TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

Iggy Azalea took a lot of heat for what some called a lackluster halftime performance for the Las Vegas Raiders ... an unfair criticism if you ask Tory Lanez.

We caught Tory at LAX on Tuesday and got an update on his and Iggy's developing collab ... which he announced earlier this month.

Many fans speculated the two were dating, but Tory tells us they actually were locked in the studio for the past two and a half months ... taking a short break in order for Iggy to go on tour -- they'll resume operations in November.

Tory points out Iggy's past success ... her song "Fancy" isn't quite diamond, but at 8x platinum, there's a good chance it'll hit the mark.

Iggy was recently an honorary Raider when she performed at halftime ... going viral after a back-and-forth with a local sports reporter who predicted she'd blow it.

George Floyd's brother isn't moving forward with legal action against Kanye West -- at least for now -- but that doesn't mean Ye's out of the woods just yet.

Lee Merritt -- who's repping Philonise Floyd -- tells TMZ ... Philonise is temporarily standing down on his original threat to bring a lawsuit against Ye, Candace Owens and others for pushing the narrative George died from fentanyl, as opposed to the actions of Derek Chauvin.

Remember, George's brother, and other family members, were incensed after those remarks were made on a "Drink Champs" episode ... and Philonise instructed Lee to research a possible lawsuit.

As for why he's standing down ... we're told Philonise is hitting pause, specifically pertaining to Kanye, because he just wanted Kanye to stop repeating that false narrative about his brother's death -- and that's exactly what's happened over the last week and change since the "Drink Champs" episode aired.

Lee points out the controversial episode in question has been yanked and the podcast host, N.O.R.E., has gone on an apology tour for letting Ye speak freely without pushback.

We're told that Philonise feels like Ye has complied with the demands made in the cease and desist letter sent on behalf of George Floyd's daughter, Gianna, last week -- although, he clarified that Philonise wasn't really part of that potential legal action in the first place, but supported it from the sidelines.

As for whether Gianna's lawyers might still move forward with a lawsuit -- one in which they said could seek more than $250 million in damages -- no word on that front at this time.

Now, when it comes to Candace ... Lee says that's a more difficult case to bring, because her role as a journalist presenting opinions in a documentary about BLM and the conviction of Derek Chauvin is very different from Ye spouting what Lee and Philonise see as lies about the Floyd case.

Antonio Brown is standing firm in his support for Kanye West ... releasing a lengthy statement explaining his decision to remain as president of Donda Sports -- citing his "dedication to freedom of speech, thought, and opinion."

The NFL receiver -- who joined the Donda staff earlier this year -- addressed the massive controversy surrounding Kanye following several antisemitic statements ... saying, "the world's reactionary and selective outrage at comments in the media made by my brother, Ye, have inflamed and sparked rampant conversation and reflection."

As companies like Adidas and Balenciaga cut ties with West, AB says the timing is not a coincidence.

"The people and brands that have relentlessly profited from Black ideas and Black culture chose to distance themselves at a very specific time: a time that demonstrated their prioritization of certain groups over others."

He added ... "None of us in this world are free of judgment, yet we live in a time where scrutiny and pessimism have driven our dialogues on cultural issues toward diatribes."

"Sensationalism and groupthink have forced people to not speak their minds and act out in fear rather than love. For these reasons, I stand by my dedication to freedom of speech, thought, and opinion."

Brown says he decided to speak out because he is against discrimination of any kind ... but makes it clear he's standing by Kanye's side.

"I remain true to the mission of Donda and our amazing staff and community," he says ... adding he believes Kanye's comments were taken "out of proportion" by the media.

"I remain committed to bringing new ideas, experiences, and designs to our world I remain in support of the humanity that is Ye."

The statement comes on the heels of sports superstars Aaron Donald and Jaylen Brown voicing their issues with Ye's comments ... which led them to leave Donda Sports.

Kanye West’s empire is dwindling by the day, and although he still has Candace Owens on his side -- one of Ye’s closest advisors says that's not a good thing.

Ye’s longtime collaborator Consequence called out Candace Tuesday … labeling her association with the team “an experiment,” and posting a short clip of Ye greeting a crowd while wearing his infamous 'White Lives Matter' shirt.

Cons slammed the 'WLM' shirts, calling them a bad idea from the jump.

Fact is that tarnished Yeezy gear did begin the spiral that saw Ye on the outs with the likes of CAA, Vogue, Balenciaga and now Adidas ... which cost him his billionaire status, according to Forbes.

The German shoe giant kicked Ye to the curb Tuesday due to his repeated antisemitic remarks -- but Candace has unflinchingly defended him, demanding Adidas cash him out what he's owed.

If you remember, it was also Candace who helped Ye tout the 'WLM' tees earlier this month, much to the disbelief of many of his supporters.

