TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

Rapper Skilla Baby is giving thanks and praise after he was shot multiple times in Detroit last month ... and after some humble words, he gets defiant against unnamed haters in some new rhymes.

Wednesday night, the "Leave It in the Streets" rapper posted a video on Instagram thanking his fans, supporters, and God for his recovery ... with his right hand in view, still bandaged up. Sitting inside a vehicle, he says he never would question God's reason why he was shot -- and then he breaks out with some new bars.

"I don't fear n****s, I fear God / That n**** shot my truck up 20 times, I never cried" ... "They pushed up on a millionaire, they havin' too much pride." Check out the full video to catch the rest.

Diddy's defense played jurors an audio recording of Cassie confronting a man who she says had told her he'd been shown a video of her doing a "freak-off" ... and now we're finally getting to hear what was played for the jury.

In a batch of freshly released Diddy defense exhibits, there's an audio file that Diddy’s defense team says features Cassie making death threats to a man she calls Sugit.

The recording was played in court over a month ago during Cassie's testimony but it's only now being made public.

Cuba Gooding Jr. says he's turning to the Lord during this trying time for Diddy ... revealing he's praying for the fallen mogul as his federal trial creeps on.

We caught up with the actor at LAX Wednesday ... and, we asked him if he's been keeping up on the developments in Diddy's sex trafficking trial -- which he tells us are darn near impossible to avoid these days.

Cuba says he's keeping Diddy and his alleged victims -- pointing to Cassie Ventura and her family specifically -- in his prayers.

R. Kelly is scared out of his mind and desperately begging to be let out of prison, according to members of his legal team -- who say the singer broke down in tears during a recent phone call, as he fears for his life, and his health spirals behind bars ... TMZ has learned.

Nicole Blank Becker, one of Kelly’s attorneys, tells TMZ ... the 57-year-old is petrified to find himself back in prison after he was released from the hospital, and he's fretting about his health and safety. Kelly is currently locked up in the Special Housing Unit in a North Carolina prison.

"He’s emotional, and he cried intermittently on the phone call" on Monday, Becker tells us, adding, "Again, out of fear for his life."

R. Kelly is claiming he's marked for death after an overdose that left him hospitalized this week ... but one of his alleged victims is calling BS on what she sees as a ploy to get sprung from the can.

Here's the deal ... the disgraced music mogul is asking for temporary release to home confinement -- for the third time -- after alleging Bureau of Prisons staff at his federal center in North Carolina purposefully gave him too much medication.

Lisa VanAllen, an accuser who was a witness in Kelly’s 2008 child pornography trial and 2002 federal trial, tells TMZ ... she doesn't buy for a moment there's a grand plot to kill the convicted human trafficker -- 'cause he's not even important anymore!

The juror who got booted from the Diddy trial was NOT in awe of Diddy's celebrity or his rap empire ... we've learned the guy was indifferent about Diddy and is mostly into Spanish-language music, so there was no celeb wow factor for him.

A source close to Juror 6 tells TMZ ... the guy never wanted to be part of the high-profile trial, but he got a summons and ended up being picked for the jury.

We're told he's a quiet person who likes to get his work done without being hassled ... and he's not comfortable with all the media attention now that he's been kicked off the jury.

It's like right out of a Hitchcock movie, but not really ... the judge pulled the plug in the Diddy trial Wednesday after learning one of the jurors came down with vertigo.

We don't know the underlying condition of the juror in question, but the evidence was truly head-spinning this week, with jurors fixated on various freak-off videos.

Jurors put on their headphones Tuesday and watched around 10 minutes of the vids, featuring sex scenes between Diddy, Cassie, and male escorts. You could hear a pin drop in the courtroom, as the peanut gallery heard moans bleeding through the headphones.

We've reached the home stretch in the Diddy criminal trial and on the 25th day of witness testimony, prosecutors tried to lay out for the jury how they say Diddy spent big to transport male prostitutes across the country for sex romps.

DeLeassa Penland, a special agent with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York -- the agency prosecuting the case against Diddy -- was back on the stand and she testified about a bunch of charges Diddy incurred flying sex workers across state lines.

The testimony mostly went towards the Mann Act and some of it to the RICO charge against Diddy.

India Love has been running the internet for a long time and according to her calculations, streamers are creeping on rapper's cool points!!!

