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Michael Irvin tells TMZ Sports he's straight-up perplexed by Dez Bryant's plan to wait until the season has begun to sign with a team ... saying the receiver NEEDS a squad ASAP!!

Remember ... Dez was hot and heavy with the Browns earlier this month -- but he turned down their offer and then said he's going to wait until "a lil bit later in the year" to find a roster.

Count Michael in the camp that thinks that's a silly decision ... 'cause he tells us his no. 1 piece of advice to Dez would be to get on a team NOW.

"I do know who's representing him, and I'm just a little bit confused with the direction that they are trying to go here," Michael says.

"I would tell him to find a team and get on a team. Find a team. Get on a team. Get back to belonging somewhere. Right now, you're like a vagabond where you don't have a team and you're wondering."

FYI ... Irvin says he has NO DOUBT Dez can return to All-Pro form -- he just needs to go somewhere as soon as possible so he can show that Week 1.

By the way ... Michael also tells us he loves the fit Teddy Bridgewater found when he was traded from the Jets to the Saints on Wednesday, saying T.B. can be the future after Drew Brees.

7:15 PM PT -- Gladys just told TMZ, "I'd like to clarify that Aretha and I discussed both of us having cancer, mine was stage 1 breast cancer and hers was pancreatic. Due to early detection, I am cancer-free and grateful for that."

Gladys continues, "It is unfortunate that on a day we should be celebrating Aretha's life and massive contribution to our world, a reporter who did not relay accurate information has missed the message. I send my love to the entire Franklin family and my gratitude to them for sharing such an extraordinary person with us."

1:45 PM PT -- Knight's publicist, Jay D. Schwartz, tells TMZ ... Knight does not have cancer, and she's doing fine.

Another music legend, Gladys Knight, seems to have revealed she's battling pancreatic cancer ... and Gladys says she and her friend Aretha Franklin discussed it the last time they spoke.

Gladys was attending Aretha's funeral in Detroit Friday when she told WDIV about their final conversation. Gladys says they happened to be staying in the same hotel, and when they sat down to chat, she says ... "At that time we shared the fact that we had the same disease."

Aretha died 2 weeks ago from pancreatic cancer.

Gladys, who looked great at the funeral, is 74 years old. She did not say how far a long her cancer is.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer performed at Aretha's memorial concert Thursday night.

4:00 PM PT -- Mel B says she is not a "raging alcoholic," though she does drink socially. She also denies she takes "illicit drugs," and says she's not a sex addict ... these are her responses to Belafonte's request for sole legal and physical custody.

Mel B claims Russell Updegraff's declaration in which he makes these claims has no credibility, because she says he's an ex employee who has an ax to grind, and he and Belafonte are hell bent in dragging her through the mud and ruining her reputation out of spite.

She says she is willing to submit to random drug testing for a limited period of time to prove she's a fit parent, and wants Stephen to do the same.

And, in her legal docs Mel B repeats her claim that Belafonte has abused her so badly she's suffering from PTSD.

Mel also agrees to submit to a child custody evaluation with psychological testing, because she strongly opposes Stephen getting full custody. She also states the following -- she's not a "sex addict" who brings home random men, she is not a raging alcoholic as Stephen paints her to be, she does not take illicit drugs ... and her children's well-being is her top priority

There's more ... Anthony Santa Maria -- Mel B's housekeeper and childcare services provider -- vouches for Mel in the docs, claiming he's never witnessed her drunk "or even buzzed," and he's never seen her do anything remotely dangerous or neglectful with her kids.

Short story ... Mel B says Belafonte is angry, hungry for media attention and he has waged a vicious campaign to destroy her so he can stay in the spotlight.

10:15 AM PT -- We've learned Mel B and Stephen reached a settlement in the judge's chambers. The details are confidential. On her way out of court, we asked Mel if she was going to rehab ... but she was mum.

Stephen Belafonte says Mel B isn't fit to retain custody of her children, because she's in the grip of an alcohol-fueled spiral ... so claims ex-husband Belafonte.

Belafonte appeared in court Friday, armed with documentation from people who have been close to Mel B. She showed up as well, covered in sweat.

One of the declarations Belafonte submitted is from Russell Updegraff, who said in legal docs he's been responsible for watching her 2 kids, Madison and Angel, who he says are at serious risk because of a profound drinking problem on Mel B's part.

Updegraff claims Mel B drinks daily ... often starting as early as 10 AM. He says the day begins with beer, and then turns to wine and eventually hard liquor ... including vodka, tequila and gin. He says Mel B typically passes out, awakes and then becomes mean and belligerent.

Updegraff says the drinking problem is so bad, she's asked him to go to the store and get 12 bottles of wine, 2 bottles of vodka and one to two 12-packs of beer ... which she consumes in 4 to 5 days.

