TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

DaBaby and his legal team are celebrating a big 'W' that's years in the making ... he's come out on top of a battery lawsuit over a 2020 brawl.

You’ll recall … DaBaby and crew were initially hit with allegations of beating and robbing a concert promoter named Kenneth Carey and his buddy. They claimed they'd lost personal items -- including money and a cell phone -- during a fight recorded by bystanders.

As we reported .. the fight was over payment for a Miami event Carey put together, and hired DaBaby to host. When the sides disagreed over dollar figures, it turned into a street brawl.

Prosecutors had dropped a criminal battery charge against DaBaby, but he was still hit with a $6 million federal lawsuit over the incident. The trial wrapped up Monday, with the jury finding in favor of the “Bop” rapper.

His attorney Drew Findling tells TMZ Hip Hop, “Along with our client, Jonathan Kirk (DaBaby), we are thrilled that this federal jury, after a five-day trial, came to the same conclusion that we have maintained for almost 3 years - that these plaintiffs were attempting to use the legal system to shake down Mr. Kirk.”

Findling continued, “Mr. Kirk deserves all the credit in the world for not caving in to these plaintiffs' cash demands and having the confidence in the facts and his legal team to take this to a jury trial for a complete and total victory!”

Afroman is wading into the political fray for 2024 -- and not just for local office either ... the guy's going for the big enchilada to potentially become the next President of the United States!

The rapper made the big announcement this weekend at a concert of his in Poplar Bluff, MO ... where he told a packed house at the Black River Coliseum about his plan to run for POTUS, going up against the likes of Donald Trump and whoever else will be in the race.

When you see the video, it might seem like a joke, but we're told he's dead serious ... and the crowd loved it -- cheering Afroman on as he touted his first big policy -- the national legalization of weed. He reiterated this platform in yet another video, emphasizing this is no prank ... dude's got Oval Office aspirations.

Afroman's weed vision is cool and all, but not all that revolutionary these days. Frankly, the herb's already allowed recreationally in 21 states and medicinally in a lot of others.

It's still unclear where he lands on other domestic and international issues -- but we suppose we'll find out in due time. We're told he's running as an independent.

We don't see any record yet of Afroman filing paperwork with the Federal Elections Commission to make it official, but his camp says it's coming.

Of course, he wouldn't be the first MC to throw his hat in the ring -- Kanye West did in 2020, and seems primed to do it again in 2024 ... or as Afroman puts it, 20-20-FRO!!!

Trey Songz has voluntarily turned himself in to NYC cops after allegedly punching 2 people a couple of months back ... TMZ has learned.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... TS was busted at the end of November for the alleged incident. We're told he's accused of striking 2 people in the face while they were all at a bowling alley back in October, and one of the alleged victims was hospitalized.

Trey turned himself in at an NYPD station a few weeks later, and we're told he was booked, given a desk appearance ticket for assault and released.

As we'd previously reported, Trey allegedly punched a woman in the face while inside a bowling alley bathroom. The new info is there's a second alleged victim, a guy who claims Trey punched him in the eye. We're told he refused medical treatment.

Still no word on a motive for the alleged beatdown.

Romeo Miller is proverbially snapping the olive branch his dad Master P offered in half … with yet another round of receipts that paint his dad like a money-loving overlord!!!

In a scathing clap back, Romeo accused Master P of never paying any earnings from the family “Rap Snacks” brand … claiming to have blindly supported the company for 15+ years for a payoff that didn’t come.

Romeo also went DEEP into his time capsule to respond to P on Monday … digging up his preteen 106 & Park interview promoting the Rap Snacks with original hosts Free & AJ (ahem: Jermaine Dupri).

As Romeo sees it, P’s recent apologetic video is nothing but a gaslight attempt to gain public favor and thanked Rap Snacks execs for doing square business with him.

He's also under the impression his father is suffering from mental illness but we think they'll need a doc to be sure. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Earlier today, Master P told TMZ Hip Hop he was dropping the mic on feuding with Romeo and focusing on underprivileged kids … because helping the ungrateful is a waste of his time.

Pusha T is placing both Drake and Kanye West in his rearview mirror as the Clipse rapper's Grammy season approaches.

