TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

Florida rapper Rod Wave is now in the clear, legally speaking, after he was arrested for allegedly choking his girlfriend ... TMZ Hip Hop has learned.

According to legal docs, prosecutors in Osceola County, FL reviewed the May incident, and determined the case wasn't suitable for prosecution.

In the arrest report, Wave's GF accused him of bursting into their home, and choking her until she couldn't breathe because he thought she was talking to other men. The woman, who shares 2 kids with the "SoulFly" rapper, called cops, but Rod had left the scene by the time they arrived.

He was later pulled over and arrested, and even shared a cryptic video of himself surrounded by police cruiser lights.

Three days following the arrest, Rod Wave announced his next album will be entitled "Beautiful Mind." He'll now have plenty of time and freedom to complete and release it!

Flavor Flav has a new mouth to feed -- after taking a paternity test, it's been confirmed he has a 3-year-old son, who will now bear Dad's surname.

The boy's name is Jordan and his maternal grandparents, Barry and Parchi, tell TMZ ... their daughter, Kate, used to be Flav's manager for a few years -- a period during which they had a romantic relationship.

At some point, Kate -- who no longer works for Flav -- got pregnant and had Jordan, but for a good while, we're told Flav wasn't sure the kid was his son.

However, since then ... Jordan's grandparents tell us FF submitted DNA which lined up with Jordan's. Sooo, as Maury would put it ... Flav IS the father!!!

We're told child support and a custody arrangement have been established. It also sounds like Flav is spending more QT with Jordan these days -- he's taught him how to play the drums a bit -- and he's talked to Kate about Jordan taking his family name ... Drayton.

They've already filed legal docs to make it official, and there will be a hearing later this year. Jordan is Flav's eighth child, so as he might put it ... yeahhhh little boyyyy!!!

Master P has been split from his estranged wife for over a decade, but he's only now been officially declared a single man in the eyes of the law.

According to legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Master P and Sonya Miller are officially no longer a couple ... it remains to be seen if their divorce is totally finalized or if they still have some things to work out.

Believe it or not, Sonya first filed for divorce all the way back in 2013, and Master P has previously claimed they settled everything in private in 2016 ... but never submitted it to the court.

Fast forward to December 2021 -- when Master P submitted docs asking a judge to declare him legally single -- which has now happened.

Master P and Sonya got married in 1989 -- the rapper has 9 kids -- including Romeo Miller (Lil Romeo).

Kendrick Lamar's new album "Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers" is officially his last for Top Dawg Entertainment, and that has labelmates, like Sir, pondering what the future holds for K Dot.

We got the Inglewood-born crooner Thursday at LAX, and picked his brain about King Kendrick's departure. He echoed some of what TDE founder Anthony "Top Dawg" Tiffith said prior to 'Mr. Morale' dropping -- that Kendrick will always be family.

Sir added a note about Kendrick's business savvy, and gave a shout to the pgLang movement. He also plugged his own new music — a summer project entitled "Heavy."

The warmer months seem to be Sir's thing. His last album, "Chasing Summer," dropped in August 2019 and featured the Kendrick collab "Hair Down."

Of course, Kendrick isn't leaving TDE a serious going away gift -- 'Mr. Morale' is projected to be the biggest album of 2022, so far. Plus, he'll be kicking off a 65-date tour soon!

'BMF' star Lil Meech allegedly stole a $250,000 Richard Mille watch and got caught ... leading to his arrest for grand theft.

The 22-year-old actor/rapper -- handpicked by 50 Cent to star as his dad, Big Meech, in the Starz ‘BMF’ series -- got booked on two counts of first-degree grand theft and a separate count of organized fraud on March 14.

Cops say the actor walked into Miami's Haimov Jewelers back in February and put a down payment on the Richard Mille using his $80,000 platinum Rolex, but he allegedly failed to pay the remaining $200K balance and never returned the watch.

