TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

Drake is crowning Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj as the best to ever do it in rap -- and in NM's case, particularly, seems to be throwing a little shade at her contemporaries.

The OVO chief was performing in Toronto Saturday during the Young Money Reunion Tour ... and Drake took several moments during the set to pay his respects to Weezy -- who's credited with finding both he and Nicki all those years ago and getting their careers started.

Drizzy heaps on the praise and adulation for Wayne, who just stands there giddily and accepts it. But watch when Drake starts dishing out GOAT titles ... he bestows LW with the honor, but Nicki as well.

Of course, this is just Drake's opinion ... but it's an interesting argument for Wayne's case. Some say Jay-Z or Nas might be the GOATs of hip-hop, but Champagne Papi has his pick right here.

As for Nicki, he calls her the greatest as well -- but perhaps in the female rap setting. In her case, he actually scoffs at any notion that any other femcee is close in status ... saying NM is the originator and the best to ever do it. That, too, is obviously controversial.

There've been countless female rappers before Nicki who paved the way -- and there are even some now who some believe might be up there ready to take the throne ... aka, Cardi B or even Megan Thee Stallion, just to name a couple.

But Drake doesn't see it that way -- he clearly thinks these two are the cream of the crop ... and they got his cosign on that right in front of a massive crowd.

Kylie Jenner and daughter Stormi were all about Travis Scott's amazing concert Saturday night in London ... they were jammin' just like the normies in the packed stadium.

Kylie and their kid were arms up as Travis performed to a sold-out crowd at The O2 Arena ... which held 20,000 screaming fans.

This was Travis' first arena concert since the Astroworld tragedy last year, and it went off without a hitch ... well, actually, one idiot threw some sort of heavy object on the stage, missing Travis, but he was clearly pissed.

He has another show Sunday night, and he seems thrilled to be fully back.

The rapper wasn't holding back much, if at all. He was all over the stage with max energy, but he was clearly mindful of the crowd ... not wanting to encourage them to go too far.

Travis acknowledged K&S were in the crowd, and then dedicated "Mamacitas" to his daughter. Their baby boy, who was born in February, wasn't at the concert.

Travis intro'd a new song, "God's Country" ... it was supposed to be on Kanye's "Donda" album that was released last year, but didn't make the cut.

There were other celebs on hand ... Kevin Durant and James Harden were backstage popping champagne bottles and dousing their buddy Trav.

After the concert, Travis and Kylie were interlocking fingers as they made their way to a restaurant ... the hard-to-get-in The Twenty Two. Somehow they got a res!

Kylie and Storm had some serious mommy-and-me time all week in the town of Big Ben, shopping and just hanging out.

Meek Mill is dropping big racks to celebrate his label, copping a dreamcatcher-style Dreamchasers chain -- it's an interestingly timed purchase, and TMZ Hip Hop has all the diamond details.

The piece, designed after a Native American dream catcher said to block out bad dreams, makes the most outta the dual-meaning "DC" emblem ... and comes with a hefty $200,000 price tag!!!

Easy to see why ... it's packed with 100 carats of various diamonds -- round stones, solitaire emeralds and baguettes on the feather -- all sparkling with VVs clarity.

Don The Jeweler of Status Jewelers tells TMZ he and Meek met a little while back at a Roc Nation event where both Young Thug and Gunna vouched on the spot for Don's jewels. Thug specifically called Don "the G.O.A.T." when it comes to custom pieces for rappers.

From there, Meek and the Atlanta-based jeweler sparked a connection and spent the next year outlining the intricate details of the Dreamchasers piece ... which was hand-delivered during Rolling Loud Miami last month.

Don also had the back pendant engraved with the phrase "Dreamchasers catch dreams" ... which signifies the moves Meek is trying to accomplish going forward.

In July, Meek took the reins of his career, vowing to take his DC label to new heights after he departed from Jay-Z's Roc Nation management, his home since 2012.

Nelly and Ashanti appear to be putting a little salt in the wound that Irv Gotti is still dealing with upon learning they were dating way back when -- but it might just be a coincidence.

Here's the deal ... the Murder Inc honcho was N.O.R.E.'s latest guest on "Drink Champs," which just dropped. In preview clips of the episode, Irv could be heard recounting a lot of Ashanti stories -- including how he found out she had gotten involved with Nelly.

