TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

DaBaby's legal team says folks are wrong for jumping to conclusions over a recently surfaced video of the rapper shooting and killing a man at a Walmart ... they say it actually supports the rapper's defense.

Here's the deal ... Rolling Stone published surveillance footage Sunday from the 2018 fatal shooting in North Carolina, and the article appeared to question DaBaby's self-defense narrative.

DaBaby's lawyers, Drew Findling and Marissa Goldberg, tell TMZ ... the video was reviewed by prosecutors back in 2018  ... and they concluded DaBaby acted in self-defense and therefore was not prosecuted for homicide.

We're told the video was even viewed by a Mecklenburg County judge in connection with a misdemeanor charge for not having the proper permits for his gun.

As for the self-defense part, DaBaby told cops the victim and another accomplice were following him around the Walmart store, and allegedly threatened him and flashed a gun ... causing him to feel the need to protect himself.

Travis Scott is going from dipping his toe in the performance pool to getting in waist deep -- the guy's first public show is booked ... and it's going down in Miami next month.

The rapper is scheduled to host on Saturday, May 7 at hotspot E11EVEN -- where he appears to be the headlining act for Race Week. There's a Formula 1 Grand Prix that'll be going down around the same time ... so it's gonna be popping in and around the city.

According to promotional flyers and E11EVEN's own website ... tickets are on sale now at a price point of $150 to $250, depending on whether you're a man or woman. Ladies get in cheaper, obviously. Page Six was first to notice the event. We have been told that it's almost sold out ... and demand is sky-high.

VIP tables are also available for reservation as well ... and those can go for a pretty penny, reportedly upwards of $100k depending on what's happening. Considering this will be Travis' first foray, musically, before a large crowd ... ya gotta imagine the cost will be higher.

This certainly isn't the first time TS has grabbed a mic since the Astroworld Fest tragedy in November, when 10 people died. He's been dabbling in smaller performances in the months thereafter -- including a limited set at a pre-Oscars party, ditto for a Coachella afterparty.

At both events, there seemed to be some enthusiasm around his presence ... but time will tell if a club like E11EVEN can muster a large crowd. The jury's sorta out on how people feel about him these days.

At first, there was a lot of anger directed at him ... as some felt he continued the show despite seemingly obvious signs folks were in distress -- but in the wake of all that, there's been different evidence suggesting he may have, in fact, been in the dark on the severity.

Still, he's in the middle of several lawsuits that have named him as a defendant ... and that'll take years to work through the court system. In the meantime, he's making a comeback -- or trying to, anyway.

Twinning!!!

Music superstar Usher chopped it up with his perfect doppelganger at the Grizzlies vs. Timberwolves game on Tuesday ... hanging out courtside with Ja Morant's dad -- and it was hilarious!!

Of course, fans have been commenting about how the Memphis superstar's pops looks strikingly similar to the "Yeah!" singer throughout the playoffs ... and finally, the two men met face-to-face.

Usher pulled up to Game 5 of the Grizzlies' home game against the Wolves ... and of course, Tee Morant was in the building to support his son Ja, who just won the Most Improved Player Award for this season.

Tee has been making headlines all series -- early on in the playoffs, he enjoyed some friendly back-and-forth with Karl-Anthony Towns' dad, Karl-Anthony Towns Sr. ... and fans couldn't help but notice how much he looked like Usher.

While people swear Tee is Usher's doppelganger, it reached new heights on Tuesday ... when the two wore matching black outfits to the matchup!!

Both twins got to see an incredible game -- with about 6 seconds left on the game clock, Minnesota rising star Anthony Edwards hit a clutch 3-pointer to tie the game at 109-109.

But, Ja would not be denied ... as he beat Edwards to his spot and finished at the rim with a nifty layup over Jarred Vanderbilt ... propelling the Grizzlies to a 111-109 victory.

Tekashi 6ix9ine is back to trolling Lil Durk after telling TMZ he doesn't instigate matters when it comes to these things.

The rainbow-haired rapper -- who just targeted the late King Von in his latest music video 'GINÉ' -- decided to up the ante on Tuesday when he found his way in the vicinity of Lil Durk's doppelgänger "Perkio."

The footage for the encounter is pretty wild as 6ix9ine and his crew surround the TikTok star ... only to bless him with a jacket embroidered with a photo of King Von, who was shot and killed in October 2020.

The IG caption reiterates 6ix9ine's overall beef mission statement: Lil Durk and OTF haven't avenged Von's death and it contradicts their lyrics.

What's also wild is Perkio's face when the jacket is placed on his shoulders. He looks extremely uncomfortable and even appears to remove it as Tekashi barks into the camera.

