cool or crude.

The rapper posted footage of the holiday excursion Sunday ...  when he and his sister brought Mama Bear and Grandmama Bear to the Magic City gentleman's club in Atlanta -- where it looked like they were in the VIP section ... with a bunch of dancers around.

Indeed ... the ladies were shaking it up in front of Meech's elders, and while his mom seemed to be enjoying it -- g'ma was a little more stoic, not cracking a smile under shades.

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky were feeling nostalgic in the Big Apple this weekend for Mother's Day -- hitting the town looking damn good ... and then getting into this oldie-but-goodie.

The couple went out Sunday night in NYC for what looks to have been a parents-only date night ... and aside from the fashion statement they were making while stepping out -- par for the course, really -- they also made a splash with their sweet ride ... an old-school taxi.

Take a look ... RiRi and Rocky boarded a big yellow cab that looks like it's out of the 1970s -- with the checkered bordering and everything. It's like Bob De Niro was picking them up!

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky aren't about to let their son RZA and his little friends have all the fun celebrating his birthday.

The couple's firstborn will reach the ripe old age of 2 on Monday, but Mom and Dad threw a big party for him Saturday night in NYC -- surrounded by close friends and family at the Color Factory, which features multiple rooms with different color balloons, ball pits, toy trucks, slides ... ALL the things.

Of course, RZA's parents arrived as stylish as ever!