In a new interview with XXL, Pusha took great joy in knowing his rival Drake still drops subliminal disses in his direction … even over four years after their beef kicked off.

Pusha says every time he hears a subliminal shot from Drake, it reminds him how much his 2018 diss track "The Story of Adidon" got underneath the OVO boss' skin … as it was the bombshell revelation that Drake fathered his son with model Sophie Brussaux.

Earlier this year, an unfinished collab between Drake and Jack Harlow titled "Have a Turn" mysteriously leaked, with Drizzy throwing obvious shots at Push for his never-ending drug dealer raps.

Pusha claims he's no longer interested in lyrically sparring with Drake but still revels in knowing his song "still burns" the soul like ether.

Speaking of losing interest, Pusha also revealed he's out as G.O.O.D. Music President -- a position he's held since 2015.

Kanye's string of antisemitic and wild commentary during interviews had Pusha feeling "disappointed" in November and says they're no longer on speaking terms … citing disgust from Ye's "Infowars" interview and his peace concert with Drake as prime reasons.

Gunna’s lawyer, Steven Sadow, is swatting down critics who think the former YSL rapper ratted out his crew, but he's gonna have to convince a whole lot of critics.

On Monday, Akademiks posted an Instagram DM where he asked Sadow to clear up the pesky snitch rumors, and Sadow insisted Gunna's comments at his plea hearing will have no impact on anyone other than Gunna.

Sadow also said Gunna will plead the 5th in the event he’s called to testify in court … further pushing back on the notion he will turn against Young Thug.

The night prior, Akademiks went live with 6ix9ine, who showed Gunna no mercy for his Alford plea that’ll have him on supervised watch for the next 5 years.

Not clear if Wack100 is convinced ... he has said Gunna is essentially attempting to rewrite the street codes.

Of course, 6ix9ine was infamously labeled a snitch in his own criminal case after claiming his gang betrayed him first.

Megan Thee Stallion's bodyguard remains off the grid -- after skipping his scheduled testimony -- but the L.A. County D.A.'s Office now has cops out on the hunt for him ... TMZ has learned.

As we reported, Justin Edison was supposed to testify Friday in the Tory Lanez trial for allegedly shooting MTS, but he never showed up. His "disappearance" raised a lot of eyebrows, and law enforcement sources tell us ... investigators paid a visit to an L.A. home Monday morning, hoping to find Justin.

We're told the investigators' goal was to find out what Justin's availability would be for testifying, as he was supposed to last week. Unfortunately, they did not locate him, and still have no clue on his whereabouts.

Our sources also say Justin still is not considered a "missing" person ... nor has anyone even reported him as missing.

Megan's attorney Alex Spiro told us Monday on "TMZ Live" ... Meg's team was last in touch with Justin on Thursday night, when they fully expected he would be in court Friday for testimony they felt would be devastating to Tory's case.

Spiro believes there's witness intimidation going on in Tory's trial, and he claims prosecutors have launched an investigation into that.

Meek Mill has closed the book on his life on Twitter ... he's just the latest celeb to jump ship since Elon Musk took over in October.

The Philly rapper made the abrupt decision Sunday evening to close his account, and cited too many bots and weirdos as his reason for flying the coop on the bird app.

He says he’ll now interact with fans via YouTube as he prepares for his next career stage as an independent artist.

Meek was one of the most notorious rappers to ever tweet ... amassing more than 11 million followers before he killed his account.

His most infamous moment came in 2015 when he called out Drake for ghostwriting ... birthing his "Twitter fingers" nickname.

Meek's not alone in hating Twitter these days — Toni Braxton, Shonda Rimes and Whoopi Goldberg are just a handful of celebs who don't like the new direction ... but the current climate could very well change any minute.

Master P is deading the feud with his oldest son, Romeo Miller … and apologizing for his role in their family fallout playing out on social media over the weekend.

In a passionate explanation, Master P told Romeo he was still grieving over the death of his daughter Tytyana Miller, and that his daily grind and hustle were part of his therapy.

Although he says he's trying to end the bitterness between them ... P still scolded his son for claiming he wasn't paid properly as a child rap star, and for not following his grind and hustle example!!!

Romeo had accused his pops of being "addicted" to social media, and doubled down on that with a poem he wrote titled, "The Tree of Trauma" ... where he dragged his daddy a bit more.

