TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

Tyler, the Creator dropped a boatload o' cash ... for 2 tiny but shiny suitcases and one bellhop to carry 'em.

The rapper is celebrating the release of his new album "Call Me If You Get Lost" with a ridiculously expensive chain and pendant. The total cost ... a whopping $500k, but ya gotta see the extensive work that went into producing it.

The man behind the masterful work is celeb jeweler Alex Moss, who tells TMZ ... Tyler hit him up about 7 months ago to get started on the piece, and it took him 4 months just to find the colored diamonds for it.

We're told Tyler gave Alex a reference for what he wanted, and they tweaked the design together. You can see the pendant is the bellhop toting 2 suitcases.

As for the meaning behind it ... unclear, like a lot of things with Tyler. We're told the rapper didn't tell Alex much, as he wanted to keep it a mystery. He can check that box.

No mystery on the hefty price tag, though -- the piece has more than 186 carats in diamonds, 60 carats in sapphires and a whopping 23,515 stones were hand-set!!!

Hell, the suitcases even open and close.

Tyler, who is seen wearing the piece in his "JUGGERNAUT" music video, is known for rewarding himself in the most spectacular ways.

Tekashi 6ix9ine canceled his weekend show in Texas at the last minute, leaving fans in the dark about what happened ... and now he says it's because he was stiffed.

Tekashi tells TMZ ... he had a contract guaranteeing him $250,000 for a Sunday concert at the Humble Civic Center in Humble, TX, but he says he was only paid $70,000 in cash and didn't get the balance before the show ... which the contract required.

6ix9ine says he returned the $70k and got the hell outta Dodge ... never taking the stage.

Folks who were there tell us the venue opened the doors at 3 PM and fans waited around until 10 PM, when cops and security started forcing everyone to leave. We're told the venue didn't make any announcement about Tekashi before folks were booted.

Sounds like it was a big letdown for fans ... we're told some shelled out $500 for tickets, while others dropped $3,000 on VIP experiences.

Cardi B and Offset are looking pretty damn excited, and maybe a little overwhelmed, after letting the world know baby No. 2's on the way, but someone else is even more excited by the news.

We got Cardi and Offset leaving BOA Steakhouse in WeHo where they hit up a BET Awards after-party. Quavo and Taraji P. Henson were some of the other attendees, but fans and photogs, went wild when Cardi stepped out of her ride showing off her baby bump.

The couple got peppered with dozens of baby-related questions -- really, you'd think they were walking into a family reunion. One question our guy asked was about Kulture's reaction to the news she's gonna be a big sis.

We also asked Offset if he'll be in a giving mood when the baby arrives -- and the answer's yes! He's got a Cuban celebration in mind.

We tried to get some other deets about Cardi's pregnancy ... like how far along she is, cravings, baby names??? They're not ready to spill all that just yet, but they couldn't look happier that their family's expanding.

As we reported, Cardi revealed the huge surprise Sunday night during the BET Awards. She didn't have to say a word ... her baby bump was on display and it did all the talking.

Offset had his hands full announcing baby #2 with Cardi B on Sunday, but he wasn't TOO busy to keep an eye on his Atlanta Hawks ... telling TMZ Sports his beloved team WILL bounce back from their Game 3 loss!!

Of course, it was a huge night at the BET Awards for Migos -- the trio put on one hell of a performance with the "Up" MC as she set social media on fire with her baby bump.

But, even with all the chaos surrounding the baby news, Offset was able to check in on Trae Young and co. as they fell 113-102 in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Sunday ... and the dude's pretty optimistic.

"We gon' bounce back," Offset told us outside BOA. "That was some bulls**t. We bouncin' back."

But, if 1/3 of Migos having confidence in the Hawks ain't enough, we also spoke with Quavo ... and he's just as confident Young will lead the squad to the Finals -- and WIN IT ALL!!!

"We gon' get that ring," Quavo told us outside the Highlight Room. "It's the year."

Kanye West's legal team has a lot more work to do if they want to rid the online market of imitation Yeezys -- while Walmart halted sales on its site, hundreds more still exist on others.

West's Yeezy Foam RNNRs have taken the market by storm, so it's no surprise copycats tried to capitalize. However, as of Friday, Walmart had removed all the knockoffs from its online store.

TMZ broke the story ... Kanye and Yeezy filed a lawsuit against the retail giant, claiming its $25 faux RNNRs had the potential to cost Ye "hundreds of millions" of dollars in sales of his $75 original design.

For its part, Walmart said the online listings were from a third party.

You'd think the lawsuit would scare away others, but we discovered hundreds of other listings on sites pushing what appear to be more wannabes. Friday, Etsy still remained a hotspot for them, with pairs running anywhere from $30-$60, one listing calls the shoes "Yeezy Inspired," but they look like exact copies.

We've reached out to Kanye's team to figure out if they have any plans to go after the remaining listings like they did Walmart. Nothing's been filed yet.

Lil Nas X delivered a memorable performance at the BET Awards, but at least one person on Twitter hated it ... so the rapper put them in their place.

The "Montero (Call Me By Your Name)" singer crushed it on stage Sunday night, not only with his hit track but also with a tribute to Michael Jackson's "Remember the Time."