Cops also accuse him of trying to trade the watch for a different Richard Mille piece at a different store.

Records show Meech was released on bond the same day he was arrested. Lil Meech hasn’t reacted to charges publicly, but he recently posted an Instagram photoshoot to let fans know he’s unbothered.

Young Thug claims he's sleeping in a "dungeon" -- after being named an alleged mastermind of a criminal organization -- but jailhouse officials say he's just whining about the standard jail experience.

We broke the story ... Thug and his legal team filed an emergency petition last week, citing all sorts of inhumanity in his holding cell such as having a windowless room and being served "inedible" food.

The local Atlanta WSBTV media took a tour of a "typical" cell in the building and acknowledged the facility was "above board." One jail official said, "This is a jail, it is a detention center. It’s not the Ritz Carlton, so you have to recognize that."

The official's insinuation is pretty clear ... Thug is in jail, which is a far cry from the bottomless luxuries he's used to rapping about on his No. 1 albums. Sounds like that's why he's complaining.

Rick Ross has a parade of hot wheels rolling into the Atlanta area this weekend -- hosting a massive car expo at his own crib ... and hyping it up as a come one, come all extravaganza.

The Boss gave us the scoop Wednesday on "TMZ Live" about the car and bike show going down at his Fayetteville, GA estate Saturday ... where he'll not only be showing off his own luxury/novelty vehicles -- including a tank and firetruck, among dozens of other sweet whips -- but actually scoping out tons of others that'll be on display from different owners as well.

It's essentially going to be the automobile event of the year -- at least from what Renzel is describing to us here -- and indeed ... RR says he might be looking to buy himself.

If you follow Rick on social media ... you're probably well aware of his eclectic collection, so this type of get-together makes sense for the guy. As he explains to us, this is gonna be a who's who of car aficionados -- with gear heads from all over the world -- but not just that ... there'll even be a chance for some friendly competition and prizes!

Watch how Rick breaks down the contest ... he says he's going to extreme lengths to make sure it's fair and credible -- and even shows off what's up for grabs, besides bragging rights.

Lil Wayne once said "You don't want to start Weezy, 'cause the F is for finisher" ... and he's proving to back his words with Mark Cuban -- firing back in his beef with the Dallas Mavericks owner and saying, "I will piss in ya f'n mouth ho."

The back-and-forth between the rapper and billionaire has been brewing ever since the Young Money rapper called Luka Doncic a "ho" on Twitter last week ... prompting Cuban to respond after Dallas defeated the Suns by 33 points in Game 7 on Sunday.

Wayne didn't take the jab lightly ... unleashing a pretty disgusting response to Cubes in a since-deleted tweet.

"Mark Cuban don’t make me get u smacked boy U playing w me??" Tunechi said. "I will piss in ya f'n mouth ho."

Shortly after, Wayne followed up for good measure writing, "Ya lil bitch its up."

Now, Wayne might have been a bit of bad luck for the Suns -- as soon as he tweeted about Luka, the Mavs turned the series around and ended Phoenix's season in blowout fashion.

Yo Gotti isn't waiting around for gift cards for his 41st birthday, instead he's treating himself ... to more than a million bucks worth of super-luxury rides!!!

The Collective Music Group CEO recorded himself riding around with copious amounts of cash ... ultimately choosing to stunt on his haters with not one but two Rolls Royces off the showroom floor.

Gotti's birthday behavior is time-tested ... each year he splurges on lavish gifts ahead of his annual b-day celebration -- the star-studded Birthday Bash concert series at the FedEx Forum in Memphis.

This year's Birthday Bash 8 blowout is going down July 15 and while the guests haven't been announced, past years saw the likes of Lil Baby, Rick Ross, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Master P, Polo G, T.I., City Girls, Monica, Boosie Badazz and many more perform.

CMG apparently has plenty of wealth to spread around. Gotti's latest signee, R&B singer Lehla Samia, was recently blessed with a pink Lamborghini Urus just for inking her name on the dotted line.

