TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

In a bizarre twist, Kanye West's Donda Academy has opened it's doors again -- only hours after announcing the school had closed -- and this time it's back "with a vengeance."

Parents and students of Donda received an email -- obtained by TMZ -- around midnight Wednesday reading, "Join us tomorrow morning in worship for the return of Donda Academy. With the help of our parents and community, we are back and returning with a vengeance!"

The email continues, "The children of Donda are going to change the world. Apologies for the late email! See you bright and early!"

This, of course, must've come as a surprise considering it was about 4 hours earlier when an email was sent to Donda students announcing a shutdown. That email read, "At the discretion of our Founder, Donda Academy will close for the remainder of the 2022-2023 school year effective immediately ... THERE IS NO SCHOOL TOMORROW."

At this point, it's unclear if it was Kanye who changed his mind -- or if parents of the students are taking it upon themselves to educate the kids -- but it's certainly messy.

Kanye West has lost his shirt over his hateful antisemitic rants, but we've learned he still has his divorce lawyer, and that attorney is working with Kim Kardashian's lawyer to hammer out a settlement so the case doesn't end up in a trial.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... although New York attorney Bob Cohen withdrew as divorce counsel amid Kanye's despicable comments about Jews, he still has attorney Nick Salick repping him. Salick is a Beverly Hills lawyer who Ye hired at the same time as Cohen.

We're told Salick is trying to work out both a custody and property settlement agreement with Kim's longtime divorce lawyer, "disso queen" Laura Wasser. The goal is to avert a trial that is scheduled for December.

It's interesting ... one of the sticking points in the case was that Kanye wanted their 4 kids to attend the Donda Academy, but Kim said no way -- especially since the children were all rooted in an accredited school. If Kanye got his way, the kids would have no place to go since he just shut down Donda.

As for custody ... our sources say although Kanye has been present at several sporting events with the kids, he has not exercised any custodial rights in months. He said last month Kim has 80% custody, but it sounds like she has more.

Kanye West's Donda Academy is officially toast ... the rapper just shuttered the doors to his school ... at least for now, as his troubles mount following his antisemitic remarks.

The school's principal, Jason Angell, fired off an email to the parents of students, informing them that "at the discretion of our founder, Donda Academy will close for the remainder of the 2022-2023 school year effective immediately."

Kanye himself weighed in on social media in a since-deleted Instagram post ... "Here's the clout you're looking for. My school is being shut down." Hollywood Unlocked was first to report the closure.

In his email to parents, Angell insisted the school plans to reopen in September 2023, adding ... "we are confident that our scholars will continue to advance as the creative innovators, influencers and academic leaders of the next generation."

An unaccredited Christian institution, Donda Academy required parents to sign non-disclosure agreements before their children could become students. There were only about 100 students in total, with half on scholarships from Kanye and friends of the rapper.

Parents whose kids didn't get scholarships had to cough up $15,000 per year for their kids to attend. Students wore designer uniforms by Balenciaga and Ye's own clothing line, Yeezy.

Kanye West is back on Instagram, and taking the opportunity to get his followers up to speed on his side of all his drama ... including confirmation he just lost a massive amount of wealth in a single day.

The rapper put up some posts Wednesday night and early Thursday morning after IG lifted restrictions ... one being a meme about "Ye cutting ties with Kanye West," and the other about the specifics of his designs for Adidas and Gap. Perhaps trying to add some humor, he included the caption, "I haven't got super model p**** in over a month."

Ye was pretty defiant, though, about the Adidas divorce shaving $900 million off his net worth -- according to Forbes -- and he's pinning the loss on Endeavour CEO Ari Emanuel.

He directed one post at the talent agency powerhouse that reads ... "I LOST 2 BILLION DOLLARS IN ONE DAY AND I’M STILL ALIVE THIS IS LOVE SPEECH I STILL LOVE YOU GOD STILL LOVES YOU THE MONEY IS NOT WHO I AM THE PEOPLE IS WHO I AM."

Remember, Ari publicly urged companies and individuals to cut ties with Kanye following his antisemitic comments.

After almost all of his biz partners ran for the hills, Forbes now puts Ye's net worth around $400 million.

As we reported, he's hustling to try to make new deals ... Ye hit up Skechers HQ Wednesday -- uninvited, mind you -- with the possible goal of finding a new manufacturing and distribution partner for Yeezy.