Perkio and the "Fake Drake" have been getting chummy these last few days, making TikTok videos and even hitting the club together. Even better, they have the blessings of the real artists they're emulating.

The video provides a 180° turn for Tekashi's latest moves, which include a modest return to the Billboard Charts thanks to a No. 83 debut for "GINÉ" and giving away $1 million Mexican pesos to a family in need.

Killer Mike says giving scores of nonviolent drug offenders clemency is a great first step -- but suggests what we should do next is ... let them sling again, on the up and up.

The entrepreneur and MC gave us a radical idea when we asked him what he thought about the Biden administration cutting loose 75 convicts -- all of whom were serving lengthy sentences for drug offenses, be it possession, intent to sell or just straight up peddling.

Mike tells us ... yeah, that's great -- but we can (and should) do better to pay these people back for crimes they probably shouldn't have been in the joint for in the first place.

As for how, KM says those who were put away for selling drugs that are now legal -- aka, marijuana -- should actually be plopped at the front of the line for dispensary licenses ... meaning, we the people should let them hop back into the drug trade immediately.

That might sound a little backwards, but check out his rationale ... Mike's actually making sense here, especially since our laws and views on this type of stuff have evolved.

Rick Ross is gearing up for his massive self-titled car and bike show and he has an interesting way of promoting it -- talking about auto theft, or at least auto parts theft.

While giving fans a tour of his extensive collection of whips, he stumbled upon his Cadillac Executive Series limousine aka his "Baby Lac" ... which prompted a drive down memory lane.

According to Rozay, when he was a kid, before he was a Maybach man, he would steal – and collect – Cadillac emblems from cars he would come across.

He then paints the picture of elementary school-aged children rocking Caddy necklaces as he proceeds to give a convincing demonstration on how to successfully swipe the hood ornament.

Rozay's "Car & Bike Show" is just weeks away from its May 21 date on his own 'Promise Land' Georgia estate.

The "Rich Forever" mogul has already teased an extremely rare El Camino, and old school Chevy Suburban and even an Army camouflage-colored tank complete with Louis Vuitton bucket seats.

Machine Gun Kelly has Megan Fox's lifeblood steadily coursing through his veins these days ... and the veteran artist says he's ready to return to making hip hop music.

MGK, who just topped the Billboard 200 with his 2nd consecutive rock album, "Mainstream Sellout," was recently a guest on Audacy's "Check In" podcast with Kevan Kenney where he expressed he missed the art of rapping and rhyming.

"I'm going to make a rap album for myself," MGK exclaimed. "For no other reason, no point to prove, no chip on my shoulder. If I keep doing things to prove things to people, I'm going to one, drive myself crazy and two, not make a good product. I made 'Tickets' and "Mainstream Sellout" because I wanted to make them ... I'm gonna step into where I left "Hotel Diablo" and expand on my storytelling as a rapper and find a new innovative sound for the Hip Hop Machine Gun Kelly. That's where my excitement is and where me as a music archaeologist wants to explore."

The aforementioned "Hotel Diablo" album served as MGK's last crack at a rap album, coming fresh off his highly publicized rap battle with Eminem.

In January, MGK also expanded on his relationship with Megan by asking for her hand in marriage, and revealing to the world they celebrated with a ritual guzzling of each other's blood.

In a new interview with Glamour UK, the "Night Teeth" actress clarified while they weren't exactly as vampiric as people think, opting to just indulge in "a few drops" ... she did admit MGK is always willing to take shards of broken glass to the chest to prove his love.

The engaged couple are also set to star together in the upcoming comedy film, "Good Mourning," proving their work-play relationship can exist outside the dungeon.

Blac Chyna isn't getting a fair shake in her $100 million legal war with the Kardashians over her now-canceled reality show ... so says her good friend, Laura Govan, anyway.

We caught up with the former "Basketball Wives" star Monday at LAX and she thinks the odds were stacked against Chyna winning this case from jump street.

Laura also defended Chyna's lack of contribution to society -- referring to her admission she hasn't paid taxes in years -- saying she's far from the first American to ignore Uncle Sam.

Laura, who shares 3 kids with ex-NBA star Gilbert Arenas, is set to produce and write her upcoming "Co-Parenting" series and thinks Chyna and Rob Kardashian should focus on their daughter's well-being, That said, she does admit this latest saga is fit for primetime TV.

No lack of plot twists, that's for sure -- as we reported, Chyna's requesting a do-over in court because she claims the "revenge porn" portion of the case triggered her PTSD and ruined her testimony.

There's also Kylie's all-but-damning recount of BC allegedly slashing ex-boyfriend Tyga with a knife and sending threatening text messages to Kylie herself.

Chris Brown and Lil Baby are setting out to bring some of the biggest hip hop and R&B shows to what they hope will be sold-out arenas, nationwide.