Diddy is all about "love" these days ... maybe a little too much, because 2 women in his life are going at each other now after both were in Las Vegas where he hosted the Billboard Music Awards.

In one corner, City Girls rapper Yung Miami, and in the other Diddy's muse, model Gina Huynh -- Miami was at the BBMAs as a presenter, while Gina was a very interested spectator. She posted from the show, saying "Baby Daddy is hosting Billboards."

Diddy after-partied hard Sunday night with Yung Miami, but things got messy Tuesday when Gina shared a pic of Brother Love's lips on her cheek -- and prompted YM to fire off more than a few subtweets.

Most notably, she's saying she will continue to see Diddy no matter how many pics Gina drops on the 'Gram.

And, then it got nasty as Gina invited Miami to dine on male genitalia -- not Diddy's we're guessing -- and eventually plugged her own rap song.

Diddy, for his part, has remained mum about the women sparring over him ... at least, publicly. Seems wise.

Travis Scott is making sure hundreds of Black college students walk across the commencement stage with their diploma ... with a seven-figure donation.

The rapper awarded $1 million in scholarships to 100 students at HBCUs who are on track to graduate in the Class of 2022 ... ensuring they cross the finish line and aren't affected by last-minute financial hurdles.

The soon-to-be grads are each getting a $10,000 scholarship from Travis' previously-established Waymon Webster Scholarship Fund ... and the recipients finished their final semester with at least a 3.5 GPA.

Among the scholars ... Florida A&M University pharmacy major Nisha Encarnacion, who is from the U.S. Virgin Islands and paid her own way through college while supporting her mother and daughter, Fisk University computer science major Chisom Okwor, whose goal is to help transform developing countries in Africa, and North Carolina Central University broadcast journalism major Jordan Massey, who took on a ton of debt to get his communications degree.

Travis' sister, Jordan Webster, manages the scholarship fund ... and she recently graduated as well, with a degree from Howard University.

Travis' donations went to seniors at 38 HBCUs ... including Alabama A&M University, Central State University, Jackson State University, Morehouse College, Texas Southern University, Grambling State University, Xavier University of Louisiana, and Prairie View A&M University.

The $1 million worth of scholarships is part of Travis' Project HEAL, which as we first reported, was announced back in March and included $5 million in earmarks.

Remember ... Project HEAL was one of Travis' first public philanthropic since the tragic Astroworld concert last November, which saw 10 people die as a result of injuries sustained during Travis' set.

Jack Harlow's rummaging through some old playlists to jab back at Brandy in their growing, but playful, beef over Jack being clueless about the singer's family tree.

ICYMI ... Jack was chopping it up with his OG's at Hot 97 when it hilariously came out that he didn't realize Ray J and Brandy were actual siblings, sparking yet another cultural debate involving the 24-year-old artist.

Late last night, Brandy finally got wind of the conversation -- responding like 2Pac, threatening to out-rap JH, and sing him to sleep. Even though she later admitted she was joking, she copped to not knowing Jack was a rapper.

Seeing as how Jack has the No. 1 song in the country -- "First Class" -- we can't figure out with Brandy diss is harsher ... the shot at his rapping, or the ol' "I don't know you."

Just imagine someone asking if Brandy was a singer when her "The Boy Is Mine" duet with Monica was ruling the charts? Yeah, total burn.

Jack did some burning of his response ... posting an IG story Tuesday with a pic of Brandy and Ray J while using her own lyrics from her 2005 Kanye West collaboration "Bring Me Down" off the album "Late Registration" against her.

Lil Keed complained to his friends and family he was suffering from serious stomach pain in the days leading up to his death ... with things getting so bad he had to go to the hospital.

Multiple sources close to Keed tell us ... the YSL label rapper had his battles over the years with alcohol and drugs, but had been clean and sober of late. We're told last week he began experiencing severe stomach pain and went to an L.A. hospital to get checked out.