The stage appearance ended with Lil Nas planting an intense kiss on one of his male backup dancers.

Clearly, a major moment -- especially as Pride Month wraps up -- but one Twitter user was outraged, tweeting ... "DONT USE AFRICAN CULTURE FOR S***S LIKE THIS!!!!!!! RESPECT OUR ANCESTORS."

Never one to ignore criticism, Lil Nas X defended his decision while making a historical point, saying ... "y'all really like to pretend homosexuality didn’t exist in african culture."

Other than the one hater, the rapper received widespread praise for his bold move, including from Diddy ... who applauded him for being fearless.

Fans of Lil Nas X -- who came out on the last day of Pride Month in 2019 -- were initially disappointed when the 2021 BET Awards nominees were announced and he didn't make the list, and some accused the show of being homophobic.

Cardi B and Offset are expecting again -- and they made the announcement in grandiose fashion ... through a joint performance at the BET Awards!!!

The couple came out with the news Sunday during the broadcast -- and didn't have to say a thing about it either ... they let their actions speak for them. The Migos came out first for a medley songs, and were later joined by CB who was decked out in a revealing outfit.

And by that, we mean her massive baby bump was on display ... and, clearly, she's very pregnant. Looks like she's fairly far along too at this point ... at least 6 months, if not more.

BTW, Cardi didn't just come out to stand there and look pretty -- she was straight up performing on her own as well ... rapping to songs of hers like 'Type S***', and eventually getting shoulder-to-shoulder with her hubby as the audience went crazy with applause.

Up until now, this wasn't publicly known -- as CB has been laying fairly low of late. And now, it's obvious that was for good reason. Her team was on the ball too for this ... posting official pregnancy photos on her social media pages as soon as she took the stage.

This would be her and Offset's second child together -- of course, they also share Kulture ... who's all of 2 years old.

A$AP Rocky and Rihanna are riding off into the sunset -- or the sunrise, rather ... and we mean it in every sense of the word, 'cause a late-night date night turned into just that.

The A-list couple kept their love fest going Saturday night into the wee hours of Sunday morning ... where we're told they popped up in the lower east side of NYC after a night out, walking hand-in-hand -- and, before long, body-in-arms thanks to A$AP swooping her up.

Check out the video we got of that exact moment ... it's like straight out of a movie, and RiRi seemed to be digging every minute of it. Eventually, they drove away in a waiting SUV.

BTW, we're told this was shot around 5:30/6 AM Sunday -- so yeah, it was definitely a marathon date they were on. Eyewitnesses also say they came across a dude who seemed drunk and sprawled out over the floor ... to which A$AP/RiRi said ... yo, help him out!

Unfortunately for him, his buddies seemed to be starstruck with this sighting ... and for good reason. It's not every day you might spot this -- but then again, maybe that's changing.

Frankly, A$AP and Rihanna have been spotted out and about all over town lately ... and are NOT shy to show off their PDA, this weekend included, it seems. They're clearly gaga for one another -- and apparently want the whole wide world to know it.

Pop Smoke's family is showing Travis Scott some serious love for paying tribute to the late rapper through a fashion collection with Dior ... and they want to work with him again for future projects.

Pop Smoke's brother, Obasi Jackson, tells TMZ ... the family is thankful Travis' Cactus Jack brand made the first item in its Dior collection all about Pop, and he thinks it could be the start of a great partnership.

It's a special moment for Pop's family ... he rapped about Dior and loved the brand, and often talked about leaving the country for the first time so he could check out Paris Fashion Week, where the collab was unveiled.

Pop's bro says the family appreciated the final product, a t-shirt with Pop's face on the front and lyrics from his popular "Dior" song on the back, but more than that ... they sound inspired.

Obasi told us how Pop's family wants to get more involved on the creative side moving forward.

Travis Scott knows when you take a trip to Paris, you gotta bring back some goodies for your GF ... we're guessing that's what he did, but it's not for sure.

Travis landed at the Van Nuys Airport Saturday and deplaned with a boatload of luggage and bags, including some bearing the name "Givenchy." The bags are huge, and what's inside may rival the cost of flying private across continents.

Now Givenchy sells both men's and women's duds, so it's unclear if these are presents for Kylie. As we reported, they've rekindled their romance, so at least SOME must be for her.

Travis was in Paris for the unveiling of his Cactus Jack Dior line at the Dior fashion show.  500 folks watched the men's runway show ... the first in-person event of its kind in a year-and-a-half because of the pandemic.

Tyler, the Creator seems to be trying to get ahead of the Twitter outrage machine by apologizing to Selena Gomez (via song) for old tweets that are seriously screwed up.

The rapper addresses messages he posted online back in the early 2010s that were specifically aimed at Selena, Justin Bieber and other female artists ... many of whom he was talking about in incredibly graphic/sexual terms, which are too much for us to re-post here.

The tweets -- some of which are still live, BTW -- are in the vein of sexual fantasies and would-be exploits ... but one touches on SG and JB's former relationship, to which TTC took a sour tone and wrote, "Justin Bieber And Selena Gomez Is F****** Dating. F***."