Unclear what year this was, but IG says he was watching an NBA game when he saw the two artists walk out and perform together -- which left him stunned at the time, as he himself was apparently romantically linked to her too around the same time. Sounds like he still has some sour grapes over it ... and about his complicated relationship with Ashanti in general.

More on that in a bit ... but first, fast-forward to Friday night -- where Nelly, Ja Rule, Ma$e, Ashanti, Lil Jon and others were headlining the "My 2000s Playlist" concert in Oakland.

Now, they were already on the bill, which was established well before the new "Drink Champs" episode -- but people still lost it on social media when they saw that Nelly actually brought out Ashanti during his set ... this after hers had concluded a few hours earlier.

Some are speculating this might've been a petty play at Irv's expense ... which may be true, especially when you hear Nelly's final joke about "floor seats" at the next NBA game.

Folks can make of this what they will, we suppose, but the timing of it is certainly not lost on people ... even though it may have just came together timing-wise by mere chance.

Travis Scott is back in a big way -- the guy headlined his first big solo show since the Astroworld tragedy ... making his official comeback across the pond for Britons.

The rapper is performing an arena concert Saturday at London's O2 -- where he's doing two shows this weekend -- hitting the stage at around 9:30 PM local time. No introductions were needed ... TS just dove right into his set standing at the top of an elevated platform.

Trav was decked out in some futuristic costume with shades on ... and almost immediately, he cranked the energy level in the room up to 10 -- like he normally does for his shows.

After running through a couple songs up there, he made his way down ... where he kept the hype up. The audience seemed to be rocking with him all throughout. BTW  -- the place is absolutely packed, including in the nosebleeds ... and everyone looks to be vibing so far.

So far, nothing too crazy is going on. Yes ... Travis is screaming/jumping around, per usual, but he doesn't appear to be encouraging anyone to lose their minds beyond what they're already doing. He's literally just performing and staying in his element -- so it's all kosher.

Also ... Kylie Jenner and their daughter Stormi are present for Travis' big day. Trav just dedicated a song, "Mamacitas," to her, saying he knew she was there in the building.

Like we said, this is Travis' first solo performance of this scale since last November. He's obviously performed publicly since then -- in smaller venues and even via cameos at music festivals here in the U.S. -- but this is a big deal ... 'cause it's billed as strictly a Travis gig.

He's going to be headlining some other major events later this year -- including a festival in South America -- and he even has a Vegas residency all set up for him too next month.

Travis Scott is just hours away from performing his first major solo show since Astroworld ... and he's got some important people there to support him as he takes the stage.

Kylie Jenner and the couple's daughter, Stormi, have been in London with TS all week -- doing some shopping, dining and spending some time together. The show is a big deal for Travis, so you gotta imagine he's enjoyed some family time leading up to it.

Unclear if Kylie and Travis' 6-month-old son made the trip, but he's old enough to fly ... so it's possible he's just been staying with nannies while mom, dad and big sister hit the town.

Travis is scheduled to perform two sold-out shows at London's O2 Arena Saturday and Sunday night ... a venue that holds about 20,000 people. A source close to Travis tells us he's, "excited to deliver for his fans in London by being back, thriving on stage."

We've seen Travis pop up at nightclubs and perform a song or two during other artists' sets, but the O2 shows will mark his first solo shows since November at Astroworld.

Travis has taken a lot of heat for the 10 deaths that occurred at the festival, and is fighting a mountain of litigation ... but has seemingly been greeted with open arms by music fans and those hoping to score some of his merch and collabs he's released since the tragedy.

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian's divorce continues to drag on ... Ye has officially lost his 5th divorce lawyer.

Kim and Kanye had a trial-setting conference Friday in L.A. as part of their divorce. Ye's current divorce attorney, Samantha Spector, had previously asked the judge to relieve her as counsel, saying her relationship with Kanye was irretrievably broken, though she wouldn't say why.

She had a date set next week to officially withdraw, but the judge granted her request Friday, so she's out and Ye is without a lawyer yet again.

What's more, the judge made it clear ... either Kanye gets off the dime and submits his financial declarations to settle the remaining issues, or the case is going to trial in December ... no if, ands or buts.

If Kanye ghosts everyone -- then in all probability when the case comes before the judge in December -- Kim will get whatever she wants.

TMZ broke the story ... Kim got a divorce decree back in March, making her legally single, but there are still a couple of issues to fully resolve -- custody and property, and that's what the judge is dealing with now.

Sources connected to Kim and Kanye say they're getting along -- as we've seen evidenced at their kid's sporting events and family gatherings -- but it's been a roller coaster.