Cons is the first from the old G.O.O.D Music camp to speak out against the disastrous trail blazed by Ye … but his thoughts do align with Kareem “Biggs” Burke, who helped manage Ye’s career during the early days with Roc-A-Fella Records.

Biggs recently told TMZ Hip Hop ... Ye’s 'WLM' movement was harming the Black community in spite of any beef with the actual Black Lives Matter organization.

On the heels of Adidas dropping Kanye West for making antisemitic remarks, Jewish former NFL star Julian Edelman is addressing the rapper's use of hurtful language ... saying mental health is important but doesn't justify speaking hatefully.

"Mental health is a serious issue and needs to be at the forefront of the American dialogue," Edelman wrote on social media.

"It's also not an excuse for hate. Hate is a disease just like every other, except that words can spread it. Speak up, not down."

Edelman is arguably the highest-profile Jewish American athlete to speak out.

Of course, Ye has repeatedly used antisemitic and bigoted language at seemingly every turn over the last few weeks. He said he was going “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE” on Twitter. He also perpetuated offensive tropes, produced "White Lives Matter" shirts and made inflammatory comments about George Floyd.

People of all races and religions have been offended by Kanye's comments ... including basketball Hall of Famer, Ray Allen.

"I see all the Kanye BS, like, he's an idiot," the NBA legend said on social media before issuing a warning about what we consume.

"I try my best to just kind of push positivity and encouragement to people in the world so we just have to be careful. Every time we pick up our phones, a lot of times we wanna feel good, laugh and joke but a lot of times, we're seeing negative stories in our media. So, we gotta be careful who we're letting into our atmosphere because it can become depressing with everything that's going on around the world."

Even his ex, Kim Kardashian, has condemned Kanye's antisemitism, writing earlier this week ... "Hate speech is never OK or excusable. I stand together with the Jewish community and call on the terrible violence and hateful rhetoric towards them to come to an immediate end."

But, not everyone is distancing themselves from Ye.

As we reported, Celtics star Jaylen Brown announced Monday he was sticking with Ye's marketing group, Donda Sports ... however, he did seemingly condemn West's remarks, saying, "I don’t condone any hurt, harm, or danger toward any group of people or individuals whatsoever."

Kanye West is no longer a member of the ten-digit club -- he's lost a fortune as a result of Adidas pulling the plug ... not to mention the other partnerships that have dissolved.

Forbes made it official Tuesday ... saying Ye had lost his billionaire status in the wake of Adidas ending their partnership with the guy. While Adidas on its own might not have technically torpedoed his billions -- they say it's a combination of several deals, including Gap, falling apart of late -- Forbes does note it was a HUGE part of his wealth, and the final nail in the coffin.

Now -- after all this fallout -- Forbes claims KW is worth somewhere in the ballpark of $400 million. This is a huge dip from where he was a couple years ago, when his net worth was valued at around $1.3 billion with a majority of his public assets in consideration.

The majority of Kanye's riches are now coming from a select few sources, Forbes says, including real estate, liquid cash, his music catalog and a less than 5% stake in Kim Kardashian's Skims brand.

Unclear how much of his money was wiped out by just Adidas, but ya gotta imagine it was a pretty penny's worth ... considering the company says they're losing nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in net profits by cutting him/his shoes off, just in this fourth quarter alone.

Drake celebrated his 36th birthday in true Drake fashion ... bringin' a bunch of big names to the club to party -- and even raffling off some HUGE prizes to the crowd!

Drizzy's big shindig went down Monday night at Sexy Fish in Miami ... and the rapper was giving partygoers the chance at $5k gift cards, $10k in cash, Chanel bags, and even a Rolex!!!

Of course, some people in attendance weren't really in dire need of freebies -- DJ Khaled, 21 Savage, Lil Baby, and Chaney Jones were just a few of the celebs partying with Champagne Papi. "Love Island" stars Emily Salch and Genevieve Shawcross were hangin' too.

Drake ripped a page outta Usher's big money playbook for his big night -- Drake bucks, featuring his face on $500 bills -- were circulating around the venue throughout the night.

The place even changed its name to Sexy Gyal for the night, just for Drake.

Kanye West's biggest corporate partnership is over -- Adidas says it's cutting off all business with him, due to his recent antisemitic and bigoted actions.

The German shoe company says, "Ye's recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company's values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness."

As result, Adidas says it "will terminate the partnership with Ye, end production of Yeezy branded products and stop all payments to Ye and his companies."

The announcement comes amid worldwide pressure for Adidas to, at the very least, condemn Kanye for repeating antisemitic tropes every time a microphone's been in his face for the last few weeks. During this erratic and disturbing phase he's also unveiled "White Lives Matter" T-shirts at Paris Fashion Week, and claimed George Floyd didn't die from Derek Chauvin's knee, but from fentanyl.

