TMZ Hip Hop - Page 5

Damon Dash says he's happy to be finished with the long-running Roc-A-Fella lawsuit ... now that New York state has bought his shares of Jay-Z's Roc-A-Fella Records at an auction this week!!!

The former power music mogul laid out his side of the story in a lengthy blog on his YouTube channel ... he owed NY a whopping $8.7 million in back taxes but now, the Empire State is paid in full!!!

According to Dame, no one barely showed up to court except Jay's lawyers, reps for New York State, and the group who originally sued him ... making an easy decision for everyone.

The Feds' raid on Diddy's jail cell has proved to be inconsequential, for now ... as a judge sided with the rapper's defense team after hearing arguments from both sides.

A hearing over the search at MDC Brooklyn was held on Tuesday, after Diddy's defense team accused prosecutors of obtaining privileged material in an unlawful raid on the rap mogul's prison cell.

While the prosecution denied intentionally seizing 19 pages of legal notes, Judge Arun Subramanian ruled they would need to destroy copies of the papers obtained in the search -- saying they should not consult the material until he made a final decision on whether they could be used in the trial.

Diddy's lawyers are calling BS on federal prosecutors who have claimed they did not seize the mogul's trial strategy materials during a recent raid of his jail cell.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Diddy's lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, says prison officials took photos of 19 pages of material from Diddy's cell -- which he says included 11 pages of trial strategy notes and correspondence with his lawyers.

The feds claimed Monday in legal docs they saw a manila folder labeled "legal" and did not even open it. They acknowledged taking photos of Diddy's notebook which they say they handed over to a "filter team" to check whether any of the material was privileged. Now Diddy's lawyers are calling shenanigans.

Trailblazing West Coast rapper Saafir has died, according to his former groupmate Xzibit, who carried the weight of the world breaking the tough news to fans on Tuesday.

Xzibit says Saafir passed away at 8:45 AM today, and our sources tell us he died in his Oakland hometown.

The Bay Area staple had been pestered by health problems for years -- he even had a cancerous tumor removed from his spine -- and he eventually started using a wheelchair.

Philadelphia 76ers' rookie Jared McCain still makes time for social media and Spotify streaming -- and is adding his 2 cents to the All-RapCaviar Teams debate!!!

RapCaviar's editors recruited JM to vote for his 2024 Rapper and Rookie of the Year ... likely a much more fun task than Tuesday's team meeting where the 76ers argued about being last place in the Eastern Conference!!!

Arguments are flying left and right over the selections ... Drake is Spotify's top rapper in terms of streams but was only selected to the 3rd Team, and the 2024 Rap Wars were an undeniable factor!!!

Private investigators are allegedly on the hunt to find influencers who know about celebrities entangled in Diddy's criminal and civil cases ... and now the LAPD is involved.

TikTok user Samson Crouppen, aka @samsoncrouppen1, posted a video on his account Monday showing what appears to be 2 private investigators who came to his doorstep in L.A., asking what he knows about celebrities linked to Diddy.

The TikToker seems shocked, questioning why the men showed up at his house. The P.I.s asked if he'd been paid to talk about the Diddy content on his platform, and he replied, "No."

J. Cole just received a Grammy nom for his latest album -- but he's taking fans back down memory lane with the first mixtape of his career!!!

On Tuesday, Cole and his longtime biz partner/Dreamville co-founder Ibrahim Hamad placed the 2007 project "The Come Up" on streaming for the first time ever.

Hosted by DJ Onpoint, the mixtape put Cole on the hip hop map with lightning-fast raps over instrumentals from Jay-Z, Nas, Lil Kim ... and featuring one of his claim-to-fame tracks, "Dollar and A Dream."

To add to the nostalgia, Cole and IB linked with filmmaker Scott Lazer for their deep-dive audio series "Inevitable" ... chronicling the making of some of his high-profile songs and albums.

Diddy's sons are waging their own legal battle now, warning the man who's hawking a Kim Porter book -- allegedly based on her diary -- to shut it down or face a lawsuit.

Christian and Quincy Combs, fired off a cease and desist letter to a guy named Courtney Burgess and his attorney Ariel Mitchell over "Kim Porter Tell It All ('Tell It All')" ... a book currently sold online under the pseudonym Jamal Millwood.

In the letter, obtained by TMZ, the Combs bros say they became the rightful heirs and owners of Kim's intellectual property rights following her death in November 2018 ... and therefore her purported diary entries belong to them.

