TMZ Hip Hop - Page 35

Chris Brown's legal team says the $50 million lawsuit against him and Yella Beezy is a grand ol' shakedown.

According to the lawsuit, the R&B megastar spearheaded a beatdown of 4 men backstage following his Fort Worth, TX tour stop on July 20, as well as a security guard who claims he suffered injuries attempting to break up the ruckus.

Brown's attorney, Levi McCathern, tells TMZ Hip Hop ... he's suspicious about how fast the 50-page lawsuit was drummed up after the alleged brawl and claims the men who say they were beaten up were well enough to leave the venue without medical aid.

50 Cent says his appearance at the 2022 Super Bowl Halftime Show almost didn't happen ... suggesting it was because Jay-Z tried turning his company Roc Nation into Block Nation.

In his new cover story with The Hollywood Reporter ... 50 claims Roc Nation attempted to keep him off the Emmy Award-winning spectacle alongside Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar.

In fact, 50 says Em turned renegade and threatened to remove himself if 50 got banned ... "Eminem wouldn’t do it without me," he recalled to the outlet.

Tyler Perry recently fended off critics of his low-rated new film -- but Mark Curry says he need not argue with these folks ... 'cause the man's legacy and earnings speak for themself.

We caught up with the veteran comedian out in NYC this week -- and he vouched for TP's funny bone when it comes to his movies ... after all, the iconic Madea character helped spark his billion-dollar empire and Mark says he has no reason to change for anyone.

Tyler recently swatted down critics after his latest movie "Divorce in the Black" but was egged with a rare 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

History has been made ('cause surely this has never happened before) ... a young soccer fan completely blew off Rihanna, asking the superstar singer to TAKE a photo of him with Christian Pulisic, instead of including RiRi in the pic!

Talk about something the young guy will later regret. 😆

The unintended snub happened over the weekend at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx ... where AC Milan played an international friendly  against Manchester City.

Late rapper Juice WRLD’s estate is facing a lawsuit from a guy who says he helped produce one of the rapper's biggest tracks but didn't get paid what he's owed.

TMZ obtained the docs -- Plaintiff Joshua Jaramillo claims he worked on producing the late rapper’s posthumous 2021 track "Girl of My Dreams" in exchange for 5% ownership of the song and 1% of the royalties.

He claims, despite multiple requests, he still hasn’t been paid the full amount of what he's owed ... despite asking the estate how much the song has raked in.

Offset's latest public denial of cheating on Cardi B is setting off a ton of speculation about whether his wife is expecting -- because he refers to an 8-months pregnant woman -- but Cardi's camp is clearing it all up.

Here's where the trouble started -- The Neighborhood Talk posted a pic Tuesday night of Offset chilling at a casino with a woman it claimed was an ex-GF. Offset actually hopped in the comments to deny any dirty dealings, but his choice of words sparked serious confusion.

Offset angrily shot back, "People really need to do the research...I'm at a public place gambling at a casino with a married 8 month pregnant women wtf I look like being outside publicly cheating SMD!!!

Megan Thee Stallion is riding for Kamala Harris as the Veep eyes a promotion ... bringing the juice to the presidential candidate's big campaign event in Georgia.

The "Hot Girl" rapper performed Tuesday at Kamala's rally at the Georgia State University's Convocation Center in Atlanta ... playing some of her hits.

MTS grabbed the mic and was accompanied by some backup dancers ... they were decked out in blue as she performed "Girls in the Hood" and "Savage."

The champagne is on ice for Kanye West ... because he's finally found someone willing to plunk down a fortune for the Malibu estate he completely gutted.

Kanye's place on the beach in the 'Bu went into escrow last Thursday ... according to online records.

Ye's been trying to unload the place for a minute now, and it got to the point in April that he chopped $14 million off the original $53 million price tag from January ... dropping the asking price down to $39 million. We don't know how much the buyer agreed to pay.

Eminem's new album "Death Of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce)" made it a point to have a funeral for his controversial alter-ego -- his new A.I.-generated interview serves as the burial, but not before unleashing a few secrets from the grave!!!

On Tuesday, Complex released a 14-minute, scripted interview with Em and the bleached-blonde younger version of himself, created by A.I. firm, Metaphysics -- the same company that boosted his "Houdini" video.

The sit-down plays out the hypothetical scenario of a matured and aged Eminem trying to reason with his reckless past life.