The hashtag #boycottadidas had been trending on Twitter over the weekend, especially as the company announced the sale of new Yeezy shoes. While other companies, like Balenciaga and Vogue had already cut off their relationships with the billionaire rapper and designer ... Adidas had been silent, except to say their partnership was "under review."

That review actually had nothing to do with Ye's recent rants -- for months, he'd publicly accused the company of ripping off his designs for non-Yeezy branded merchandise, so the relationship was already on ice.

Ye knew his incredibly profitable deal with Adidas was hanging in the balance -- he said so on Friday night ... even as he railed that any backlash against him was only proving his initial antisemitic remark that the Jews were controlling Hollywood and the banks.

Adidas was especially under pressure to react -- not only as Ye's biggest partner, but due to its founder supporting the Nazi party.

Adidas and Kanye started their partnership in 2013, and his Yeezy brand is widely credited with reinvigorating Adidas in the shoe game. While the company has some huge athletes as brand ambassadors -- James Harden, Lionel Messi and Damian Lillard to name just a few -- Ye's designs were key to the company's recent success, and Adidas' backing allowed him to expand Yeezy well beyond sneakers.

Adidas was the distributor and manufacturer of Yeezy shoes and athletic gear ... so, Kanye currently has no outlet for his creations.

Steve Lacy is a relatively new artist, but he's making one thing clear early ... he won't tolerate things being thrown on his stage -- and made an example out of one fan, and their phone, in particular.

Steve was in New Orleans on Monday night for his Give You The World Tour ... performing "Bad Habit" when a phone tossed from the crowd hits him square in the torso.

Steve was politely profane at first ... stopping the song to instruct the audience not to throw "sh** on his f****** stage" -- even with a please attached.

Then without warning, Steve asks for a fan in the front row's cell phone -- seemingly at random -- only to smash it on the stage, and then storm off.

The crowd was understandably confused and pissed ... as there was still plenty of show left, and some felt they didn't get their money's worth.

A fan in the stands hopped on TikTok following to show ... claiming Steve had grown fed up with the crowd for not really knowing his music, but blamed rowdy NOLA fans in general for typically ruining an artist's experience when they come to town.

"Entourage" creator Doug Ellin says Adidas staying silent about Kanye West has everything to do with money, and therefore, he sees a boycott as the best way to apply pressure.

We got Doug Monday in WeHo, where he told us the German shoe company's silence -- as other brands cut ties with Kanye -- speaks volumes about whose side it's backing. He adds we should all be on the same page when hate's in play.

He sees money as the sole reason Adidas has kept quiet -- so, if people stop buying their gear ... the hope is that will make the honchos understand the harmful impact of Ye's antisemitic remarks.

As we reported, Kanye's been losing brand deals left and right ... including Johnny Depp's attorney, Camille Vasquez, who was brought on board last week to handle his business matters. After he doubled and tripled down on his bigotry, she told her firm she'd no longer work with the rapper.

What's more, a rally in L.A. Saturday supported the rapper's comments, with members of the group throwing up Nazi salutes at passing drivers.

B.o.B is finally responding to the 2016 flat-earth controversy that threw his career out of orbit ... and he's still, rather defiantly, dropping a diss-fueled track titled "Ted Talk."

B.o.B. tells TMZ Hip Hop the 6+ years since he released his viral song "Flatline" has rattled his perspective a bit, leading to more confusion.

Naturally, we asked if he still believes the Earth is flat, and he said ... "I've heard so many theories at this point from all the people that have come my way I don't know what to believe anymore.

"Neil Tyson said it’s an oval, let’s just go with that for now"

The new song-video mashup finds B.o.B's alter-ego Bobby Ray giving himself a tongue-lashing as they tackle the flat-earth fallout ... which mirrors the wackiness of a sci-fi thriller with twists and turns.

Bobby Ray questions throwing away their career to prove a point and should have left all the conspiracies to YouTuber Eric Dubay ... something everyone can probably agree on in hindsight.

The track includes B.o.B's admission he fumbled the bag turning down 2 offers from CBS -- one to appear on "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" to explain his antics and another to have his own series.

Let B.o.B tell it, the whole plot was created by the media to take him down ... calling out Comedy Central and Complex after they allowed scientists Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye to slice and dice him online.

He even says NASA started attending his concerts to pass out pamphlets containing accurate information -- and he really pissed off The Root when he stated he'd never seen a slave ship in his lifetime.

He also still has bitter bars for Charlamagne Tha God and Lil Duval for their viral reactions to his flat-earth comments, and unlike Kanye West, laments being called an anti-Semite after saying he identified with the rants of Holocaust conspiracy theorist David Irving.