Apparently, Tyler was into Bieber back in those days (in a romantic way, it seems) ... something he touches on in his new track, "Manifesto," where he briefly gets into this.

On Tyler's second verse, he talks about being "canceled" before cancel culture was a thing -- at which point he says he already apologized to Selena for these abhorrent tweets. In the same breath, he gives more context ... "Back when I was tryna f*** Bieber, Just-in"

Tyler and Justin have hung out in the past, and the former has done interviews in which he said he felt Selena didn't like him ... and was always "mean-mugging" when he was around her then-boo. Turns out, it might've been for good reason ... Tyler was apparently out to bang JB.

If that feels like it's coming out of left field for you, it shouldn't -- Tyler has suggested he's part of the LGBTQ+ community, and seems to get down with both guys and gals.

Michael Strahan's ex-wife has been arrested for violating an order of protection involving an ex who claimed she was being terrorized by the woman ... TMZ has learned.

Jean Muggli Strahan was taken into custody Friday night in New York City and booked for criminal contempt.

Marianne Ayer says she was in a relationship with Jean which ended, but claims that's when the alleged harassment began.

Marianne had filed legal docs in June accusing Jean of grand larceny, disorderly conduct, harassment, coercion and forcible touching. Marianne claimed in the legal docs Jean took her son's plastic gun which he used in a student film and threatened her, claiming the gun was real.  Marianne went on to claim Jean abused her pets by allegedly shoving and kicking her German Shepherd.

Doja Cat brought her world to Hollywood ... with a lavish bash to celebrate her new music.

The rapper threw a star-studded party Thursday night to mark the release of her album, "Planet Her" ... and some of the biggest names in the biz were there, looking just as out of this world as the party itself.

It all went down late Thursday and into Friday morning at Goya Studios, and the celeb guest list was massive -- Saweetie, French Montana, Chloe Bailey, Normani, Ryan Destiny, Ty Dolla Sign, Winnie Harlow, Diplo, Joey Bada$$, Tyga and Swae Lee ... just to name a few.

We're also told The Weeknd made an appearance ... he's featured on one of the album's tracks.

Travis Scott's releasing another collab outside of the music biz ... but this one includes a tribute to his friend and fallen hip-hop star, Pop Smoke.

The rapper's Cactus Jack brand has entered a partnership with the popular French fashion house, Dior -- which is also the name of a popular Smoke track -- and Travis revealed the first item in the collection is all about Pop.

It's a t-shirt with the late rapper's face emblazoned a little off-center on the front ... with lyrics from his song on the back. Travis wrote, "U CANT SAY POP AND FORGET THE SMOKE. NOW U IN ALL THE STORES 4 EVER."

Rumors began circulating that Scott and Dior were teaming up on something after he was seen wearing a brown, heavy-duty work jacket with a large Dior logo fused with his Cactus Jack logo, and sure enough ... the rumors are true.

Dior announced a joint Spring-Summer 2022 collection will be revealed in full on Friday at one of Paris Fashion Week's few in-person runway shows.

As you know ... Pop Smoke was shot and killed by 4 masked gunmen back in February 2020 in what appeared to be a home invasion robbery at a rental pad in the Hollywood Hills.

T.I. is legally lashing out at the woman who alleges he put a gun to her head and threatened to kill her, and he wants her defamation lawsuit against him thrown outta court.

Sabrina Peterson's suing T.I. and Tiny for defamation, but in new legal docs obtained by TMZ ... T.I. claims her reputation is already so horrible, it's basically impossible to inflict even more damage to it.

As we first told you, in her suit filed earlier this year, Peterson claims T.I. and Tiny smeared her good name with public statements and social media posts in the wake of her allegation against T.I.

The rapper's lawyer, Andrew Brettler, claims Peterson "is an adjudged liar, a convicted felon with a lengthy rap sheet for crimes involving dishonesty and violent assault, and has a reputation for being unscrupulous" ... and he says there's no way T.I. and Tiny could make her rep take a hit.

According to Peterson's suit ... Tiny referred to her on social media as "strange," and added, "everybody know you been special." Peterson claims she's since become the target of online harassment and threatening messages, but T.I. claims she can't sue over those comments because they are just opinions.

Kanye West is going after Walmart for allegedly selling a knockoff version of his well-known foam shoe design ... at a fraction of the price.

According to new legal docs -- obtained by TMZ -- Kanye and his company, Yeezy, claim the retail giant copied his famous Yeezy Foam Runner and left customers confused about whether they were buying the real thing or an imitation.

Kanye claims Walmart could be costing Yeezy hundreds of millions of dollars in sales by doing so.

According to the docs ... Yeezy introduced its Foam Runner in 2019 and the footwear made its public debut in June 2020, selling out instantly at $75 a pop.

Yeezy claims Walmart then made an "unauthorized exact copy" and has been selling it -- at just under $25 a pair -- in order to cash in on the popularity of Kanye and the Foam Runner.

Kanye's side claims it sent a legal warning to Walmart and told them to pull the shoes from its site ... but it has failed to do so.

So, Kanye and Yeezy are suing for major damages. We reached out to Walmart ... no word back so far.