P signed off his PSA vowing to end the back-and-forth and tells TMZ Hip Hop every family deals with drama but he is focusing on giving back to less fortunate kids all season with toy drives through his MoneYatti brand!!!

50 Cent trolled the hell out of Megan Thee Stallion -- and while he's catching flak for it, the real question that seems to be getting asked is ... does he single out women to beef with???

That's the conversation taking place on Twitter right now -- this after Curtis posted a meme this weekend that showed MTS morphing into Jussie Smollett. He captioned it, "Damn i’m confused all this shit going around 🤷🏽‍♂️ i don’t know what to think. LOL."

In other words ... he doesn't seem to believe Megan's claims against Tory Lanez. Nothing all that profound, but his poking fun has gotten bird app users all fired up over whether this is par for the course -- aka, going after females -- or if he's an equal opportunity rabble-rouser.

The debate was sparked by one woman who wrote, "50 cent literally only brings that energy towards women. A coward." While she turned off her replies, people are retweeting this and pointing out the countless feuds Fitty's been in with prominent men over the years.

Some of the fellas 50 Cent has publicly beefed with (in emphatic terms) ... The Game, Floyd Mayweather, Fat Joe, Diddy, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, Young Buck, Benzino and, of course, Ja Rule. Oh, and he's had a lot of issues with his own son, Marquise.

Now, the guy has also gotten into it with a fair amount of famous women as well -- most notably ... Vivica A. Fox, Lala Kent, Madonna, Teairra Mari and even Oprah Winfrey.

There's also been several times where 50 has made clear ... he's not afraid of the smoke, apparently from anyone. But, on the issue of whether he's got a deeply-rooted hatred of women (especially WOC) -- the evidence seems to support that he clowns everyone.

Lil Wayne and Mack Maine are putting a big smile on a bunch of teen faces for a Weezy Christmas ... rewarding their hard work with a fun-filled day at Dave & Busters!

The diamond-certified Weezy and his pal Mack teamed up with Wilson Sporting Goods to throw the ultimate day at D&B for kids between the ages of 12 and 16 in their hometown of New Orleans.

The Dave & Busters bash was an attaboy/attagirl, commending the kids for excelling in academics AND with local community sports programs ... basketball, football, baseball, soccer and tennis. Each kid got new sports equipment as a bonus. They had Young Money artists Jay Jones and Allan Cubas on hand to pass out gifts in their hometown.

Wayne and Maine are partnering with a bunch of orgs. to give back to kids in their hometown. One of those efforts includes an athletic program in a renovated Harrell Park, where Weezy grew up.

They're also working with two mentorship programs called "Son of a Saint" ... which helps NOLA kids dream big and become leaders in their community through mentorship and support.

Megan Thee Stallion's bodyguard -- a key figure in the Tory Lanez trial -- has allegedly vanished into thin air ... and cops are said to be on the case.

MTS's attorney, Alex Spiro, tells TMZ ... "We recently learned that Justin Edison went missing right before he was scheduled to appear in court. The LAPD is currently looking into his disappearance, and welcome any information about his whereabouts."

The Shade Room -- which first broke the news -- reports that a separate source familiar with the situation insists Justin's own attorney hasn't heard from him since Thursday ... and that he apparently has critical information about the case. That much we already knew.

Remember, this is the guy that Kelsey Harris -- Meg's ex-BFF who was in the car that night -- texted almost immediately after the shooting, writing ... "Help," "Tory shot Meg" and "911." Presumably, he could've provided more context to that ... including any follow-up convos he had with either Kelsey or Megan. Now, though, it appears he's nowhere to be found.

With uncertainty over whether Tory's driver -- who was also in the car that night -- is going to testify (as of now, it doesn't seem like he is) and a very hazy narrative laid out by Kelsey herself ... Justin could've possibly been crucial to help swing this thing one way or the other.

Spiro's concerns also seem to suggest foul play may be afoot, but so far ... there's no evidence of that. We've reached out to the LAPD to confirm whether Justin is, in fact, listed as a missing person at this point -- and whether they're actively searching for him.

So far, no word back.

