TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

The sound engineer who Travis Scott allegedly attacked in an NYC club says the rapper flipped him the bird and socked him in the head, landing him in the hospital with injuries.

Identifying himself only as Mark, the engineer spoke with Fox 5 News from his hospital bed after the alleged assault at Club Nebula in Manhattan early Wednesday morning.

Mark said he can't turn his head and "My neck is f**ked up. My arm is tingling. I have pins and needles going down it."

He also described the events that led to the violence, saying Travis was playing the DJ music so loud the sound was distorted. When Mark tried to lower the volume, he said Travis flew into a rage.

Travis "stuck his middle finger in my face," Mark said, adding, "So I lowered the monitor a little bit so I could talk to him, and that’s when he ran around the speaker and attacked me."

As we reported ... Travis made a surprise appearance at the club Tuesday night to perform with his protege, Don Toliver.

After Travis had his meltdown in the DJ booth, he purportedly attacked the sound engineer and caused $12,000 in damage to a speaker and video screen, before leaving the club.

The NYPD now wants to question Travis after a police report was filed alleging that he committed assault and criminal mischief.

Travis' lawyer, Mitchell Schuster, told us the incident was "a misunderstanding being blown out of proportion by clickbait and misinformation."

Schuster also said he's working with the venue and law enforcement to resolve the situation and believes Travis will be "cleared of any wrongdoing."

A newly-elected Congressman went viral for a full-blown presentation he gave on the House floor, praising Beyoncé -- and we got to the bottom of what was behind it all.

Our photog ran into Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA) on Capitol Hill Wednesday ... this after his impassioned speech just hours earlier, where he talked about the end of Black History Month and the start of Women's History Month ... using Queen Bey as the bridge between the two.

Rep. Garcia explained himself perfectly well in his ode to the iconic performer -- rightly noting Beyoncé is, well, awesome, but he elaborated a bit more with us ... breaking down why exactly he felt she was the perfect person to honor.

Watch ... he says Beyoncé achieved that rare feat of being both an entertainer and an activist, which puts her in a different category of celebrity. He also says it's exactly because of this she's worthy enough to be called out in a very good way.

Ray J is making it very clear, both publicly and now legally, he isn't ready to give up on his marriage with Princess Love ... asking the court to once again throw out his divorce.

According to the legal docs obtained by TMZ, Ray filed docs Thursday in Los Angeles asking a court to dismiss his divorce from his estranged wife.

If you've been following along, there's been a ton of ups and downs between the two over the years, but now, it looks like they may be attempting to work things out once again.

You'll recall, Princess and Ray J celebrated his 42nd birthday back in January in Vegas ... despite the fact they were going through the divorce. At the time, RJ said he was looking forward to being a happy family and starting "fresh" with Princess.

TMZ broke the story in October 2021 ... Ray first filed for divorce from Princess and cited the usual irreconcilable differences. We spoke to PL a short time after the docs were filed, and she didn't seem like the door was completely closed.

Vic Mensa spent a night out in the cold to help raise awareness and combat the growing homeless crisis in his home city.

The rapper took to the streets Tuesday night in Chicago, in temps as low as 37 degrees, showing solidarity by doing exactly what the homeless are forced to do every night.

Vic spent his night on the curb with his good friend, Englewood Barbie -- someone who's been feeding and sleeping under the viaduct with the homeless for weeks as a way to bring awareness.

Vic and E.B. are working toward the goal of $1 mil to open up a shelter to house the local homeless. The fundraiser has already raised over $126K, but it's still got a long way to go.

Lore'l definitely had one of the most awwkwardddd class reunions, thanks to Michael B. Jordan's cold shoulder -- but she tells TMZ Hip Hop the online reaction's been even worse than that "Creed III" premiere moment.

We spoke to "The Morning Hustle" host in the aftermath of her viral MBJ incident, and she untangled a lot of misconceptions coming out of their interview, which has made her the target of tons of vile DMs.

Lore'l admits Michael's name was fodder for jokes among 7th-grade students in Newark -- after all, that was Michael "Air" Jordan's heyday -- but she points out she and Michael were only classmates at Chad Science Academy for one year before she moved.

That's why she says the narrative she tormented MBJ throughout high school is pure 🧢.

She also blames misleading headlines stemming from her 2021 podcast where her cohost Dominique Da Diva referred to Mike as "corny" -- that's the comment the Internet jumbled with Lore'l's own back-in-the-day school stories.

BTW, when Lore'l switched schools she ended up being classmates with singers Rotimi and SZA ... who she just saw when her "SOS" tour stopped in D.C., and their reunion went much smoother than the MBJ one!

Tory Lanez's legal team either has some sort of trick up its sleeve to get him out of jail by this weekend, or the people at Rolling Loud are living under a rock ... 'cause he's still on the festival's Cali roster.

Tory was in court Tuesday in L.A. where his sentencing hearing was pushed yet again, this time to April 10. After the hearing, Lanez -- who was dressed in a jail-issued orange jumpsuit -- remained in custody without even an attempt to convince the judge to let him out on bail.