Kanye West is making a quick move to find a new home for his Yeezy shoes ... hitting Skechers headquarters to talk with the company's honchos, but immediately got turned away.

Sources familiar with Ye's visit tell us he was at the company's main office Wednesday morning in Manhattan Beach, CA ... but this was not a scheduled meeting with management.

Skechers says, Ye "arrived unannounced and without invitation at one of Skechers’ corporate offices in Los Angeles. Considering Ye was engaged in unauthorized filming, two Skechers executives escorted him and his party from the building after a brief conversation."

Now, we don't know if Kanye did his research or not, but Skechers is owned and operated by a Jewish family -- Robert Greenberg founded it, and his son Michael is currently the President. Considering his rampant anti-Semitism, you could say he barked up the wrong tree.

A spokesperson tells us, "Skechers is not considering and has no intention of working with West. We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate antisemitism or any other form of hate speech. Again, West showed up unannounced and uninvited to Skechers corporate offices."

We're guessing Kanye's goal was for Skechers to be his new partner for the Yeezy shoe brand -- working both as a manufacturer and distributor, as Adidas did before it dropped him this week. Well, he struck out.

Still, Kanye was also spotted in good spirits at a local bagel shop before his meeting -- his smile certainly doesn't look like that of a man out $900 million -- a figure reported by Forbes.

As we reported, Kanye's anti-Semitic comments were the final straw for several business and professional relationships for Kanye -- including Balenciaga, his legal team and of course, Adidas who have all dropped him in the last few weeks.

Drake and 21 Savage are pushing back the release date for their highly anticipated joint album ... because the producer is battling coronavirus.

Champagne Papi announced the delay Wednesday, revealing on his Instagram story that his longtime producer, Noah "40" Shebib, became infected with COVID while mixing and mastering the album.

Drake and 21 Savage's project is called "Her Loss" and it was due out this Friday ... but it's going to be the fan's loss, because Drizzy says the collab is being delayed at least a week, with the new release date moved to next Friday, Nov. 4.

Drake and Noah have worked together for years ... but based on Drake's post, it seems like the COVID diagnosis is only a minor bump in the road.

"Her Loss" was only announced a couple days ago ... Drake revealed the album's title and original release date in his new music video for "Jimmy Cooks," a song featuring 21 Savage off Drake's last album, "Honestly, Nevermind."

Kanye West is persona non grata for Peloton -- the exercise company is banning his music from any new future classes.

Peloton took a stance Wednesday in a statement to Pelobuddy ... "We take this issue very seriously and can confirm Peloton indefinitely paused the use of Kanye West’s music on our platform. This means our instructors are no longer using his music in any newly produced classes and we are not suggesting any class that includes his music in our proactive recommendations to Members."

They add, "You should know this was a decision we made immediately following his remarks. Again, thank you for sharing your concerns and thank you for being a Member of our Peloton community."

The statement comes on the heels of Peloton's Alex Toussaint -- a popular cycling instructor -- declaring he would not be playing Ye's tunes during any of his classes. He said this on Monday during his Hip Hop Ride at 7 PM ET ... without ever naming the guy.

Toussaint said he doesn't tolerate hate speech and that he stands with the Jewish community -- going on to promise he would foster a safe space and not play "that artist." It seems his bosses felt that policy should apply across the board ... and it's a big deal.

There's been a lot of folks wondering what might happen to Kanye's music as he continues to fall from grace. Until now, there hadn't been many rumblings about censoring//muting his catalog -- but at this point, it appears the door's starting to be opened a bit.

Chingy's feeling some type of way about being included on a "50 Worst Rapper List" ... and he's letting out his emotions about it in a new interview.

The St. Louis-bred rap star ... famously known for his hits "Right Thurr" and "Holidae In" on Ludacris' label in the early '00s ... was grouped with the likes of Master P, Diddy, French Montana and Coi Leray on a Twitter ranking that holds no actual weight.

Still, the rankings got under his skin, evidenced by his latest conversation with VladTV.

Chingy says the 50 million records he sold throughout his career are more than enough votes to keep his name off any "worst rapper" list, and social media reactions mainly fueled its traction.