Breezy and the Quality Control rap star set off fireworks when they announced their "One Of Them" Tour. The 27-city trek, presented by Rolling Loud, will blitz through major U.S. cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, Phoenix (basically all the cities where TMZ Hip Hop airs, plus many more).

The "One Of Them" Tour appears to be one of those cases where the egg happens before the chicken ... because both of them have teased new albums within the past few weeks without actually announcing a project.

On April 8, Lil Baby fired off a couple of tracks -- “Right On” and “In a Minute" -- while proclaiming Summer '22 would belong to him.

For his part, Chris Brown promised on IG "love and heartbreak" would soundtrack his next musical collection.

Ne-Yo and his wife, Crystal Renay, are as serious as they can be about giving their marriage another go -- TMZ's learned, they just walked down the aisle again, and they did it up big!!!

Witnesses tell TMZ ... Ne-Yo and the former reality star got re-hitched Sunday night on a rooftop at Resorts World in Vegas, exchanging vows and throwing a lavish reception for all their guests.

They had all the bells and whistles, too -- the room was filled with more than 10,000 roses, and we're told it took 3 days to set up. The enormous cake was about 8 feet tall with 4 different flavors!

The guest list included close family and friends like 'RHOA's Nene Leakes, Tammy Rivera from "Love & Hip Hop" and Melody Holt from "Love & Marriage: Huntsville."

And, the night wouldn't be complete without a performance from the singer ... of course, he sang some of his hits and danced along with his renewed bride.

The couple originally tied the knot back in February 2016. The "Sexy Love" singer filed for divorce in March 2020, but quickly withdrew it.

Since then they've been working things out, and Ne-Yo ended up popping the question, for the second time, on New Year's Eve 2020. He's credited the pandemic for saving their marriage.

All that back and forth looks to be a thing of the past for Crystal and her man.

Not that "Love & Hip Hop Atlanta" fans would know it, but Bambi Richardson says things are actually pretty cordial between Momma Dee and her for one reason -- R-E-S-P-E-C-T for her husband's mother.

Bambi chopped it up with Raquel Harper on the 'It's Tricky' podcast, opening up about her strained relationship with Lil Scrappy's mom, Momma Dee ... and admitting things aren't always the way they seem on TV.

ICYMI, fans raised an eyebrow when Momma Dee posted a photo at Shay Johnson's baby shower. Shay is Lil Scrappy's ex-gf, so some folks felt Momma Dee attending was "disrespectful" to Scrap's current wife.

In true Momma Dee fashion ... she fired back and, in the process, took some shots at Bambi.

She wrote, "I'm down for who down for me I've never heard bam even give a f*** about what I ate. Send me flowers for my birthday. Give me a greeting card I supposed to leave Shea alone because she's insecure she's f****** insecure and she's dragging my son and my son and I are not even speaking because of her insecurity's I'm done."

That sounds salty AF, but Bambi claims she's never had a problem with Momma Dee having a friendship with Shay. On the contrary, she says there's no issue with Shay and doesn't even know her.

As for why MD went so hard ... Bambi strongly hints her mother-in-law is simply creating drama to make 'L&HH' juicier. In fact, she tells Raq that when the cameras aren't rolling she and Dee are so cool.

Antonio Brown just dropped his newest album, but he's already thinking about the next one -- the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers wideout just revealed he only wants athletes featured on his follow-up project.

Brown -- who won a Super Bowl with Tom Brady in 2021 -- joined "TMZ Live" to discuss the success of his album "Paradigm" ... as well as what he's envisioning moving forward.

"The next album got to be with all athletes," Brown told Harvey and Charles. "We want to give every athlete a chance to be creative -- NBA, baseball, football players."

"We just want to give premier athletes the opportunity to express themselves, be themselves. I know a lot of players that do it on their own that may not put it out," Brown added.

AB's current album has features from some huge names in hip hop ... and the project has been doing well, with help from his friend, Kanye West.

Brown told TMZ Sports despite Ye not being featured on the album, Kanye had a significant hand in its production, with West overseeing everything and paying for a lot of studio time.

Of course, artists such as Fivio Foreign, DaBaby, Young Thug, and Keyshia Cole are all featured on the project ... but AB is eyeing names like Melvin Ingram, Shaquille O'Neal, Miles Bridges and Darren Waller next time.

Finally, AB admitted Shaq's success as an athlete and rapper helped motivate his side hustle ... and opened up about potentially working with him in the past.

"Absolutely, Shaq was the only athlete that made a successful album that actually went platinum," Brown said. "And he still was a great player."

"He changed the fact of athletes being one-dimensional."

