TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

Lizzo makes it clear her backup dancers will face repercussions if they don't do what she asks, even if that means getting freaky at a live sex show ... at least, that's what 2 of the women suing her are claiming.

The singer's former backup dancers, Arianna Davis, and Crystal Williams, joined us Wednesday on "TMZ Live" and told us about their experiences working under Lizzo.

Arianna and Crystal accused Lizzo of coercing backup dancers to participate in nude cabaret shows ... and they say there's an unspoken feeling among the group of having to bend to Lizzo's demands or be fired if they don't play ball.

As they allege in the lawsuit, sometimes that means eating bananas out of sex performers' vaginas in Amsterdam -- and they told us dancers who went along with Lizzo's idea of fun were rewarded with lavish private jet trips to tropical locations.

On the flip side, they claim dancers who didn't feel comfortable doing everything Lizzo wanted would be threatened with termination.

As for why they're no longer working with Lizzo -- Crystal says she was accused of drinking before performances, and Arianna claims Lizzo body-shamed her for gaining weight ... and she claims Lizzo used an admission of an eating disorder to justify firing her.

Lizzo has yet to comment publicly, or respond to the lawsuit in court ... but her accusers have a lot to say here.

Gunna's not hiding from his public enemy status with Young Thug loyalists -- instead, he's embracing the villain role in his new "Rodeo Dr." video by likening himself to O.J. Simpson!!!

Veteran director Spike Jordan captured Gunna zipping all through California as they reenacted O.J.'s infamous 1994 police chase ... the same one he led cops on for nearly an hour after he was charged with murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman.

The song is featured on Gunna's new album and the YSL rapper mentions the chase on the track's chorus ... "Helpin' the P out, I'm beamin' on Narcos/Thinkin' I should take the Bronco, yeah/O.J., yeah)/Gotta go get it tomorrow."

Many fans, and even artists, have ripped Gunna since he got out of jail back in December ... claiming he snitch on Thug get out -- but he restates his allegiance to YSL on the track with the line, "I'm still doin' it for Jeff and Lil Keed."

O.J. was found not guilty of the murder, and Gunna will avoid jail time as long as keeps his nose clean in accordance with his probation. Not a direct parallel, but obviously, Gunna thinks it's close enough.

His album has plenty of juice this year ... it spawned his biggest hit to date with "Fukumean" ... which has since proven to be tasty ex-girlfriend bait.

Lizzo kept an eye on the famed banana sex show in Amsterdam for years ... sharing her desires way before being sued for allegedly pressuring backup dancers to get in on the act.

Here's the deal ... Lizzo talked about wanting to go to a specific live sex show in the city's infamous Red Light District during a 2019 interview with an Amsterdam radio station ... the same show she's now being sued over.

In her interview with 3FM DJ Frank van der Lende, Lizzo reveals her love for live sex shows in Amsterdam ... and she asks the hosts about the banana sex show, where patrons eat bananas out of sex performers' vaginas.

Lizzo excitedly talks about her desire to find out where the banana show happens ... explaining, "That's what I want to do, I need my potassium if you know what I'm saying. My puss-tassium."

The radio hosts tell Lizzo the place she's looking for is Bananenbar ... a venue that's mentioned several times in the lawsuit she's now facing.

As we reported ... Lizzo is being sued by 3 of her former backup dancers, who say they were sexually denigrated by Lizzo while on the job.

In the suit, the dancers claim during a February 2023 tour stop in Amsterdam, Lizzo took them to Bananenbar and pressured them to interact with the sex performers.

The dancers claim "Lizzo began inviting cast members to take turns touching the nude performers, catching dildos launched from the performers' vaginas, and eating bananas protruding from the performers' vaginas."

It's unclear if the alleged incident was Lizzo's first time at Bananenbar ... but she's clearly had the banana sex show on her mind since 2019 at least.

Houston rapper Big Pokey collapsed mid-performance back in June ... an unfortunate result of a heart attack, his autopsy has revealed.

Tom Gillam III, Justice of the Peace for Jefferson County, Texas, signed Pokey's death certificate this week ... highlighting the medical condition.

"The cause of death, in layman's terms, 'Big Pokey' had a massive heart attack ... He had hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease," Gilliam said in a statement.