Kanye West is not being scrubbed from Netflix in the wake of his antisemitic rants ... the streaming giant says the biopic on his life is staying put.

While tons of companies are distancing themselves from Ye, including Balenciaga and talent agency CAA, a rep for Netflix tells us there are no plans to take down its 'Jeen-Yuhs' documentary trilogy on Kanye's life.

Netflix's position is they are not in business with Kanye because he was the subject of the doc, and he wasn't involved in creating or promoting the movies.

The streaming service also says there is nothing antisemitic in the documentary ... and Netflix points out they don't remove content about or by people who later spark controversy.

When the documentary debuted earlier this year, Kanye showed up to the Los Angeles screening with Chaney Jones ... and a ton of celebs were there too.

Iggy Azalea experienced her first in-person NFL action Sunday ... soaking up the Las Vegas Raiders and Houston Texans game, and it was everything the Aussie rapper hoped for ... and then some!

The home team Raiders won and Iggy was paid to be there ... performing her No. 1 hit song "Fancy" during halftime, while wearing the hell out of a custom cheerleader 'fit.

During the 1st half, Raiders reporter Tashan Reed said he was dreading the performance and Allegiant Stadium's efforts to make proper BBQ.

His Iggy shade eventually came up on her radar, and she proceeded to make Tashan green with envy ... from all the green the Raiders paid her to perform!!!

Iggy didn't disclose her payout, but it was enough to prompt thousands of retweets ... and memes from Tashan that waved the white flag.

The NFL has been getting a healthy dose of hip hop and R&B this season -- Moneybagg Yo recently became the first rapper to introduce an NFL team, walking out his hometown Tennessee Titans at their home opener ... and Nelly performed during the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals Week 5 matchup.

And, of course, the biggest of them all ... Rihanna's confirmed to perform at Apple Music's Super Bowl LVII halftime show in February.

Just about as quickly as it began, the working relationship between Kanye West and Johnny Depp's attorney, Camille Vasquez, has come to an end.

Sources with direct knowledge tell us after Kanye doubled and tripled-down on his antisemitic remarks over the weekend, Camille informed her firm, Brown Rudnick, she would no longer work with Kanye.

We're told Brown Rudnick still attempted to work with Kanye, but only under the condition he publicly retract his hateful and antisemitic words. Our sources say Kanye refused to do so, and fired Brown Rudnick.

TMZ broke the story, Kanye brought Camille and the firm onboard last week to handle his business matters. The law group was not involved in handling the proceedings of his divorce from Kim Kardashian.

Billboard's blistering article about hip-hop's "magic" slipping away is totally on point, according to Eminem's artist Westside Boogie ... who says rappers have been slipping in their craft.

TMZ Hip Hop got the Compton-bred MC at LAX over the weekend, and picked his brain on the ongoing conversation about rap losing its dominance. We were looking for his 2 cents, but we got a dime.

Boogie says he can actually relate to Billboard's claim ... he says he's been listening to pop music closely and thinks those artists are putting more attention to detail in their music than rappers these days.

Now, he's not saying rap's devoid of talent ... in fact, he said there are plenty of capable rappers, but they're doing little to differentiate themselves in terms of verses, beat selection, or even lyrical delivery.

Boogie's been spitting for a decade now and knows how the roulette wheel operates. He says the magic will reoccur when today's hip-hop stars put more effort into their craft.

The proof is in the DSP pudding -- Taylor Swift's new "Midnights" album drop fractured Spotify, and is projected to go platinum in just a week.

That would be more than Drake, Lil Baby and Kendrick Lamar's 2022 first-week outputs ... combined!!!

WSB dropped off his latest album on Eminem's Shady Records this year  ... the critically acclaimed "More Black Superheroes" ... and thinks his label boss needs more recognition from the younger generation in wake of his 50th birthday.

He says kids like his 13-year-old son, don't understand the full impact of Eminem's career, because it was before his time.

Kanye West's antisemitic remarks have already sparked one radical group to show face -- but what may come next is of even more dire concern for the Jewish people ... so says one man who advocates for the community.

Ivan Wolkind -- an exec of the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles -- came on 'TMZ Live' Monday to explain the ripple effect Ye's words are already having ... and where it could lead from here, potentially resulting in real-world violence.

He says the freeway signs and mailed flyers that made the rounds this weekend are just the first of possibly more steps that he fears will be escalating in nature the more people start to see this as normal ... especially with someone as famous as Kanye leading the charge.

Wolkind also tells us that, unfortunately, he and his org have already started to issue warnings to Jewish people and Jewish institutions in and around L.A. as it pertains to keeping an eye out for troubling behavior that could signal imminent danger or threats.