According to Updegraff's declaration, Madison, who turns 7 Saturday, and 11-year-old Angel are scared and stressed. He claims Mel B was sometimes physically abusive to Angel, digging her nails into her, grabbing her and shaking her.

Updegraff also says Mel B has been a cocaine user, although the docs suggest the real issue now is alcohol.

And, Updegraff says Mel B often brings various men home, with the kids present. In one case, he says a strange man tried to bring Madison into the shower, and he had to intervene and stop him.

He also says Mel B would regularly leave town for 1 to 2 weeks at a time and never check in to see how the kids were doing.

The hearing will be held this morning. We will update when the judge rules.

Belafonte wants temporary custody of kids so Mel B can go to rehab and get clean. He does not want to take the kids away from her, but fears they are at extreme risk given Mel B's state.

The ex-girlfriend of "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" actor Shelley Malil -- who was convicted of attempted murder after stabbing her 23 times in a fit of rage in 2008 -- is shocked and terrified he's been granted parole ... and feels the system let her down.

Kendra Beebe tells TMZ ... the 3 men on the California parole board who decided Malil is good to return to society have made a terrible decision, and sent a clear message that they don't value women or their safety.

Beebe claims Malil is still telling lies about what happened the night of her attack -- in which he stabbed her with a broken wine glass and a kitchen knife and also tried to smother her with a pillow while her 2 kids slept upstairs -- which proves he's not really remorseful or safe.

Kendra believes Malil just pulled off a big acting job, and wholeheartedly disagrees with the parole board's assessment that he's a low risk for committing future violence.

Kendra tells us she's still living in fear because of her attack, and she's going to ask for Malil to wear a GPS device to monitor his activity -- she thinks it's the least they can do.

5:15 PM PT -- According to the Atlanta PD ... T-Pain's bodyguard was detained at the airport when a security checkpoint found a firearm in his backpack. He and the rapper were relocated to the Atlanta Police Airport Precinct to continue the investigation, where it was determined T-Pain was the rightful owner of the gun his bodyguard was carrying ... and he provided a valid permit to carry.

The gun was returned to the rapper, both men were released, and no charges were filed. However, we're told an investigation is ongoing to determine if the bodyguard will face charges for possession of a weapon at a TSA checkpoint.

T-Pain's carry-on luggage didn't make it onto the plane, because security agents found a gun in it ... TMZ has learned.

Law enforcement sources tell us ... the rapper's bag was flagged during a main checkpoint screening at the Atlanta airport Friday, and when TSA agents inspected it, they found a loaded Smith & Wesson .380 inside.

We're told cops were called ... removed the weapon, and took T-Pain aside for further investigation. It's unclear at this time if the rapper was arrested ... but he seemed to address the incident as it was happening on his social media.

Pain tweeted, "Might be a tad bit late today. Things at the Atlanta airport are getting........... eventful. @ Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport."

He also shared a photo on Instagram with a similar caption, suggesting he was having a gun-related issue.

We've reached out to T-Pain ... so far, no word back.

Aretha Franklin's star-studded funeral has wrapped up in Detroit, and Jennifer Hudson gave an amazing rendition of "Amazing Grace" to give the "Queen of Soul" a final, fitting send-off.

Aretha's "Celebration of Life" took place at the Greater Grace Temple, and completes a week of events honoring her. The funeral service was highlighted by performances by Stevie Wonder, Faith Hill, Hudson, Pastor Shirley Caesar, The Clark Sisters and the recently added Ariana Grande.

Franklin's funeral comes on the heels of her unforgettable memorial concert Thursday, dubbed "A People's Tribute to the Queen."

Earlier this week ... a 2-day, open-casket public viewing was held this Tuesday and Wednesday at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, which drew lines around the block.

Aretha died August 16 from pancreatic cancer. She was 76.

RIP Queen.

Prince's estate is going after a record label, claiming it's run by a group of bootleggers conspiring to cash in by jacking his tunes and plastering the Prince logo on all their rip-off merchandise.

Prince's estate just filed docs -- obtained by TMZ -- against Eye Records ... which the estate says is described as a "bootleg label dedicated to Prince." According to the docs ... Eye Records has illegally released 18 Prince compilations since Prince died in 2016, including CD sets titled 'Blast From The Past.'

Eye Records allegedly uses the online store newlovesigne.com to sell the bootlegged music, which includes live performances and unreleased studio tracks ... like "Prince Atlanta," which contain live recordings of the musician in his last-ever show.

Prince's estate is suing the record label and the individuals it believes are involved in the bootlegging scheme for monetary damages ... including $2 million for every one of their alleged Prince trademark violations ... and they claim there are a lot.

A rep for Prince's estate tells us, "There was nothing more important to Prince than the quality of his music and how his fans experienced it. With this filing, our hope is to preserve the integrity of the music and remain true to Prince's wishes."