The "Westbrooks" reality TV star tells TMZ Hip Hop her recent time spent at Kai Cenat's 'Streamer University' was well worth it ... she's been exposed to an entirely new audience of adoring fans -- and colleagues. 😉

India's amassed millions of followers across several platforms -- Tumblr, IG, OnlyFans -- but she says Twitch is her new baby and she's excited on what the future will bring.

Coi Leray announced the birth of her and Trippie Redd's daughter on Tuesday -- a joyous occasion for Benzino ... who is now a grandfather for the first time!!!

TMZ Hip Hop caught up with Benzino fresh off the announcement, and he's already daydreaming up the spoils he'll have for his granddaughter Miyoco, which means "beautiful child" or "blessed descendant" in Japanese.

Benzino named Coi after the elegant Japanese fish, but with a "C," and he loves how she's carrying on the tradition and is feeling the blessings ... his son will make him a 2x grandfather in August with a baby boy!!!

Pusha T isn't only venting his frustrations at Kanye West in interviews -- he's unloading on Travis Scott on the upcoming Clipse album!!!

"The Breakfast Club"'s Loren LoRosa attended the "Let God Sort 'Em Out" album listening at Roc Nation's office last night ... ahead of the track's "So Be It" audio mysteriously appearing on the internet shortly after.

Pusha painted Travis as a tender-hearted simp on the track ... "You cried in front of me, you died in front of me, Calabasas took ya b**** and ya pride in front of me."

Drake has always credited Lil Wayne for breaking his career, but according to Weezy F. Baby's son, he should get ALL the credit because he wrote ALL the lyrics!!!

Lil Wayne's son Lil Novi was hanging out on a live stream and was asked the "either or" question of selecting his dad vs. Drake ... understandably picking his pops but took things further, claiming, "My dad wrote most of [Drake's] sh*t, if it wasn't for my pops there wouldn't be no Drake."

Meek Mill infamously gave Drake crap for letting Quentin Miller write on a couple of records but Novi's claiming all those pensive moments from "Take Care" and "Views" came courtesy of Lil Wayne's brain.

Diddy's defense team isn't backing away from the jury seeing the alleged "freak-off" videos  ... because Diddy's lawyers are now showing jurors even more footage from them.

The viewing went down Tuesday in Day 25 of Diddy's federal trial in Manhattan ... as defense attorney Teny Geragos was cross-examining a Department of Justice special agent.

Geragos cued up a few videos ... and jurors put on headphones and watched the freak-off footage on screens not viewable by lawyers, prosecutors, or those in the gallery.

R. Kelly is doubling down on his claim that his life is in grave danger in prison ... now alleging Bureau of Prisons staff at his federal center in North Carolina purposefully gave him too much medication -- causing an overdose that left him in the hospital.

A court filing submitted by his attorney, Beau B. Brindley, Monday claims R. Kelly was left bedridden in a hospital after a solitary confinement staff member instructed him to take additional medication the night of June 12.

The next morning, the Pied Piper allegedly awakened feeling faint and dizzy, and when he attempted to get up, he fell on the floor, "crawled to the door of the cell and lost consciousness."

Sean "Diddy" Combs' federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial resumed Tuesday in NYC for the 25th day ... and a federal special agent testified about travel and hotel expenses involving alleged male escorts that Diddy paid for.

DeLeassa Penland, a special agent with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York -- the agency prosecuting the case against Diddy -- testified Diddy's American Express account was charged nearly $47,000 for damages at a single hotel in New York in one instance.

Penland told the jury Diddy, Cassie Ventura and Jules Theodore -- an alleged male escort -- stayed at the London Hotel on a particular date, which was paid for on Diddy's AmEx, as well as Virgin America plane tickets for Jules.

The jury in Diddy's trial got a spicy break from the usual testimony Monday with prosecutors playing portions of some alleged "freak-off" videos -- but for the jurors' eyes only.

The viewing went down during the afternoon session of day 24 in the trial ... as a federal prosecutor was questioning a Department of Justice special agent on the witness stand.

The prosecutor asked the special agent to verify a list of hotels where Diddy allegedly hosted his freak-offs with Cassie and male escorts. The agent went down the list, describing the hotels and the freak-off videos pertaining to the corresponding locations.