He went on to call the list invalid, and demand it be deleted ... mainly because the entire world's 7-billion-strong population wasn't polled.

Not that he's biased, but ... Chingy said he listened to one of his old songs the other day and was floored at how anyone could think he was one of the worst because he thought the lyrics were so good.

His career might be light on flowers these days, but he literally made Bobby Shmurda LOL ... as he named the "Chickenhead" hip hop's #1 dance, which was made popular from the "Right Thurr" video.

Tory Lanez is going to be spending a lot more time inside -- a judge just placed him under house arrest until his trial against Megan Thee Stallion begins ... and it all stems from an alleged incident with August Alsina.

The order came down Wednesday during a court hearing in L.A. ... where it was ruled that Tory needs to be on lockdown until November 28 -- the start of the trial -- as a result of accusations he beat the crap out of Alsina in Chicago in September.

Prosecutors argued TL deserved to be remanded into custody because -- in their eyes -- he'd violated the conditions of his bail in the Meg case. They say he continues to pose a threat to public safety and that monetary bail alone wasn't enough of a deterrent.

Tory's attorney, Shawn Holley, pushed back, noting ... no charges had been filed in the Alsina case, and there were only allegations. As we reported, Alsina took to social media to allege Tory had sucker punched him, with bloody photos to boot -- this after he'd apparently been snubbed by the singer in passing earlier in the day.

The judge ended up splitting the difference, ordering Tory be confined to his home with a GPS ankle monitor beginning Friday.

Tory has to remain under house arrest until his felony assault trial gets underway. Remember, he's pleaded not guilty after being charged with firing the gun that seriously injured Meg in 2020.

When Adidas decided to stop producing products for Kanye West, people from around the globe rushed to the Internet to check the temp of selling the popular Yeezy shoe.

Google searches for the phrase "sell Yeezy" skyrocketed a whopping 581% Wednesday -- according to data commissioned by Celeb Tattler -- after news broke that Adidas was dropping their contract with Ye and stopping production of his brand's products.

The numbers suggest folks are trying to figure out if it's a good idea to start selling their Yeezy gear now, or wait for prices to potentially increase in the future.

As we reported ... Adidas, Kanye's biggest corporate partner, announced Tuesday they were cutting ties with Ye in the wake of building public pressure following his antisemitic comments.

The German shoe company says a "thorough review" of the Yeezy partnership projects a $246 million loss in net income this year by ending the deal.

SZA is sitting on 100 unreleased songs and it's apparently time to part with one of them ... the Top Dawg Entertainment vocalist just announced "Shirt," a mini-movie co-starring LaKeith Stanfield.

The preview clip is pretty wild ... SZA and the "Atlanta" actor are eating in a sketchy diner, seemingly discussing the laws of physics when the man sitting with them makes the fatal mistake of interrupting their conversation ... and gets his brains blown out over his plate of bacon and eggs.

'Tis the season for gruesome content, and SZA's timing should be music to her fans' ears -- they've been patiently waiting since her 2017 debut album "Ctrl" infiltrated the space.

"Ctrl" went on to go multi-platinum and recently made Billboard Chart history ... applying heavy pressure for the sophomore release whenever it decides to drop.

TMZ Hip Hop ran into SZA recently ... she told us about the whopping 100 songs she's been collecting in her studio, and hinted she was firing off something soon.

Hip hop is currently in another bling era, but Wiz Khalifa recently hurt a lot of feelings by declaring rappers being dripped in jewelry was going outta style -- but his younger contemporary, Symba, couldn't agree more.

TMZ Hip Hop got the Atlantic Records rapper's take on Wiz's comments outside Dash Radio on Tuesday ... and he thinks hip hop culture ditching the big chains is a sign of maturity.

Symba has empathy for the newer rappers who haven't gotten the opportunity to enjoy the spoils of their success just yet, but echoes the thoughts of Hitmaka, DJ Envy and many others ... saying they need security to avoid becoming targets.

Wiz also slammed rappers who felt lame without the shiny jewels, and Symba feels rappers are identified by looks more than music these days ... but that needs to change ASAP. He says some rappers are even masters of style but losers in sound!!!

Symba says jewelry getting phased out is all about "timing," a message he reiterates in new music -- he and DJ Drama just released their "Results Take Time" mixtape.