G-Eazy didn't take long to fire a huge shot back at Machine Gun Kelly, responding with an all-out diss track after MGK freestyled about banging Halsey.

The freshly heated beef started roasting Thursday, when MGK went on HOT 97 with Funkmaster Flex and dropped some bars blasting Eazy ... accusing him of stealing his look with the line, "I f***ed his girl now he looks like me this sh*t overbearing."

G-Eazy responded hours later by releasing a new track called "Bad Boy" on SoundCloud ... which included lyrics directly aimed at MGK.

The lines include ... "MGK please stop trolling me, get over me / You wanna be me, you’re mad that you’re not as big as me." He goes on to call him a "mini-me" and a "f***ing joke," and delivered a threat regarding Halsey, saying ... "Disrespect her again I’ll smack you."

Doesn't seem like MGK's scared by G's threats, though -- he shared the video of his freestyle on his Instagram along with a photo of the 2 and the lyrics about banging Eazy's GF.

As we reported ... G-Eazy and Halsey split earlier this summer, and around the same time she was spotted out one night with Kelly.

Halsey and G-Eazy have gotten back together after their 2-month split ... and we've seen them out together twice in the last 2 weeks.

It looks like their reconciliation has come at the cost of the rapper's friendship.

John McCain's casket has arrived at the U.S. Capitol where it will lie in state ... and hundreds and hundreds of people lined up in the rain in D.C. to pay their respects.

Family, friends, colleagues and staff poured into the U.S. Capitol Rotunda Friday for a ceremony honoring McCain's life. Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and VP Mike Pence all spoke and gave tribute to late Arizona Senator.

After the formal ceremony ended, the public was able to also pay their respects. Doors to the public opened at 2 PM ET and stayed open until 8 PM ET.

At the request of the late senator's family, flowers may be sent to your local VA Hospital.

McCain's National Memorial Service will be held Saturday at 10 AM ET at the Washington National Cathedral. Former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush -- both former political rivals of McCain -- are set to deliver eulogies at his request.

15 people will carry McCain's coffin at the memorial service ... including former VP Joe Biden, actor Warren Beatty, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Secretary of Defense William Cohen.

President Trump will not attend McCain's funeral after being made persona non grata, and McCain's former running mate in 2008, Sarah Palin, has also reportedly not been invited.

Since his death, heartfelt tributes from celebrities and fellow politicians have poured in for McCain ... including from Sen. Lindsey Graham, who told us he vows to do better to honor his friend.

There's also been a push to rename the Russell Senate Office Building the McCain Senate Office Building, spearheaded by Sen. Chuck Schumer.

As we reported ... more than 1,000 family, friends, officials, civic leaders and members of the public packed North Phoenix Baptist Church for a memorial service in Arizona on Thursday, where Biden was the speaker.

On Wednesday morning, the Arizona Army National Guard carried McCain's casket into the AZ State Capitol Museum rotunda for a private ceremony for family and colleagues ... including remarks by Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey.

11:00 AM PT -- Jade and Baddie Gi are NOT strippers, but rather work as bartenders at the club. They also claim Cardi B threw at least one of the bottles at them during the alleged attack on August 29.

Cardi B is accused of unleashing her posse on 2 strip club bartenders and badly injuring both, and we've learned they're going to cops to trigger a formal criminal investigation.

One of the bartenders -- Jade -- claims Cardi's been threatening her for months, claiming she slept with her husband Offset.

Jade claims Cardi repeatedly threatened her with violence on Instagram, and in June Jade and her sister Baddie Gi, claim they were face-to-face with Cardi at an Atlanta hotel. Jade says Cardi again accused her of sleeping with Offset -- something she denies -- and then Cardi threatened them with physical harm.

Jade says on August 15, she got a warning early in the day that Cardi had targeted her for a beatdown. Later that night in Queens at Angels Strip Club, Jade says 5 people associated with Cardi viciously attacked her, grabbing her hair, punching her and hitting her with an ashtray, causing serious damage.

Fast forward to the wee hours of Wednesday, August 29 ... Jade and Baddie Gi say they came face-to-face with Cardi B at Angels Strip Club, and a group from Cardi's posse attacked both of them ... throwing bottles and chairs at them causing serious injuries that required medical attention.

The women have lawyered up in a big way, hiring the uber prominent Joe Tacopina, who tells us he's mulling over filing a lawsuit against Cardi and others. Tacopina also says both of his clients are going to file a police report and Cardi will be named.

To make it clear ... neither woman says Cardi personally laid a hand on either, but we're told she did yell, "I'm blood I'll fuck you bitches up!"

4:00 PM PT -- Kyle died of an accidental drug overdose ... according to a statement from his family. They also say they've created The Kyle Pavone Foundation in his honor to help those struggling with drug addiction.