Pokey collapsed while performing at a bar in Beaumont, TX on June 18 and died shortly after being rushed to a nearby hospital.

He was 45 years old and left behind a pioneering hip hop legacy for the Lone Star State as a member of the DJ Screw's "Screwed Up Click" ... counting the likes of Slim Thug, Paul Wall and BFF Lil Keke as mourners.

Wallo267's fight promoter aspirations just punched him back in the face!!!

The "Million Dollars Worth Of Game" cohost was congratulating Terence Crawford for his decisive victory over Errol Spence last weekend ... when he immediately looked to the future for Terence's potential next opponent: Jaron Ennis, whose nickname is Boots.

Terence's confidence was understandably swelling after KOing Spence and told Wallo he was indeed the undertaker of the ring ... jokingly asking, "y'all trying to see another dead body???"

Wallo then screenshotted Terence's reply and sent it to Jaron ... who accused Terence of attempting to change weight classes to duck the fight altogether.

The convo was apparently in jest and supposed to stay between friends because Terence completely unloaded on Wallo after he posted it to IG ... upset over the obvious lack of discretion.

Terence appeared on 'MDWOG' ahead of his fight with Spence, and probably thought he'd built a rapport with the boxer. Apparently not THAT good.

That said, now that the gloves are off, will Crawford vs. Ennis become a real thing??? Both fighters are undefeated and Jaron's already told us he wanted dibs on the Crawford-Spence winner.

Stephen Curry's not ashamed to say he's gone fishing this offseason ... the NBA legend grabbed his boat and pole to star in Grammy-nominated lyricist Tobe Nwigwe's new video -- which is the theme song for his new documentary!!!

On Tuesday, Steph starred in the "Lil Fish, Big Pond" music vid, which Tobe directed to exclusively accompany the soundtrack of "Stephen Curry: Underrated" ... the documentary about Steph's life and career.

The two-time MVP is cool, calm and collected in his bucket hat while lip-syncing the song's lyrics that define his greatness on the court -- "They know I'm the one/Daddy taught me how to flick my wrist, I'm my father's son/Think I'm pistol-packing, how that ratchet on me like a gun/They should put the basket in a casket after I am done."

Tobe has built a reputation for having colorful visuals and 'Lil Fish' is no exception. It also really allows Steph to revel in his offseason ... he doesn't touch a single basketball in the whole clip!!!

Steph's downtime without b-ball has literally been par for his course this summer ... the sports world is still reeling from the hole-in-one he sank a few weeks back.

Lizzo isn't sitting at Beyoncé's table right now in the wake of claims made against her by a few former backup dancers -- at least that's how it seems after this apparent Bey sting.

The singer was doing a show in Boston Tuesday -- as part of her "Renaissance" tour -- and during her performance of "Break My Soul (The Queens Remix)" ... Beyoncé noticeably failed to mention Lizzo's name in the lyrics, despite having done so repeatedly in the past.

If you're unfamiliar, Lizzo is actually written into the remix -- meaning her name is supposed to appear in the song naturally, so the fact Bey switched it up live is telling.

The name-drop happens in verse 3, where Beyoncé is listing a bunch of trailblazing women -- which normally includes Lizzo as well -- but on this particular outing ... Bey omitted her and instead chose to mention Erykah Badu 4 different times (more on this later).

Of course, to some ... it felt like, perhaps, Beyoncé had caught wind of the lawsuit filed against Lizzo Tuesday -- which had some pretty scandalous accusations in it, like the notion that she allegedly coerced her backup dancers to participate in nude cabaret shows ... not to mention allegedly badgering/body-shaming one of the dancers over a weight issue.

The internet certainly chatted about it yesterday, and now with this ... some are assuming Beyoncé did as well, and possibly made a decision to leave her off her 'BMS' list.

Now, there's another explanation for this would-be snub. As we reported ... there's bad blood between Erykah and Beyoncé right now. The former called out the latter for ripping off her fashion sense ... this 'cause Bey's worn similar 'fits onstage that echo EB's style.

It was a pretty public call-out ... and you could interpret Beyoncé's move as a response to Erykah stirring the pot. Eye of the beholder, we suppose ... but a choice was certainly made.

Angus Cloud may have been struggling ahead of his surprising death, but it didn't affect his mood while with his closest friends ... and he was actually offering them support before he passed.