From there, our sources say things got worse, and Keed's organs -- his liver and kidneys -- started failing ... leading to his death.

As we reported, news of his death shocked the hip hop world over the weekend when his brother, Lil Gotit, posted, "Can't believe I seened u die today bro I did all my cries I know what u want me to do and that's go hard for Mama Daddy Our Brothers Naychur and Whiteboy."

While Keed is a YSL rapper, he was not named in the recent indictment with Young Thug and Gunna.

The Los Angeles County Coroner's office is expected to do an autopsy this week.

The late Tupac Shakur's last studio album "The Don Killuminati: The 7 Day Theory" is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, and it's being pushed into the digital world.

That means creating an NFT -- non-fungible token -- from the original artwork ... a controversial piece depicting Pac as Jesus Christ wearing his crown of thorns while nailed to the cross. The parental advisory sticker infamously covered his pelvic area.

Released on November 5, 1996, nearly 2 months after his murder, Pac recorded the album under the alias Makaveli ... unleashing some greatest hits material such as "Hail Mary" and "To Live In Die In L.A." -- and fueling rumors he was still alive in the process.

Riskie Forever designed and sold the painting Tupac handpicked to be the album cover back in 2015 ... but crypto/NFT wallet manager Zelus helped him recover the art, and auction house Heritage Auctions will sell it to the highest bidder.

The auction goes down starting today through June 18 in Dallas at 445 Park Avenue and fans will also have a chance to win up to $100,000 through sweepstakes on the MakaveliArt.com website starting today all the way to June 5.

Mike Tyson will host the painting Tuesday on a special episode of his "Hotboxin" podcast, where he will also run through some of his cherished Tupac memories. They enjoyed a long-running friendship during the course of Pac's life, whose last moments were spent attending the Tyson vs. Bruce Seldon fight on September 7, 1996, in Las Vegas.

Iron Mike tells TMZ Hip Hop: "This episode was cool to shoot. Having the opportunity to honor Pac and have this painting here with us was awesome. It's by far the most iconic hip hop album artwork of all time."

Riskie, an iconic hip hop artist, was initially propositioned by then Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight, who later introduced him to 2Pac -- and commissioned Riskie to create the album cover.

Freddie Gibbs got into a huge fight with a bunch of dudes before his weekend performance in New York ... and it's all on video!!!

The massive brawl broke out Saturday at Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Buffalo, where Freddie was in town for a performance. He's the guy in the green shirt, and video shows him in the thick of things.

As you can see, there's a bunch of people throwing punches and kicking ... and Freddie gets taken to the ground before getting up and continuing the fight. At one point, it appears items are being thrown.

It's unclear what started the fight, but there are social media rumblings Freddie's foes are "associates" of Benny The Butcher ... and the two rappers do have beef.

Freddie ended up taking the stage the same night at Town Ballroom ... sporting a shiner and a swollen eye.

Young Thug's controversial YSL record label is far from a criminal organization, according to Joe Moses, who says YSL is a totally legit enterprise.

The "Gang Bang" rapper, who's recorded several tracks with Young Thug, was adamant YSL is NOT a gang when he appeared on the "It's Tricky With Raquel Harper" podcast. Joe says cops and the Fulton County D.A. got this case all wrong because YSL is solely focused on making clothes and music.

As you know, prosecutors in Georgia feel the opposite, having indicted Thug, Gunna and 26 others on a 56-count RICO case -- but Joe says law enforcement is just trying to use YT's lyrics against him because Thug's Black.

Among Young Thug's lyrics listed in the indictment ... "I killed his man in front of his momma, like f*** lil bruh, sister and his cousin," and "my trigger start itching."

Joe says this is merely a case of a rapper describing or reflecting on things that happen in his community, and he believes Thug shouldn't be punished for his art.

What's more, he explains why all his dealings with Young Thug over the years lead him to believe the man has a heart of gold.