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Disney didn't just commit cultural appropriation when it locked down the rights to "Hakuna Matata," the company actually stole the saying from an incredibly popular Kenyan band ... this according to the group's frontman.

John Katana is on the ground in Africa, and the singer tells us Them Mushrooms popularized the phrase way back in 1980, when the band released its hit song, "Jambo Bwana."

In Swahili, "Hakuna Matata" means "no problem" or "no worries" ... and you probably know it from 'Lion King' characters Timon and Pumbaa.

The original song went platinum in Kenya in the 1980s, but John says he and his bandmates didn't understand copyright laws back then, allowing Disney to swoop in and trademark the phrase in '94, coinciding with its movie release.

Disney is releasing a new 'Lion King' next summer, and the increased spotlight has led to a growing petition accusing the company of "colonialism and robbery" ... while calling on Disney to abandon its trademark. The petition has over 147,000 signatures.

DC Young Fly says he's down with Maroon 5 and Travis Scott performing at halftime of the Super Bowl ... but he still feels the NFL made a huge mistake by passing over Atlanta rappers.

The 'Wild 'N Out' star isn't going full Jay-Z -- trying to talk Travis out of performing -- but he supports Colin Kaepernick and thinks the NFL is slapping ATL in the face by snubbing its hip-hop scene ... and he warns a TON of people are gonna raise hell when the big game comes to town.

We broke the story ... the "SICKO MODE" rapper will join M5 at the big show. Travis' new gig is drawing praise and scorn.

DC makes it clear his beef is not with Travis ... he suggests two music icons should join the show and ease tensions in Hotlanta. Hint: think gospel.

Don't let these two almost identical images of Zach Galifanakis turn you into a grinch ... use some holiday magic to figure out the differences between these two super similar snaps!

Michael Rapaport has no business suing anyone for saying he has herpes ... because he himself has said it ... according to the countersuit Barstool Sports just filed against the actor.

Barstool is firing back at Rapaport's September lawsuit against them, saying it's impossible to defame the guy because his reputation's already "so badly tarnished that it cannot be harmed any further." In the docs, obtained by TMZ Sports, Barstool points out Michael commented on a 2015 photo of himself, saying, it "looks like" I have "a herpe."

Of course, the Barstool guys included the photo as an exhibit in their lawsuit.

For the record, Michael said in his lawsuit he "does not suffer from herpes."

Barstool Prez Dave Portnoy told us back in September, Rapaport "claims to be the king of trash talk and then cries when people respond in kind." Now, he's included tons of examples of that in the docs. For example, Barstool calls out Michael for calling a sports show host a "twinkie-eating f**k boy" and a producer for the show a "Long Island Jew."

In the suit, they also include social media posts where MR caught flak for racist comments about 'Real Housewives' star Kenya Moore ... and sexist comments about Fox News host Laura Ingraham. According to the docs, he also called a female sports reporter a "rail thin, no ass ... looking to get piped at an R. Kelly concert ... backstage and at the hotel."

You get their point ... Rapaport's no choir boy, and has said enough vile things to make him defamation-proof.

And, Barstool insists it did NOT breach his contract by firing him -- quite the opposite. In docs, they say his contract included a clause that allowed for his firing if he put Barstool in "public disrepute" with his public comments ... including several about Barstool staffers.

Barstool is suing Rapaport to get back the $400k it paid him.

Cardi B was all over Offset Friday ... hugging him and you might even say hanging on for dear life.

Cardi and Offset were vacationing in Puerto Rico, and it's a real sign his full-court campaign to win her back has worked.

Eyewitnesses tell TMZ they seemed very much like a couple as they laughed and played on and in the deep blue sea.

They were there with friends. No sign of baby Kulture, but it's a safe bet she's there.

Cardi has a set Friday night in San Juan at the Electric Holiday festival.

We don't know for sure if Cardi has taken Offset back, but there have been signs for more than a week that the ice is thawing.

Cardi announced her split with Offset on December 4. As we reported, he crashed her stage at the Rolling Loud Music Festival in L.A. last weekend, and she was clearly not receptive but it looks like things may have changed.

Someone was really feeling a little too much holiday spirit -- Friday night a man climbed the National Christmas Tree near the White House.

After a stalemate with U.S. Park Police, the man finally came down and was taken to a hospital for mental evaluation. No injuries were reported, and Park Police described the climber as being in "emotional distress."

The wild scene started unfolding around 5:45 PM Friday night at the Ellipse, which is across the street from the White House.

After the man climbed about 15 to 20 feet up, the 74,000 LED lights covering the giant spruce were turned off, creating an eerie scene. By the time the climber started heading down, the lights were turned back on and police officers rushed inside to track him down.

Jason Momoa is having a ton of fun as "Aquaman" -- taking the onscreen gig to the beach in Hawaii with a huge trident -- and ya gotta see what he did next!!!

Jason quickly got into character when a bunch of kids came up to him Thursday in Oahu and asked him to play with their giant toy trident ... and then he channeled Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson and crashed a wedding!

The kids weren't the only ones making everlasting memories with Aquaman, because Jason and the trident sneaked up behind some unsuspecting newlyweds for an epic photobomb.

4:11 PM PT -- A source close to Cardi tells us the baby in the video isn't Kulture, in fact, it's not a real baby at all.

Cardi B took "bring your daughter to work day" to a whole new level ... by featuring Kulture in a not so traditional way in her brand new music video.

The rapper goes topless in her vid for "Money" -- which dropped Friday -- to breastfeed her baby girl, Kulture. Because it's Cardi, there's also no shortage of her in lavish outfits, sexy dance moves ... and shots of her ass.

Who knew she played piano?