The "Euphoria" star was outwardly celebratory and uplifting to his pals at the MacArthur Maze album release party 3 days before his death, according to group members D.Bledsoe and Champ Green.

As we reported, Angus seemed to be in great spirits at the event, and the rappers tell us he was congratulating everyone involved in the album. We're told Angus was getting a lot of attention from partygoers ... but he wasn't there for attention, he just wanted to show love.

D.Bledose says Angus had to soothe his lips with lip balm mid-conversation that night at the party, and Angus laughed and apologized for making things awkward. It was a funny interaction, and one D is remembering fondly today.

A few weeks ago, Angus gave the rap group a big endorsement by sharing one of their music videos on his IG page. We're told Angus slid into the group's DMs and offered to shoot a music video for them -- alongside MacArthur Maze's videographer, who was close friends with Angus.

Of course, everyone involved with the group is now just in complete shock about his death.

Beyoncé is honoring a man who was stabbed to death -- allegedly because he was dancing to her music in public -- and she's doing it a heartfelt message on one of her biggest platforms.

The singer paid tribute to 28-year-old O'Shae Sibley on her website, with a message that reads ... "Rest In Power O'Shae Sibley." It's the first thing you see when you go to beyonce.com, where it's prominently displayed on the homepage.

Sibley was fatally stabbed over the weekend at a Brooklyn gas station after getting into a scuffle with another man ... and cops are reportedly investigating the incident as a possible hate crime.

Sibley was gay and leading up to the confrontation, witnesses say he was voguing in the parking lot to Beyoncé's tracks. Authorities think the altercation might have started because the suspect was reacting to Sibley dancing, according to the NY Post.

Part of the face-off was actually captured by a surveillance camera outside ... and you can see quite a few people arguing.

The actual stabbing happens off-camera, but you can see Sibley (who's shirtless and wearing a hat) and a friend getting heated with an opposing group. Eventually, Sibley goes around a corner ... and moments later you see him come back into frame.

One of his pals who was there on the scene that night posted bloody photos of the aftermath, claiming the attacker was Muslim and let them know he didn't like gay people.

Post Malone's Magic: The Gathering collection just got a whole lot "better now" ... 'cause the musician scooped up one of the game's rarest cards this week -- a piece that some believe is worth more than $2 MILLION!!

The card -- a 1-of-1 called "The One Ring" -- was put out by MTG back in June as part of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set ... and when it got pulled by an anonymous collector just days later, everyone wondered what would end up happening to it.

Turns out, Post Malone -- a lifelong fan of MTG -- hunted it down ... and finally bought it off the owner on Tuesday.

Unclear what he ultimately paid for it -- though some collectors had reportedly made $2 million offers on it already. Regardless, check out the video of when he decided to make the purchase, he was clearly stoked for it despite the high price tag.

The guy who sold it, meanwhile, said he couldn't have been more thrilled to pass it on to a true MTG collector like Post.

"When I found the One Ring," Brook Trafton wrote in the caption of the video of him selling it to the rapper, "the first person who came to mind was @postmalone."

"I have played MTG since I was a kid and obviously it would be amazing to keep this card. But for a guy like me, being able to sell it is life changing. I just really hoped it would go to someone who would appreciate it as much as I do. This is my dream come true, meeting @postmalone and him buying the One Ring card from me is literally a moment straight out of a fairytale."

In addition to being the only one of its kind, the Lord of the Rings tribute card has some other sweet features -- it's got gold foil accents all over it, and "001/001" is emblazoned on the front.

It'll now join Post's Magic collection that already includes an $800,000 Black Lotus ... and a bunch of other rare pieces.

Method Man won't be walking anyone's runway anytime soon, but his "Power Book II: Ghost" castmate LaToya Tonodeo thinks the rap legend should embrace his newfound status as a Hollywood heartthrob!!!

TMZ Hip Hop linked with LaToya at LAX on Tuesday who told us she's happy Meth is getting looked at in a different light, but understands as a woman what it's like to be treated like a piece of meat and wanting to shy away from being propped up in the public eye.

The Wu-Tang Clan rapper was recently profiled for "Men's Health" magazine and he totally railed against being called a sex symbol. His reasons were pretty simple: he doesn't think he's doing anything special to provoke such a title ... save for working out 500-lb dumbbells on occasion.