The stars of "Gladiator 2" turned the Hollywood premiere into their own Colosseum showdown, strutting down the red carpet like warriors -- and every one of them brought their A-game to claim the spotlight.

The scene at TCL Chinese Theatre Monday night was pure glam, with actors Denzel Washington, Paul Mescal, and director Ridley Scott soaking up the vibes -- snapping pics, signing autographs, and setting the stage for a parade of stylish celeb arrivals.

Snoop Dogg and his wife, Shante Broadus, were all smiles on the red carpet, serving major couple goals in matching white outfits.

Tina Knowles is coming out swinging in defense of her daughter Beyoncé ... who has been inaccurately accused of being paid millions to campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Knowles matriarch shut down the rumor as a bunch of hogwash with a pointed Instagram post Saturday, where she made it clear the singer attended the VP's Houston rally on her own accord.

She wrote ... "So this has been flagged on Instagram as fake news and taken down. It’s called False Information."

Diddy was trying to influence witnesses and the prospective jury of his peers while behind bars, so say prosecutors who filed legal docs in an attempt to justify raiding his jail cell.

As we reported, the feds raided Diddy's cell late last month and, according to Diddy's lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, seized attorney-client privileged material from his cell and gave it to prosecutors.

The U.S. Attorney's Office begs to differ, and in new docs, obtained by TMZ, Diddy used unauthorized methods of communication to get third parties via 3-way calling on monitored phone lines, use of other inmates' phone access codes, and use of a third party text messaging providers. In short, prosecutors say Diddy was trying to rig his trial.

Gunna headlined adidas Originals' official ComplexCon after-party over the weekend and didn't let being on the outskirts with YSL cloud his vision ... he's HIM all along, remember???

TMZ Hip Hop obtained footage of Gunna performing at Drai's Nightclub in Las Vegas on November 16, which doubled as a launch party for the new Adizero Aruku sneakers.

Gunna banged out his solidified hits such as "Hot," "Pushin P" and the Diamond-selling "Drip Too Hard," intertwined with his newer comeback tracks.

Tony Buzbee, the Texas attorney repping more than 120 of Diddy's alleged victims, is firing back at a lawsuit accusing him of extortion ... he says he won't be intimidated or have his clients silenced.

Here's the deal ... Buzbee is being sued by a prominent individual identified only as "John Doe," who claims Buzbee is shamelessly trying to shake him down by threatening to file a lawsuit packed with false allegations related to alleged sexual assaults at Diddy parties.

Buzbee and his law firm aren't backing down, though, and he tells TMZ ... "We won't allow the powerful and their high-dollar lawyers to intimidate or silence sexual assault survivors."

Offset's no longer living in CET time after his wild entourage fight in Paris last week, and looks to have put the whole thing in his distant memory bank -- by moving forward with fan meet-and-greets!!!

We caught up with Offset leaving the Chateau Marmont just a day after his crew clashed with French rapper Gazo's boys out in those Paris streets ... and mum's the word for his side of the story.

We broke the story ... Offset and Gazo were supposed to shoot a music video for the record they did, but requirements were not met and money wasn't returned, so things got heated and violent fast.

DJ Hed is leery of incoming President Donald Trump's experimental cabinet picks, but says if that's the route they're going, Snoop Dogg should be qualified for something after the year he's had ... Ambassador of Cool, maybe???

TMZ Hip Hop chatted it up with the SiriusXM host ahead of his trek to ComplexCon ... Hed's a pro-Elon/Tesla guy, but isn't sure his genius will translate to his new "government efficiency" position.

Hed thinks Snoop, on the other hand, can use his celebrity for the greater good of mankind ... especially after all the Summer Olympics exposure. It's not a serious position and Hed says it should stay that way where rappers are concerned.

A prominent figure is suing the lawyer repping more than 120 of Diddy's alleged victims, saying the attorney is "shamelessly attempting to extort exorbitant sums from him," while threatening a lawsuit packed with "wildly false horrific allegations" if he doesn't pay up.

The plaintiff, identified only as "John Doe," filed his own lawsuit in L.A. County Superior Court Monday morning ... describing himself as a "high profile individual" who knew Diddy and attended events along with the mogul. He's being repped by one of the premier law firms in the country -- Quinn Emanuel.

The man says attorney Tony Buzbee and his firm threatened to unleash "entirely fabricated and malicious allegations of sexual assault -- including multiple incidents of rape of a minor, both male and female -- against Plaintiff if he refuses to comply with their demands." The suit goes on to say Buzbee's demand letters alleged the plaintiff raped the males and females while they were under the influence of drugs ... at parties hosted by Diddy.