TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

"Boy Meets World" star Matthew Lawrence and TLC singer Chilli certainly had a good time together at the beach in Hawaii ... but sources say they're not romantic.

Matthew and Chilli were spotted Monday on the beach in Waikiki. Some beachgoers tell us the two got in the water together and shared some intense convos while chilling on beach chairs.

A rep for Chilli tells us the two aren't dating or romantic, TLC had a show on the island, and Matthew and some pals came to watch ... the two are friends and linked up later.

We haven't seen Matthew out much since his ex-wife and "Dancing with the Stars" pro, Cheryl Burke filed for divorce about 6 months ago.

As we reported, Cheryl and Matthew were married nearly 3 years, before she pulled the plug back in February, citing irreconcilable differences. She noted they'd been separated since Jan 7.

Kanye West and his fellow Geminis Lil Uzi Vert and Steve Lacy clearly believed they had a night worth remembering forever -- getting matching tattoos to commemorate the event.

Both Steve and L.A.-based tattoo artist Mez Afram shared a pic taken in the wee hours of Tuesday night, showcasing their freshly inked arms in the mirror.

The message is kind of hard to read out but Steve and Mez both added clarity by captioning the Instagram moment, “We here forever technically.”

Ye's face says he's really into the moment ... following the latest Pete Davidson outburst, the new needle stick could've been therapeutic for him.

Kanye recently praised Steve for his hit “Gemini Rights” ... calling the album "beautiful" when it was released a few weeks ago, and Uzi and Ye’s relationship goes back several years.

Angela Yee is out of the 'Breakfast Club' after 10 years on the popular morning radio show.

Yee Tweeted Tuesday, "The Breakfast Club is over as you know it."

Yee faced her cohosts Charlamagne Tha God and DJ Envy on Wednesday, revealing she had been planning an exit strategy even before the pandemic and iHeartRadio approached her with an offer she couldn't refuse.

Both Charlamagne and Envy saluted and supported the move without any blowback.

Shortly after the bittersweet bombshell, Premiere Networks announced the solo afternoon show "Way Up with Angela Yee" would be starting in the fall, given the green light by the station's EVP.

Folks can't seem to get enough of Travis Scott ... look no further than his concerts across the pond, where he made history at the merchandise table.

Sources close to Travis tell TMZ ... the rapper sold more than $1 million in merch at his weekend concerts in London, setting a record for performers in the United Kingdom and knocking BTS from the top spot in the process.

We're told Travis released a new series of merch exclusively for his two shows at The O2 arena in London, where fans arrived hours before the show was set to begin just to make sure they got their hands on the gear.

TS hoodies were going for $100 to $125 a pop, while shirts ranged from $45 to $75 and hats flew off the rack for $45 each.

Our sources say Travis is the only artist to sell at least $1 million in merch in the U.K. We're told BTS did just under $1 mil during their "Love Yourself World Tour" stops.

The tattoo artist who was put on blast by Drake over his dad's tattoo says it wasn't his fault the final product was far from perfect ... and it was straight-up disrespectful to get other artists to fix it.

Money Mike tells TMZ ... he met Drake's dad, Dennis Graham, at a birthday party in 2017 and hit him up to get Dennis' famous son inked on his upper arm. Mike even did it for free, despite not being a fan of Drake -- hoping to get more clients.

As we reported, Drake posted a pic of the tattoo Monday, clearly not feeling it -- captioning it with, "I was sitting here thinking why you do me like this we family 😂 😂." His dad commented, saying he's gotten it touched up 16 times since.

Mike admits the tat didn't come out as good as it could've, but that wasn't on him ... he claims Dennis was in pain at the 4-hour mark, and rushed Mike to finish the job.

Mike claims everyone in the fam was actually diggin' the art -- including Dennis -- but once Drake saw the tat everything changed.

As an independent artist, Russ is always looking to maximize his results … including spending a whopping $1 million on his feature record with Ed Sheeran!!!

Russ released the video to his “Are You Entertained” collaboration with Ed back in July … and hopped on TikTok on Tuesday to break down a little Music Industry 101.

For Russ, the decision to drop big money into the song’s promotion was simple, Ed Sheeran is the biggest artist in the world, towering over The Weeknd, Justin Bieber and Harry Styles for most Spotify listeners at over 81 million a month!

But Russ says money still doesn’t equal hit records … claiming some of his platinum records had $0 financial backing while he wasted money on others.

For Russ' $1M, he says it put $300K into the music video shot in London while the other $700K went into Spotify, radio and other social media campaigns.