Wiz Khalifa's finally breaking his silence about his angry tirade toward a pair of L.A.-based DJs inside a nightclub ... and he's admitting he was outta line.

During a special edition Breakfast Club interview on Friday, DJ Envy took it upon himself to interview Wiz alongside DJ Drama to rep for all the turntablists worldwide … who may have been bothered at the sight of the star rapper trashing their backup support.

For his part, Wiz didn’t hide behind his celebrity, admitting he wasn’t too big to say he was sorry.

“I apologize to anybody I’ve offended … sincerely,” the Taylor Gang CEO said to kick off the interview, before explaining what went down, from his POV.

According to Wiz, he was booked at club Poppy in WeHo to promote his new album, “Multiverse,” but when it came for his time on the mic, the song order -- which his team sent beforehand -- was outta wack. Also, other songs not included in the setlist randomly popped up during the performance.

Wiz admits that's when he lost his cool -- but in the aftermath, he's taken a lot of heat from the tight-knit DJ community, perhaps most notably from Kid Capri … who actually had a hand in staging the Breakfast Club summit.

Envy says Capri called him asking for Drama’s number and shortly after, the interview was set.

Wiz says he reached out to the DJ, Mikey Danger, multiple times … we have as well.

Bun B is preparing for a big weekend behind the grill with his Trill Burgers franchise ... one part of a history-making food court at LL Cool J’s Rock the Bells festival.

The UGK rapper checked in with "TMZ Live" Thursday to shout out the good news about Trill Mealz Food Court … which will also feature restaurants owned and operated by Nas, E-40, Jadakiss & Styles P., Mia X and Ghostface Killah!

Like he originally told us, Bun floated the so-called hip hop food court idea by LL, and the rest is soon-to-be restaurant history. It'll be the first of its kind when RTB opens on August 6.

Bun says music festivals are a total win-win -- fans get to interact with their favorite artists’ side biz, and get to experience food they might not have access to back home.

In fact, he's so confident in his burgers' flavor profiles that he says customers won't be able to tell the difference between traditional meat and vegan options!

Bun’s self-endorsements are not served with a side of cap … a panel of chefs and celebs recently named his Trill Burgers tops in the land, and handed him a $10K check, too!!!

Brittney Griner’s 9-year prison sentence for flying in Russia with a cannabis cartridge is drawing lots of disbelief and outrage within hip hop, but perhaps no one's reacting as aggressively as Boosie Badazz.

The Louisiana rapper couldn’t contain his anger as he unloaded on America, in general -- but especially on Vice President Kamala Harris ... for not doing more, in his eyes, to help a fellow Black woman.

He screamed the Veep should be on the "front lines" assisting the embattled WNBA star, and claimed Harris' silence sets a bad example for women of color.

Boosie also speculated if it were Taylor Swift in Brittney’s situation, the U.S. government would have launched a massive strategy to secure the pop star’s freedom.

Similar comparisons have been made regarding BG’s international trial, with LeBron James being the most famous example.

After Thursday's verdict, Justin Bieber seems down for the cause too.

Now, no one's gonna confuse Boosie with an expert on international geopolitics -- but, for what it’s worth, both President Biden and VP Harris called for Russia to return BG to the U.S. ... and they've said negotiations are actively going on as you read this.

Kid Cudi and Kanye West’s cold war is creating all sorts of collateral damage, and longtime GOOD Music producer Mike Dean appears to be the latest one feeling the burn.

Dean launched into a Twitter rant after learning Wednesday night he'd been dropped from Cudi’s upcoming "Moon Man’s Landing Festival" without warning.

He clarified on Thursday that Cudi was indeed the one who cut him -- but still says he's definitely "G.O.O.D." on the live music circuit ... with or without Cudi’s help.

Dean told HipHopDX ... "[Kid Cudi dropped me] from the festival. I don’t care. I’m doing stadiums this weekend.”

What's even more puzzling is Mike and Cudi have their own long-running relationship -- he even produced on Cudi's last solo "Man On the Moon" album in 2020.

Kanye and Cudi’s friendship came to an end earlier this year, and the fallout continues.

Pusha T was forced to choose sides when he released his last album, but things came to a head at Rolling Loud Miami last month when Cudi was forced off stage by rogue Kanye fans who pelted him with objects.

Kanye canceled Cudi for being friends with Pete Davidson, and now Cudi clips Mike ... seemingly for his ties to Ye.