This would seem to pose a big issue for Rolling Loud organizers, who still have Tory slated on the website's flyer to play the festival Sunday.

We should say, it's possible, and likely, when the actual artist set times are released, Tory's name will be left off completely ... but it's odd he's still on the flyer, considering he was found guilty back in December.

There is, however, fine print on Rolling Loud's site to cover Tory becoming a no-show -- "Opening acts, as well as festival performers, are subject to change or cancellation at any time without notice. No refund will be owed if an opening act or festival performer is changed or cancelled."

Tory is facing a maximum of 22 years behind bars. Outside court Tuesday, his attorney David Kenner said the artist is holding up well. He didn't offer much more detail on their efforts to get him out on appeal.

J. Cole gave fans chills Tuesday with the ultra star-studded lineup for his 2023 Dreamville Festival ... because it includes himself, Drake, Usher and Burna Boy as top headliners!!!

The elusive North Carolina rapper only uses social media to get straight to a point -- and this one was directing fans to the fastly approaching festival dates of April 1-2 with a series of head bomb emojis.

A wide range of artists rounds out the bill, including several Dreamvillains, JID, Bas, Lute and Ari Lennox ... and various star power from Summer Walker, GloRilla, City Girls and Lil Durk.

Raleigh's Dorothea Dix Park will serve as the event location and tickets range from $250 in the GA and $1500 for the VIP.

Cole's Dreamville is providing the music for the upcoming "Creed III" soundtrack and his manager has been hinting at him dropping his next album as well.

G Herbo got a taste of what it took to bring his 3 kids into the world by messing around with a birth simulator and taking things to the max ... his internal organs be damned!!!

The Chicago rap star was the latest guest on Kai Cenat's live stream and was eager to flex his toughness until he felt the power of the initial setting rupturing his insides.

Herbo first described the feeling as "tingly" as he attempted to use his past labor room experience to guide him through the pain. That didn't really work out for him.

He also took a couple of shots of alcohol as a cheat code, but still managed to successfully get through setting 10 on the simulator. Not exactly the equivalent of a woman having an hours-long labor before birth, but Herbo made sure to give a shout-out to all the mothers who push out babies for real.

He's an extremely active father, but we're sure this experience will make him think differently about making some more!!!

The internet has practically burst into flames after a fake dating rumor was seemingly made as a joke -- one that pinned Pete Davidson and Ice Spice as an item.

The fake rumor is the latest to grab people's attention, and it's becoming a growing trend -- while similar posts like "Curious George found dead on the highway" garners virality while obviously being a joke, this one didn't get the same results.

Twitter clearly ran with it, albeit missing the "this is satire" warning -- with many freaking out online over the dating "news."

The comedian's been compared to Marvel's Thanos, dating beautiful women like the villain takes infinity stones ... and one person even made a hilarious reference to "Breaking Bad," saying Pete "can't keep getting away with this!"

Of course, we know it's all BS -- as we reported, Pete's currently entangled with Chase Sui Wonders. The couple was recently packin' on some PDA at the Daytona 500.

Artificial intelligence now has the ability to mimic Kendrick Lamar's voice almost perfectly, and Young Guru says that's cause for concern -- not just in the music biz, but for all mankind.

The venerable studio engineer, who's worked on the bulk of Jay-Z's award-winning albums, sounded the alarm by posting video of a dude rapping bars into an audio filter which magically makes him sound exactly like the legendary Compton rapper!!!

It really is uncanny, and Guru felt compelled to share it with the public with an ominous warning ... "It’s not the tech, it’s the evil that men do with the tech."

He also highlighted another slippery slope: Voices aren't protected by copyright law, and he fears if the situation isn't addressed ... "deep fake" will become the new "I got hacked."

The hip hop community's already had a brush with AI thanks to Capitol Records' failed experiment, FN Meka, who was quickly shuttered by the label once it was deemed an offensive take on Black rapper stereotypes.

Dozens of music industry pundits, including superproducer Hitmaka, frowned upon the move ... fearing the end of human artists as we know them.

With so much concern over the digital landscape, all eyes will be on Def Jam this year -- the label recently signed a virtual NFT band consisting of a bunch of cartoon whales.

Maino is maintaining his now viral throat grab of YouTuber Buba100x was completely planned ... and, in fact, he says his theatrical performance should be his big break in Hollywood!!!

We caught the BK-bred lyricist fresh off his guest hosting gig on Angela Yee's 'Way Up,' and he tells us Buba100x intentionally failed to post the choke out ... in order to make folks think it was authentic. No one would flaunt themselves getting genuinely beat down ... right?

The incident happened a couple of weeks ago during the most recent Daniel's Leather fashion show ... Maino is seen slowly losing his temper as the vlogger continues pressing him to try on his chain, only to see the rapper grab him firmly by his throat!!!

Maino says jaws were dropping at the party because he and Buba100x sold it so well.

Social media users haven't reacted kindly to Maino's actions -- prank or not -- but he assures us he's not worried about backlash because that's what the internet does ... no matter what.

What Maino's not opposed to, is extending his stay on 'Way Up' to a more permanent situation.