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky are finally ready to show their child off to the world -- introducing him with a pretty scenic background ... waves crashing on the California coast.

The couple was on hand for a photo shoot Friday afternoon in Malibu, where they were wearing matching black outfits and cozied up next to the shore with a camera crew and production team on standby. Of course, there was one other guest ... their 7-month-old son.

We'd identify him properly, but nobody knows his name yet. In any case, he was there being cradled by Papa Bear while mom got glammed up -- and you can see the kid's face.

Naturally, he's super cute ... and this revelation comes after RiRi posted a close-up video of her baby in the car -- and there, too, he's adorable. Sounds like she felt it was time to give up a glimpse of him publicly ... as we know, she's said she wanted to keep things private.

While this outing certainly looked like it could've been an official family gig ... there are moments here where it seems like only Rihanna is getting photographed. Maybe it was Bring Your Baby To Work Day, and Rocky was on dad duty. Guess we'll find out soon enough.

As we reported ... Rihanna gave birth on May 13. It's her and A$AP's first child together.

Megan Thee Stallion's ex-friend Kelsey Harris says she absolutely saw Tory Lanez firing a gun at Meg -- that's what she told police back in September, and today the jury heard that whole exchange.

As you know, Kelsey has been hesitant, to say the least, to give up many details while testifying this week, but on Friday prosecutors played audio of the entire interview she did with cops earlier this year ... when she spilled every detail from that July 2020 night.

Kelsey says while they were in the SUV -- after the party at Kylie Jenner's house -- she and Tory first got into an argument when he made fun of Megan. When Kelsey came to her friend's defense, she claims Tory said, "My n****, I'm gonna shoot you." Kelsey says Tory reached toward the center console, but didn't do anything more than that.

However, the vehicle was pulled over at that point. Then she says Meg and Tory started insulting each other's careers, and things got so heated, both Meg and Kelsey got out of the SUV.

Almost immediately Kelsey says she started hearing gunshots, and after the 2nd or 3rd shot she turned around and says she saw Tory in the front seat firing the gun forward, over the open right front door in Meg's direction.

Kelsey was outside of the vehicle, but behind Tory and could only see Meg from the chest up. She ran toward Megan "in defense mode," and saw her bleeding ... and Tory was still sitting in the front seat, apparently in shock.

She claims Tory walked toward them, and that's when Kelsey and Tory started fighting. She describes it as Tory assaulting her, and adds she did not see a gun at that point.

Once they all got back in the SUV, Kelsey says she texted Megan's security, "911. Tory shot Meg."

Once the police arrived, Kelsey claims Tory told them not to say anything to officers because he was about to sign a big deal, and he offered both women $1 million each.

That's all that's been played of Kelsey's interview so far, but there's more to come after the lunch break.

Obviously, the audio reveals just about everything Kelsey skirted talking about on the stand -- with a lot of I don't recalls -- but her memory sounded pretty solid a few months ago.

Daymond John knows how to throw a holiday party ... treating his employees, fellow sharks and even celeb friends to a private screening of the biggest movie on the planet.

The "Shark Tank" star hosted his annual Shark Group holiday party this week in the Big Apple  ... complete with a private screening of "Avatar: The Way of Water."

We're told Daymond wanted to make sure everyone on his team had a good night, inviting their family and friends as well.

Daymond's celeb pals, including Ice-T, Coco and Molly Burnett were all in attendance. Daymond's fellow sharks Kevin O’Leary and Barbara Corcoran also made it to the screening.

Tory Lanez raised a lot of eyebrows when he brought his young son to court for the Megan Thee Stallion shooting trial ... so it might not be a total surprise he was without him today.

Tory pulled up to a DTLA courthouse Friday in a white Range Rover -- Tory looked dapper in a black and white suit, earring and sunglasses. However, he was silent, not speaking with cameras as he walked inside.

As we reported, Tory walked hand in hand with 5-year-old Kai'Lon into the courthouse earlier this week -- adjusting his son's suit and then carrying him out on his back on the exit.

We were inside the courtroom for the hearing, and while Kai'Lon wasn't there the whole time, he made at least one appearance ... and hung with his dad during breaks.

Tory told cameras earlier this week Kai'Lon was his biggest support system and that's why he decided he wanted to bring him to the hearing.