Kyle Pavone -- the lead vocalist of metal band We Came as Romans -- died as a result of drugs ... TMZ has learned.

The Oakland County Medical Examiner's Office in Michigan tells us ... Kyle died of drug abuse. It's unclear if this means his death was accidental or by suicide ... or if he suffered an overdose or another complication related to drugs.

We're told a toxicology report will take up to 8 weeks to complete.

As we reported ... Pavone's death was revealed by the metalcore band on social media last weekend, with a statement saying, "Kyle's tragic loss came too early in his life and those of his bandmates. All are devastated by his passing. We will miss his smiles, his sincerity, his concern for others, and his impressive musical talent."

Sources close to the situation told us Kyle was transported to a Michigan hospital August 19 and was pronounced dead August 25.

We Came as Romans is best known for their songs "Hope," "The World I Used to Know" and "I Knew You Were Trouble." Their album "Tracing Back Roots" reached #8 on the Billboard charts in 2013.

Dr. Dre and Xzibit screwed 3 people out of a fortune in the cannabis industry by taking their time, money and hard work, and then pretending they never existed ... according to a new suit.

Three individuals are suing the rappers and their weed company, Brass Knuckles, claiming they did a ton of legwork for them and eventually struck a deal to acquire a 14.5 percent stake in the business ... but then got hosed.

According to the docs, Dre -- who the 3 individuals claim is a secret co-owner of Brass Knuckles -- was happy with their work and was going to be involved in promoting some major projects associated with the biz.

The 3 people claim they reached an agreement with Dre, Xzibit and others in the company to pay $5 million to buy their 14.5 percent, and everything was going fine ... until the Brass Knuckles execs got greedy.

According to the docs ... the company was originally valued at $50 million, but after the deal was struck with the group of 3 and they ponied up the $5 mil for their share, it was determined the company was actually valued at $170 mil.

The 3 claim at this point ... Dre, Xzibit and company pretended the deal never existed. The 3's lawyer, Larry Ecoff, tells us his clients were essentially kicked to the curb after the higher valuation, and "this case is all about greed and weed."

They're now suing for breach of contract and want monetary damages ... along with a judge to rule they are 14.5 percent owners of the company.

Dr. Dre's lawyer, Howard King tells us ... this lawsuit is "without any allegations of anything done by [Dre] that would justify naming him as a defendant," and that doing so "is nothing more than a blatant and short-sighted attempt by the plaintiffs to generate publicity for their cause."

Actress Vanessa Marquez -- who played Wendy Goldman on "ER" -- was shot and killed by police ... and authorities believe Vanessa had mental issues stemming from an eating disorder.

Vanessa's landlord called South Pasadena police Thursday afternoon, saying he was concerned for the actress. When police arrived she became combative and waved what cops believed was a semi-automatic handgun. Police shot her at least once in the torso.

It turned out she was brandishing a BB gun.

Vanessa was rushed to the hospital where she died.

Authorities say she was suffering from some sort of eating disorder which triggered seizures. Apparently when police arrived at her apartment she was mid-seizure.

Vanessa was on "ER" from 1994 to 1997. She accused George Clooney of booting her from the show and blacklisting her ... saying she was the victim of racist and sexist comments. Clooney has said he had no idea what she was even talking about.

In addition to "ER," her credits include "Stand and Deliver" and "Twenty Bucks."

Kylie Jenner is almost a billionaire and world famous largely because of Tyga ... so says Tyga.

Kylie's ex appeared on Nicki Minaj's Beats 1 show on Queen Radio, and took lots of credit for Kylie's success. He said, "When I stepped in ... it was like, you can do this, you should do this, you should start doing your hair like this."

And then the kicker ... Tyga said, "You need Black people to f*** with you 'cause you need culture. If you ain't got black people behind you, you ain't got nothin'. Ain't nobody gonna listen. You can't influence nobody. So, I had a lot to do with all that."

Nicki bristled when she heard Tyga grab credit, and essentially said it's a sexist view where men jack credit from successful women.

NBA star J.R. Smith has turned himself into police in New York -- and has been charged with a crime -- stemming from a July incident where he allegedly threw a cell phone, TMZ Sports has learned.

TMZ Sports broke the story ... Smith was being investigated for allegedly stealing a cell phone from a person outside of The Park -- a hot spot in Chelsea. Officials believe Smith threw the phone into a nearby construction zone, damaging the item.

Now, we've learned Smith appeared at an NYPD station in Chelsea early Friday morning where he was charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief and issued a desk appearance ticket to appear in court at a later date.

We spoke with Smith's attorney, Alex Spiro, who tells us, "This is nonsense, and we aren't responding to nonsense. He was issued a ticket."