As we've reported ... Cardi's been pretty stingy providing pics or vids of her daughter, but made a big reveal shortly after announcing her split with Offset.

Offset announced on his birthday he wanted Cardi back, and to spend Christmas together as a family. He also crashed her stage at Rolling Loud last weekend with $15,000 in roses ... only to be rejected in front of a ton of people.

Kulture was hidden from the world for a long time ... but she's definitely getting tons of attention now though.

Originally Published -- 12:08 PM PST

UFC welterweight champ Tyron Woodley is FIRED UP over the high school wrestling ref who made a black kid cut his dreadlocks before a match ... and he's calling for NJ officials to FIRE HIS ASS.

Before dominating the UFC, Tyron was an All-American wrestler at the Univ. of Missouri ... and before that, he was a FORCE in the high school wrestling community.

Tyron tells TMZ Sports ... the ref, Alan Maloney, should have been fired years ago when he reportedly made a racist comment to an African-American man back in 2016.

Woodley's bigger issue is he's sick of people with a history of racist behavior being allowed to have positions of authority. And, that includes police officers.

As for the recent incident with high school wrestler Andrew Johnson, Tyron thinks the way the high school wrestling community handles hair maintenance ... specifically with black athletes ... is ridiculous.

Speidi went back to the altar to exchange their wedding vows, and just like 10 years ago ... they did it with TV cameras rolling.

Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt held the ceremony for their 10th anniversary Thursday in Santa Barbara. In attendance, along with friends and family, were "The Hills" alum Audrina Patridge ... and newcomer Mischa Barton.

If you don't know ... the hit reality series is making a comeback in 2019, with Barton joining the cast for "The Hills: New Beginnings." TV cameras were rolling for Speidi's renewal of vows, and we're told the event's expected to be featured in an upcoming episode of the reboot.

It's interesting -- the couple previously renewed their vows in 2010, after Spencer called their televised 'Hills' wedding in 2008 a nightmare ... so he wanted a redo. That ceremony was much more private on a beach in California.

Steven Seagal won't be charged for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in 2002.

According to legal docs -- obtained by TMZ -- the actor was accused of sexually assaulting the woman at some point between May 1, 2002 and August 31, 2002. Full details of the allegation were not included in the filing.

As for why Seagal won't be charged ... the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office says the statute of limitations has expired.

You'll remember, Steven walked out of an interview with BBC Newsnight in October after a reporter brought up the allegations.

Seagal was also accused of raping a woman back in the '90s -- a case that was also well beyond the statute of limitations -- and Portia de Rossi claimed Seagal sat her down on a couch during a casting for one of his films and unzipped his pants, so she fled the room.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg underwent a procedure to remove cancerous growths from her lung, but the good news is ... things are looking good for her post-surgery.

RBG reportedly underwent a pulmonary lobectomy in NYC Friday to remove 2 nodules from her lung which were recently discovered to be malignant. It appears doctors removed all of the cancer. It's unclear, but since she waited a bit to have the surgery around Xmas, it's possible RBG timed it so she wouldn't miss work.

Ginsburg's had a rough Fall ... she fell down in November, and fractured 3 ribs. While she was hospitalized doctors ran some tests and discovered the cancerous growths.

Doctors seem confident they got to the core -- based on post-op scans -- and the cancer has been removed.

RBG is expected to remain in the hospital for a few days to recover, but no further treatment is planned.

RBG's already a cancer survivor, having been diagnosed with colon cancer in 1999 and pancreatic cancer in 2009. Despite the new lung cancer discovery, she's never been a smoker.

Get well, Ruth!!!

Busta Rhymes just sued a former employee for allegedly pretending to be his manager and booking him for gigs without the rapper's permission.

Busta is suing Rasheem "Bubba" Barker claiming the guy had no authority to make deals on the rapper's behalf but still managed to make money off Busta's back by getting promoters to pay thousands up front and keeping the dough.

In docs, obtained by TMZ, Busta says Barker's misdeeds included when he booked Busta for gigs in 2016 and 2018 and put $60k in advances in his personal bank account.

Busta also claims Barker stole $8k that was supposed to go to Busta's travel expenses earlier this year for a trip to Toronto.

The rapper claims as a result of all this, someone got a default judgment against Busta for $22,478 after he no-showed a gig booked by Barker. Busta's pointing the finger at Barker and wants him to cover those and other damages. He's suing for more than $500k.

ICYMI ... earlier this week, Busta went off on Barker accusing him of pretending to be Busta's manager. He's now taken his beef from Instagram to the courthouse.

Elon Musk's a visionary with HUGE balls ... and that's why a celeb jeweler's giving the billionaire this INSANE diamond Tesla ring.

We're told celeb jeweler Ben Baller designed and made this one-of-a-kind ring worth nearly $40k. It's truly unique ... it's 1 of 1 and custom made for the famous entrepreneur. The ring's a marvel -- it's solid platinum with custom cut diamond baguettes to spell out T-E-S-L-A.

Ben says the Tesla and SpaceX honcho is an inspiration when it comes to pushing the limits. "We salute you for giving almost 50,000 jobs to Americans and putting USA back on the map as a serious contender in the auto industry." He adds, "The last successful US car company startup before Tesla was Chrysler and that was 90 years ago."

As for Elon's new bling -- it features a rare, trillion-cut diamond to emphasize the "T" logo, which is surrounded by round, brilliant white diamonds. Ben says the ring was made in America, just like Elon's wares.

If it sounds like Ben's a superfan ... he is. He drives a Model X P100D.

He's impressed Musk kept pushing forward -- even after his PayPal success -- and "bet it all on Tesla and that takes BIG balls."