He also shared how his nutrition routines, something LaToya credits him for sharing with her on the 'Power' set ... educating her about proper dieting and protein shakes in her own fitness journey.

LaToya says as long as fans and admirers respect Meth's boundaries, all should end well.

Lil Meech is trying to save face after Summer Walker called him out, accusing him of flushing their relationship down the toilet -- he says the video of him allegedly visiting a sneaky link isn't what it seems.

A Houston-area DJ put Meech on blast Tuesday by posting the door cam vid of the "BMF" star visiting a woman NOT named Summer Walker, and it appears he stayed a while and got kinda comfy.

Well, Meech hopped on IG after the damning video began to spread to claim the woman was his cousin, and he was merely helping her with some grocery bags. We're gonna keep it a buck -- Meech seemed to be holding back laughter while offering his "groceries" explanation. Take that however you want.

For her part Summer was anything but amused after seeing the video and vented about the fizzled relationship, and her confusion over Meech's behavior.

She says Meech pursued her for years, and even played stepdaddy ... only to "embarrass" her.

Gunna's likely come to terms with the fact he's gonna have to deal with trolls ... but one brazen rap fan attempted to push the YSL rapper's limits by calling him a rat to his face.

The fan shamelessly posted footage of himself catching Gunna and his entourage exiting a building and loudly referring to Gunna as a "rat." Gunna's security guard clearly overheard the man's trolling and stepped to him, asking him to repeat the phrase.

Apparently intimidated, the troll left "rat" out of his next statement.

Gunna, who's on probation after accepting a plea deal chose to walk on by the spectacle and the video ended ... presumably without bashing the guy's face in.

Jennifer Hudson is sending some love Common's way ... saying he's quite the looker and, at least, strongly hinting all the speculation about them being an item is true.

We got Jennifer leaving Il Pastaio in Bev Hills Monday, and when we let her know the 2 of them make a damn cute couple, she didn't deny the love connection.

Here's the thing ... sources tell TMZ they've been together for months, but when we ask her to confirm, she's mostly mum about their relationship -- but check out the glowing compliment she gives the guy.

As we reported, Jennifer and Common first sparked dating rumors in February when they went to Nobu in Malibu together ... and they were spotted hanging out here and there in the months before.

We also got pics of them taking a stroll in a Chicago suburb in May -- total relationship vibes.

You'll recall, Common was dating Tiffany Haddish before Jennifer, but they split in 2021. While Common called the breakup "a mutual thing," Tiffany says that's BS -- saying he was drifting away before it ended.

Method Man is perfectly comfortable hanging up his microphone in exchange for acting these days, and loves the newfound attention he's getting from the ladies for his work on-screen.

What the Wu-Tang Clan legend doesn't love, however, is being referred to as a sex symbol ... as the inner MC in him says the words just don't make a bit of sense!!!

The 52-year-old railed against the term in his "Men's Health" cover story, where he declared, "I’m not a sex symbol. That’s the whole f**king point, man. Put the words together. Sex and symbol. What’s the symbol? I’m not doing anything. So what’s the symbol?"

Meth has been going viral on social media for his role as Davis MacLean on 50 Cent's "Power II" TV series.

M-E-T-H-O-D Man joined 50 Cent, Wiz Khalifa, Common, Ludacris, and Busta Rhymes on the health mag's special edition cover to celebrate Hip Hop's 50th anniversary ... a vital turning point as Meth says he's no longer in the business of selling records.

Drake and 21 Savage will no longer be hitting Memphis as part of their "It's All a Blur" Tour ... the date has been officially canceled after being postponed.

Ticketmaster delivered the unfortunate news for Memphis residents who had been patiently waiting to see Drake on Tuesday ... incensing several on social media as word spread around town.

A statement posted by the venue reads ... "Due to the magnitude of the production of the Drake concert, it is logistically impossible to bring the show as designed to the FedExForum on August 6th."

The tour has featured a dazzling array of gigantic stage props including huge sperm cells and a giant-sized Virgil Abloh while the FedExForum can seat around 19k people ... but the marriage wasn't meant to be this time around.

To add insult to fans' injuries, Drake received the key to the city of Memphis back in June amid the first concert's delay -- and many feel he should return the thing if he's not gonna perform.