The video is doing well, at 17 million views on YouTube, and Russ says the pairing was organic -- having casually met Ed at a restaurant in London before becoming fast friends.

Last time we spoke to Russ, he was adamant about how artists should bank on themselves and should cut record labels out of their career equation.

Morgan Wallen has been touring for a long time, but his latest show might go down as one of his favorites for more reason than one ... because not only did he welcome one of his heroes, they chugged beers together too!!!

Morgan's 'The Dangerous Tour' made a stop in Atlanta over the weekend, and he brought a surprise guest, Jeezy. The rapper's "Put On" blasted through the speakers while Morgan and fellow country artist Hardy shotgunned beers on stage, Jeezy poured a shot.

While the moment was clearly a good time for fans, it was kinda full circle for Morgan, who actually tweeted back in 2012 that Jeezy was one of his favorite artists.

Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers Tour is making people light up with excitement on and off the stage -- just ask Dapper Dan!

The fashion trendsetter got the hip hop surprise of a lifetime when K. Dot, Dave Free, A$AP Ferg & co. surprised him in Harlem at his boutique shop Monday to wish him a Happy-78th-Birthday in person!

It's a heartwarming moment as Kendrick, who's currently on tour, is seen harmonizing with the group while DD's daughter provided a cake shaped like one of his signature Gucci fedoras.

DD has been long credited for pioneering the hip hop fashion game, having started his boutique in Harlem back in the 1980s ... and has stacked his résumé with the names of virtually every star rapper since.

Ferg also escorted Kendrick, his pgLang artist Tanna Leone and several others on a tour of the Black Mecc -- including the stoop where the A$AP Mob solidified their popularity shooting A$AP Rocky’s breakout “Peso” video back in 2011.

Tour life can be grueling and Kendrick didn’t whiff at the chance to get some NYC-style exercise in … by doing pull-ups on the block.

It’s pretty impressive stuff … especially since his competition is about half his size.

Ja Rule is defending his name against Fat Joe’s scorn … after Joe Crack accused him of being a passive participant in Irv Gotti’s explosive “Drink Champs” interview about sleeping with Ashanti.

Fat Joe recently took to Instagram ... calling out both Irv and Ja — referencing Gotti as a straight “sucka” for kissing and telling about his previously unknown relationship with Ashanti.

But the Terror Squad leader didn’t let Ja off the hook either … slamming him for not silencing Irv before the interview got outta control.

The Murder Inc. rapper hopped in the comments of Hollywood Unlocked on Tuesday to defend his own rep writing, “STOP saying I didn’t defend sis and all women when I clearly told Gotti stop calling Ashanti/women the B word same way I told Joe at Verzuz watch the interview before you talk sh*t… NOW LEAVE ME TF OUT THESE GROWN FOLK BUSINESSES… ❤️”

Irv has been taking all sorts of heat since the interview aired, a moment that Joe says tarnishes Irv’s credibility regardless of his legendary work with Jay-Z, DMX and Murder Inc.

We recently spoke to Judge Mathis, who even went a step further and says Ashanti wouldn’t be foolish to pursue legal action if the fallout from the interview was causing her any stress.

Slim Jxmmi, one half of the rap duo Rae Sremmurd -- had a not-so-nice welcome home when he touched down in L.A. ... after authorities discovered there was an outstanding warrant out for his arrest.

LAX law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... when Slim flew in from Canada Sunday, Customs and Border Patrol agents took him into custody. We're told Slim had a warrant out of Georgia stemming from a prior arrest involving possession of marijuana with intent to sell.

We're told Georgia authorities have already gotten a judge to authorize extradition from L.A. to Georgia. He's currently in custody in L.A. being held without bail. The stakes are high ... the maximum sentence in the Georgia case is 30 years in prison.

This isn't the only legal issue he faces ... TMZ broke the story, Slim Jxmmi was arrested back in January for battery after an alleged fight with his girlfriend.

We spoke with him in March after a training session at Dogpound Gym in West Hollywood, and he told us he was looking forward to making some positive changes in his life and, "Be done with the stupid s***."

Jxmmi's attorney, Steve Sadow, says the whole thing happened because of a miscommunication, telling us, "Nearly two years ago, Aaquil entered a plea to a marijuana offense in Cobb County, Georgia. He was placed on probation. In early June 2022, the mother of his child filed a untruthful complaint with the Cobb County Police Department, which led to an arrest warrant being issued."