Ne-Yo's wife is putting an end to the couple's marriage ... filing for divorce, and claiming the singer recently fathered a child with another woman.

Crystal Renay -- who married Ne-Yo in February 2016 -- filed divorce docs earlier this week in Atlanta saying the couple's marriage is "irretrievably broken with no hope for reconciliation."

What's most shocking, Smith says that while she and Ne-Yo have three children together of their own -- he recently fathered a child with another woman. Crystal lists the couple's date of separation as July 22, 2022 ... and says she's been taking care of the three kids since the split.

Crystal is asking for primary physical custody of the kids and joint legal custody -- she's also asking for child support and alimony.

Ne-Yo and Crystal have had their ups and downs over the years, she filed for divorce back in 2020 but later withdrew her petition. TMZ broke the story, the two celebrated their love once again in 2022 in Vegas with a "second" wedding.

Judging from his overflow of Instagram activity, Kendrick Lamar is enjoying his time on the Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers tour, and fans are too ... especially when he dazzles them with magic tricks.

So, check this out ... in addition to dropping bars on stage, Kendrick's going straight Houdini on audiences!!!

Recent Charlotte concert footage shows K. Dot speeding through a performance of a 'Mr. Morale' track called “United in Grief” -- and then suddenly vanishing on the spot.

The footage didn't only wow the crowd ... the Internet's pretty baffled too by the impressive illusion.

Dressed like a ventriloquist -- creepy puppet and all -- the superstar rapper disappeared in a faint poof of smoke with no glitchy hologram work evident to the naked eye, at least.

Kendrick still has a lot of leg room left on the tour —which will be blazing all the way through August and September with his pgLang artists.

On Wednesday, he shared a ton of new performance pics and rare Instagram Story to his ‘Gram … which he hardly ever uses.

He broke down the decades-long process to create a song like "Mother I Sober" and vowed to always be an outcast in the mainstream no matter how popular he gets.

K. Dot's longtime producer Sounwave recently revealed in a new interview the next album will be here sooner than later … so don’t expect the curtain to close anytime soon.

Post Malone raised a huge chunk of change for a handful of charities by picking up a controller, putting on his headset, and playing one of his favorite video games.

The singer did a series of "Gaming for Love" live streams on Twitch in July playing the battle royale game Apex Legends for Human Rights Watch, Project HOPE, United Way and The Trevor Project.

He ended up raising over $196K through donations over the 4 nights ... part of the cash was from Respawn Entertainment, which created the free-to-play game. The company donated $40K for Post's hard work, putting him over the $200K mark.

Post's final stream went down with a 60-person tournament on a private server ... he got $76,026 in donations that night, going out with a bang.

The guy's a big fan of the video game, too -- he's popped up in content creator's streams from time to time to play some Apex with them, and even mentioned it's his favorite game of the genre during an episode of the "Full Send Podcast."

Tory Lanez recently surprised Chris Brown in Toronto with an insane diamond chain that crowned him the undisputed “King Of Pop” over Michael Jackson … and TMZ Hip Hop has all the shiny details attached.

We spoke to Imperial Jewelry in NYC who tells us they’re very proud of the latest piece, having worked with Tory a bunch on other custom pieces in the past.

Tory had actually been working on the piece all the way since March and it’s not hard to see why with all the exclusive details … all the way down to CB’s tattoos and poses.

IJ says the entire piece weighs nearly 300g total — with over 40 carats of diamonds on the pendant and another 20 carats on the chain. They wouldn't disclose how much it cost Tory, but said the piece is worth around $200,000.

And it’s more custom to Breezy than meets the eye; the back pendant features a host of CB’s musical accomplishments, such as award show wins and sales milestones.

Cordae just dropped off a new freestyle and fans couldn’t help but notice he was back to his fresh-faced look — after going viral debuting a wolverine-esque beard last weekend at Lollapalooza.

The reactions across social media were unanimously negative and likely played a part in the Naomi Osaka breakup rumors … which TMZ eventually debunked.

Cordae bounced back last night with a new freestyle titled "Ego" but couldn't help but react to an IG page’s repost of his new flow ... assuring everyone the bullies wouldn’t get the last laugh and he would be regrowing his mane in upcoming months.

The new music earned the approval of fellow hip hop peers Pusha T, Anderson. Paak and Post Malone's manager Dre London. Cordae raps about the evils of the world, prerolls and side chicks ... y'know, typical rapper headaches.