Bhad Bhabie wants her haters to take a good look at her receipts ... offering up alleged proof she's made tens of millions of dollars on OnlyFans.

Bhabie started taking heat last week when she claimed she'd made $50 million on the subscription site, with tons of people online casting doubt that she'd been able to make that much money.

Fast forward to Monday, when BB shared a screengrab allegedly showing her earnings page and the caption, "Go cry about it bitch," while also thanking Scoop Agency Partners.

If it's legit, you can see she's made close to $53M gross, with her net after fees and whatever else you need to pay OF around $43M. It's an INSANE amount of money for the 19-year-old who got her start as a troubled teen on Dr. Phil.

One of DaBaby's first major legal cases is being discussed anew after a video capturing him fatally shooting someone surfaced online -- sparking a fierce debate about self-defense.

Rolling Stone published surveillance footage Sunday depicting a 2018 confrontation DaBaby was involved in at a Walmart out in his native North Carolina -- before he was super famous -- in which he shot and killed a man.

DB was eventually charged with carrying a concealed weapon for the shooting, but no murder charge.

DaBaby hasn't shied away from this case ... insisting from the jump he was acting in self-defense -- claiming the victim, 19-year-old Jaylin Craig, had pulled a gun ... and he feared for his and his family's life. He was with his GF and baby girl in the store.

RS suggests this video contradicts DaBaby's self-defense narrative, as he appears to be the aggressor in this situation -- at least based on what they posted. He charges at another man (not Craig) and the two get into a scuffle, with Craig monitoring on the outskirts.

Craig appears to reach for and even brandish what was later determined to be a gun on his person -- but RS says his grieving family insists he never would've had to resort to grabbing it if not for DB's aggressive behavior setting this whole thing in motion.

Frankly, it's unclear what exactly set all this off -- DB has claimed Craig and his pals were harassing and threatening him and his brood that night, which is why he went on the attack.

While Rolling Stone appears to be questioning DaBaby's story of protecting himself, others have seen this video and agreed ... he had every right to pull his own gun and fire once Craig pulled his, especially since he wasn't the one directly involved in the fistfight.

Of course, others say this video just proves DaBaby is a bad seed and apparently prone to violence ... something his own history since this incident seems to support, at least in some folks' eyes. As you know, he's been involved in countless physical altercations over the years.

Former MTV 'Making The Band' star Chopper has been busted for sex trafficking ... with law enforcement accusing him of being a pimp.

Chopper was arrested earlier this month in Maryland and he's being extradited to Las Vegas to face sex trafficking charges in Sin City.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, an undercover vice detective in Nevada posing as a sex worker says Chopper direct messaged them on Instagram with an apparent offer to make money through prostitution.

The undercover cop says they searched Chopper's IG account and noticed several posts related to prostitution and pimping, including posts where Chopper flaunted wealth and made references to being a pimp ... including one image of him inside a plane with a phone alongside the caption, "Sending em," with a money bag and crown emoji.

In the docs, the undercover cop says they launched an investigation into Chopper after seeing social media evidence of a potential sex trafficking operation.

The undercover says Chopper called them and bragged about frequent travel and having 7 homes across the country, including one in Las Vegas, while also telling the undercover Sin City was not a safe place to do business because law enforcement was cracking down.

What's more, the undercover says they had a phone interview with Chopper and after passing the test, Chopper told them he would make them part of his "team" and "stable."

The undercover says Chopper then became aggressive with them over the phone, ordering them around like he might do to a sex worker, telling them to pack their belongings, get to the airport and meet him in Charlotte, N.C. to join his "stable."

From there, the undercover says they stalled by telling Chopper they were scared to leave home ... with Chopper trying to verbally force them to make the trip, getting angry and demanding a $2,000 fee.

Between the alleged social media posts, direct messages, phone calls and fee demand ... the undercover says there was then enough evidence to arrest and charge Chopper with felony sex trafficking.

Forget Matthew Stafford and Cooper Kupp autographs ... here's one of the coolest pieces of Super Bowl LVI memorabilia you can own -- a ball signed by the Big Game's halftime show performers!!!

TMZ Sports has learned ... a pigskin that Eminem, Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar and Anderson .Paak all signed following their epic show at the event in L.A. has just hit the block at Heritage Auctions.

And, according to experts, it could be a bargain for a potential buyer ... as it's expected to fetch just around $1,500!!

The ball is pretty sweet ... five of the artists that performed just before the Rams won the Lombardi Trophy back in February all put their signatures on it in bold, black ink.

The leather also features the Super Bowl LVI logo and other Wilson markings ... and comes with letters of authenticity.

Bidding is set to close on the auction in mid-May ... leaving plenty of time to scrounge up the cash for the piece of history.