He continues, "Aaquil was not arrested on that warrant. Instead, a Cobb County Magistrate Judge held a hearing on July 20, 2022 and dismissed the warrant. Unfortunately, the Cobb County Probation Office was not made aware that the arrest warrant was dismissed and thus failed to withdraw its probation violation warrant. When Aaquil came back from Canada into LA airport, he was arrested on the probation violation warrant. We expect that warrant to be withdrawn in the next day or so, and then Aaquil will be released.”

Judge Mathis thinks Ashanti should put an end to Irv Gotti’s recent comments, which include spilling the deets on their past sexual relationship.

If you missed it, Gotti recently disclosed intimate details about his former relationship with Ashanti to the hosts of "Drink Champs." Among some of the claims, Irv says Ashanti's song, "Happy" was created after they had sex ... as you can imagine, a lot of Ashanti fans were pissed.

Judge Mathis was out in NYC Monday, and told our cam he'd advise Ashanti to send Irv a cease-and-desist or even go to court for a gag order. JM says he's not so sure about the validity of Irv's claims, but if Ashanti feels she's being defamed, she should put a legal end to it.

Fetty Wap’s pot of legal hot water just raised its temperature now that the “Trap Queen” rapper was just arrested.

According to the arrest warrant — obtained by TMZ — Fetty was arrested in New Jersey by the FBI on Monday … stemming from a December 2021 call where prosecutors claim he waved a gun and threatened to kill a man who called Fetty “a rat” AKA a snitch.

Officials say Fetty’s possession of the firearm violated the conditions put in place when Fetty was released from custody on a $500K bond following his arrest in October 2021 on drug trafficking charges.

Lil Wayne was apparently feeling good following the Young Money reunion in Toronto … so good he pushed the button on the next installment of his famed album series — “Tha Carter 6!”

Wayne made the 0-to-100 announcement in the back of his luxury sprinter van … getting more animated leading up to the big reveal.

We’re told Wayne is being extremely tight-lipped about the creative process details of this particular project … making for an interesting turn of events for Carter rollouts.

The last “Carter” — 2018’s “C5” — was launched with one of Wayne’s biggest solo hits, the Swizz Beatz single “Uproar” and a decade prior, his “Carter III” became one of the rare albums to sell a million records — in the first week of its release.

Drake’s dad, Dennis Graham, might have gotten a massive tattoo to honor his son ... but Drake isn't feeling it.

Drake had OVO Fest in Toronto over the weekend where he reunited with Lil Wayne and Nicki Minaj … but somehow his mind focused on his father’s tattoo portrait of him from 2017.

“I was sitting here thinking why you do me like this we family 😂 😂” Drake wrote in the middle of the night, tagging his dad.

Dennis hopped in the comments, saying he felt his son’s emotional pain over the tat … but he had been experiencing REAL pain -- 16 different tattoo artists -- in efforts to get it closer to Drizzy’s likeness.

That's an awful lot of needle time … maybe the 17th will be the charm?

Game recently announced a social media break to finish his upcoming “Drillmatic” album … and now we've got some proof he's doing just that.

The West Coast vet recently put in overtime alongside superstar company — Big Sean and Hit-Boy — to shoot the video for "Stupiid” in Los Angeles.

Video director ThirdEyeRaz tells us in the video the trio will get to display a bit of acting chops … as a trio of rebellious movers, fitted in custom RAREB1RD jumpsuits employed by the “Stupiid Moving Company."

Both featured artists have been on a tear lately … Big Sean's been juggling festival rap life while approaching first-time fatherhood with his partner Jhené Aiko and Hit-Boy just produced on Beyoncé’s chart-topping “Renaissance” album and is currently locked in the studio finishing up “King’s Disease 3” with Nas.

Slated to be a double album’s worth of material, Game recently pushed back the release date to the fastly approaching August 12 release date after multiple delays.

Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson might be over, but that doesn't mean Kanye's attacks on the comedian are going anywhere ... as evidenced in his most recent post.

Ye got on Instagram Monday -- the same platform he was temporarily suspended from months ago -- to post a phony New York Times headline that reads, "Skete Davidson Dead at Age 28."

Kanye didn't include a caption or anything further, but you can only really assume it's to celebrate Kim and Pete's split ... news that broke last week.

Not only was the post a shot at Pete, Kanye also took aim at Kid Cudi, who he had a falling out with after Cudi continued to pal around with Pete while he was dating Kim. The line reads, "Kid Cudi meant to play funeral but fearful of bottle throwers."

As we reported, Cudi walked off the stage at Rolling Loud Miami last month after unruly fans in the crowd continued throwing things at him.