Rapper Chino XL's friends and family sadly announced Monday the veteran MC died Sunday ... shattering several generations of the hip hop community.

According to his family, Chino passed away at his home, leaving behind his mother, 4 children, a stepson, 4 grandchildren and his longtime partner Stephanie.

His daughters released a group statement, saying ... "Our father had many titles -- King of Punchlines, Puerto Rican Superhero -- but the most important one was Girl Dad. And what he gave us most in that role was his strength, straightforwardness, and ability to be super realistic. The main thing we are feeling now is that our Dad is at peace, and so we are at peace.”

12:03 PM PT -- R. Kelly's attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, came on 'TMZ Live' Tuesday to discuss her client's SCOTUS filing in more depth -- and she made a pretty compelling argument.

One other interesting thing ... Bonjean says she actually thinks this current version of the Supreme Court is perfect to hear R. Kelly's case -- and it sounds like believes they'd actually side with him if they were to take it up on their docket ... politics be damned!!!

R. Kelly is asking the United States Supreme Court to throw out his convictions for possession of child porn and inducing minors to have sex – claiming his alleged acts occurred decades ago and the charges were therefore barred by the statute of limitations.

Here's the deal ... when R. Kelly was accused in 2020 of possessing child pornography and engaging in sexual acts with underage girls way back in the mid to late-1990s, he argued the statute of limitations had already run its course.

But, prosecutors argued a 2003 law – called the PROTECT Act – made the statute of limitations indefinite for child sex crimes.

Latto's warning Ice Spice not to engage her in lyrical warfare, and it's sound advice according to Power 106's DJ Carisma ... who says that frozen water will get evaporated with the quickness!!!

TMZ Hip Hop caught up with Carisma at Soulja Boy's birthday bash, and she played peacemaker by steering Ice away from engaging with Latto any further.

Ice recently blew off Latto saying the Atlanta rapper had been dragging out their short-lived spat, which was peppered by a few light taps on single releases along the way.

Soulja Boy is beaming with Big Leo energy and it has nothing to do with his recent comments aimed at Drake -- in fact, he says they're actually on great terms now!!!

We caught Big Draco on his 34th birthday Sunday, and he was happy to reveal he's treated himself by hopping on the Tesla Cybertruck wave!!!

SB was impressed with his electro-whip's keycard access and openly called for an Elon Musk collab ... otherwise, he vows to be the first rapper with his own vehicle.

Tampa police feel like they're on the right track to solving rapper Julio Foolio's murder ... 3 people were arrested in connection with the deadly shooting and cops say they're closing in on 2 more!!!

On Monday, Tampa PD held a press conference announcing the arrests of and first-degree murder charges for Isaiah Chance, Alicia Andrews and Sean Gathright. The suspects were all nabbed in Jacksonville.

Cops also released new footage of the June 23 deadly shooting ... and it shows multiple masked gunmen zipping around the Tampa Holiday Inn parking lot, taking position in bushes and firing dozens of rounds into the vehicle carrying Julio.

Lil Pump has taken issue with Kamala Harris identifying as Black -- falsely claiming she has no African heritage (which isn't true) ... all while again doubling down on Donald Trump.

The rapper followed in Swae Lee's footsteps over the weekend -- coming down hard on KH over race ... namely, floating the wild allegation that she "isn't Black." Instead, Pump insists she's only of Indian heritage ... even though a quick Google search disproves that.

Either way ... LP is deep in his delusion here -- he got interviewed about this topic and stuck to his guns about her race -- and also said she's incarcerated over 1500 people over weed-related offenses during her time as district attorney in San Francisco.

Tupac's family is clearly disturbed over an allegation that Diddy may have played a role in the late rapper's murder -- something they're now digging into with a new legal team, who plan to get to the bottom of it, and force action if they find any there-there ... TMZ has learned.

Sources with direct knowledge tell us members of Tupac's still-living relatives have retained attorneys Alex Spiro and Christopher Clore -- as well as a team of investigators -- to look into Keefe D's resurfaced allegation that Diddy offered to pay him and his crew money to take Pac out in the '90s.

You'll recall ... this claim -- which, thus far, is unsubstantiated -- came to light anew last week when prosecutors in Keefe D's murder case included an old transcript from an interview he did in '09, where he alleged Diddy was willing to pay up to $1 million for a hit on Tupac.