He says Angela called him an on-air "natural," and having that kinda finesse is vital for a radio career.

The pouring rain couldn't cool down Wallo267's anger towards Gillie Da Kid when he ruined his motivational speech -- but the storm sure did ruin Gillie's concentration.

On Monday, Gillie posted a video that showed him royally pissing off his "Million Dollarz Worth of Game" cohost after his cousin took a little too long with his motivational speech.

Wallo was yammering for over a minute when Gillie interrupted his train of thought ... urging him to hurry "the f*** up!!!"

Gillie's spew was like a domino effect ... Wallo immediately grew enraged that his one-take shot was ruined with Gillie admitting the tensions didn't subside for a couple of days!!!

Wallo's a veteran speaker for troubled youth and probably had a much more successful time speaking on Capitol Hill with Pooh Shiesty's father by his side.

Drake is wishing he didn't include so many past flames in his lyrics ... a regret Angie Martinez says is understandable because guys shouldn't do that!!!

TMZ Hip Hop caught the IRL Podcast host out in NYC and she praised Drake's maturity ... but also feels he can make things right by sending those affected some shiny new jewelry to ice their pain. After all, diamonds are everyone's best friend!!!

Drake infamously made girls like "Courtney from Hooters on Peachtree" famous in his raps and made the confession to Lil Yachty during their feel-good interview on a Turks & Caicos beach last week.

The megastar rapper's Young Money boss Lil Wayne just made a confession of his own ... he deserves to be ranked over Jay-Z when it comes to the best rappers in the game.

Angie's interviewed Jay several times in her career, so she knows his competitive spirit first-hand, but she feels that Wayne (and any rapper worth their mic skills) should feel like they're #1 at all times.

The veteran radio host admitted she wasn't a good rapper back in her heyday due to her lack of braggadocious audacity and applauded Wayne watching Jay's throne.

We milked Angie's hip hop expertise for all that it's worth and picked her brain on one last topic ... GloRilla's crazy Anyways, Life's Great Tour.

During her last stop in Philly on Sunday, fans tried to snatch Big Glo's wig ... which she later tossed in the crowd to avoid the ruckus.

The scalping capped off a string of wild incidents during the rap rookie's inaugural tour and Angie thinks the "FNF" artist will be fine down the line ... with a few adjustments to her security staff!!!

Wiz Khalifa is all set to portray George Clinton in the upcoming film "Spinning Gold" ... an A-1 pick as far as the iconic musician's book is concerned ... mainly because it increased his cool factor!!! 😎

We spotted the P-Funk legend at LAX, rocking the latest fabrics in Erykah Badu wear, right on the cusp of him going to meet with Wiz to exchange experiences, among other things.

George tells us he loves Wiz's acting chops -- just as much as he loves his smoking skills and was already looking forward to their sesh.

Although George didn't handpick Wiz for the role, it still will be a symbolic moment -- his grandkids costar as Parliament-Funkadelic band members and will be featured throughout the film!!!

George's been busy in other avenues too ... he recently joined Will Smith and T.D. Jakes in helping raise $10M for Ben Crump's Law School.

George and Ben have a lot in common ... they're both Omega Psi Phi frat guys who hail from North Carolina and reside in Tallahassee -- and Ben's helping George and the gang get their royalties back on track.

They just re-recorded their funk classic "Atomic Dog" ... with several other records on the horizon.

Maino was caught in 4K disciplining popular YouTuber, Buba100x after one too many questions about his chain ... but the Brooklyn rapper is claiming it was all for clicks and views!!!

The melee went down at the Daniel's Leather fashion show earlier this month ... as Buba100x and Maino were conducting his typical TikTok style of interviews.

Buba100x made a crack about "beating Maino's ass" ... which immediately aged terribly when the Brooklyn rapper grabbed the jokester by his throat after his fuse was lit!!!

Further footage shows Maino pinning Buba100x down by his neck while reminding him of the consequences of ruffling his feathers!!!

Maino's co-hosting on Angela Yee's new show 'Way Up' this week ... and there's no way they were ignoring this topic, which was addressed head-on.

Maino claims he was 100% acting in the clip and wanted to sell the prank by making it look real with his angry emotions.

Drake is looking back at his entry into Lil Wayne's Young Money Records camp with fondness -- considering their relationship hit the ground so fast, they didn't even get properly introduced!!!

During his Turks and Caicos convo with Lil Yachty, Drake admitted Wayne first thought his name was "Drizzy Drake Rogers" when he rapped it on one of their collaborations ... the 2008 track "Ransom."

Rogers is actually the name of one of Canada's top internet providers and Wayne thought that was Drake's last name, seeing they were sending tracks via email.

When "Ransom" dropped, Drake says he realized the error but didn't have the heart to correct his mentor.

They went on to record plenty of successful collabs following the flub -- both recently earning a spot in the Top 10 of Billboard's Top 50 rappers list, although Wayne largely disagrees with his ranking.

The YM stars were weirdly placed next to each other ... Drake at #8 and Wayne at #7 ... but Wayne recently told Apple Music not Jay-Z, Eminem or even the late greats Tupac and Biggie should be considered better than him!!!