T.J. Maxx is the latest company to pull the plug on Kanye West's Yeezy brand ... following others' decisions to cut ties due to the rapper's antisemitic and bigoted comments.

TJX Companies -- operators of T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, and Home Goods -- announced its decision Wednesday ... telling CNNBusiness, "At TJX we do not tolerate discrimination, harassment, or hate of any kind. We have instructed our buying teams not to purchase this merchandise for sale in any of our stores globally.”

As we reported, Kanye's "death con 3" post -- plus his subsequent, and repeated, claims Jewish people run Hollywood and banks -- have resulted in companies boycotting the artist. Adidas, Kanye's biggest corporate partner, announced Tuesday it was cutting ties with Ye.

Rihanna making her grand return to music with a song for the "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" soundtrack is the only thing that could make that movie even more anticipated ... and it's happening!!!

On Wednesday, the icon posted a sample to the upcoming song "Lift Me Up" to social media ... igniting excitement in the Navy, her passionate and loyal fanbase.

The brief teaser doesn't offer much ... just Rihanna harmonizing on what sounds like a solemn record, and we're told it will be a tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman, the star of the first 'BP' film.

RiRi also wrote "Lift Me Up" in collaboration with Afrobeats star Tems, Oscar-Grammy Award-winning producer Ludwig Göransson, 'BP' director Ryan Coogler ... and it will be released on her own Westbury Road label in collaboration with Roc Nation, Def Jam Recordings and Hollywood Records.

Tems says, "After speaking with Ryan and hearing his direction for the film and the song, I wanted to write something that portrays a warm embrace from all the people that I've lost in my life. I tried to imagine what it would feel like if I could sing to them now and express how much I miss them."

She adds, "Rihanna has been an inspiration to me so hearing her convey this song is a great honor."

The song marks her return to music after a noted 6+ year hiatus, and makes a great lead-up to her Super Bowl LVII halftime show appearance in February.

The star players on Kanye West's Donda Academy basketball team will not be able to showcase their talents on one of H.S. hoops' biggest stages this year ... and it's all because of Ye's controversial antisemitic comments.

The Scholastic Play-By-Play Classics announced Donda has been scrapped from this season's schedule ... claiming West's "words and actions violate our values as a company and a country, and what we seek to ensure at all of our events -- a spirit of diversity, sportsmanship, inclusion, equity and mutual respect."

The tournament -- which has five national locations -- is a huge deal at the high school level ... and has hosted future NBA superstars like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant in the past.

Donda was originally slated to compete at the December 11 event in Louisville.

It's a huge bummer for the whole roster of kids -- including five-star guards Robert Dillingham (who's committed to Kentucky) and AJ Johnson ... as well as the other players on the squad who are also ranked nationally.

Scholastic Play-By-Play feels for the young athletes ... adding, "While we are firm in our reasoning for this decision, it does not diminish our heartache and regret for Donda's hardworking athletes who will lose out the most as a result of Kanye's actions."

"Unfortunately, we cannot in good conscience host an organization founded and directed by Mr. West at our events."

Lil Durk might have to pay a very steep price for missing a scheduled performance in the Bahamas, due to his 2019 arrest for a Georgia shooting.

According to a new lawsuit obtained by TMZ, Durk was slated for a concert in Nassau back in December, 2019 ... and promotors say they negotiated a deal with Durk, sending him $24k in up-front payments. They also claim they poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into promoting and putting on the event.

But, Durk never made it on that stage, because when he flew into The Bahamas, immigration authorities learned he had pending felony charges against him in Atlanta for a shooting earlier that year, and they refused to let him into the country. So, he was a no-show.

Interestingly, Durk fought the criminal case -- he'd been facing 5 felonies, including assault and weapons charges -- and although it took years, he eventually came out on top. As we reported ... the D.A. just dropped the case.

That being said, the concert promoters say Lil Durk kept their cash and has refused to reschedule. They also allege he's tried to milk them for an additional $200k, on top of the original fee, if they ever want him to make up the show.

Fresh Entertainment, the event organizers, claim they specifically asked Lil Durk’s people back in 2019 whether he had any legal issues that might prevent him from getting into the Bahamas, and they were assured he did not.

They're now suing Durk for breach of contract, and seeking $350k -- which is the money they've paid him, plus what they spent planning the concert.