TMZ Hip Hop - Page 50

Kanye West treated his fans to a one-of-a-kind experience at his "Donda" listening event, but he also received a couple gifts after the show ... including one honoring his late mother.

According to our sources ... the City of Atlanta presented the rapper a plaque backstage after his performance at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Kanye was born in ATL, and the city officially proclaimed July 22 Kanye West Day.

On top of that, and perhaps more importantly to Kanye ... Kevin James -- President of ATL's HBCU, Morris Brown College -- was also on hand to give Ye a token of appreciation on behalf of his mom, Donda West, who taught at the school for nearly 2 decades and was Chair of the English Department.

The award presented to Kanye is called the Dr. Donda West Meritorious Service to Morris Brown College. Donda started her career at Morris Brown, which was founded in 1881 and is the only HBCU in Georgia founded by Black people.

As we reported ... Kanye revealed his new album, named after his mother, Thursday night in front of a huge crowd that included Kim Kardashian and their kids, along with Khloe.

Our sources say his family was with him when he received the awards backstage, and he got super emotional about it.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are going through a divorce, but they're still celebrating each other's milestones as a family ... including the release of his 10th studio album.

Kim and all 4 of their kids -- North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm -- are part of the large crowd Thursday night at Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium to enjoy a listening event for Kanye's highly anticipated "Donda" album ... named after his late mother.

One thing is very clear, even though they're not together anymore, the former couple believes it's important to continue supporting one another in their lives and careers.

Along with Kim and the kiddos, Khloe's also in tow to show her support for Ye ... who she recently called her "brother for life."

As we reported ... the first sample we got from "Donda" came via a Beats by Dre commercial this week, featuring his track "No Child Left Behind" and track star Sha'Carri Richardson.

Kanye's 10th album is his first since going gospel in 2019 with "Jesus Is King" ... but it's expected to continue to have a religious theme. For his listening party, he gifted 5,000 tickets to faculty, staff and students from some Atlanta HBCUs.

The seemingly impossible just happened at the end of Kanye's album release event in Atlanta ... Jay-Z hopped on a track, when many believed the two were still enemies.

Kanye played "DONDA" for tens of thousands of fans at Mercedes-Benz Stadium Thursday. West wore all red -- a look he made famous back in 2010 -- and danced, paced and at times stood totally still while the tracks blasted through stadium speakers.

The album had audio snippets from Kanye's late mother, Donda West, throughout and featured a ton of features -- including Travis Scott, Lil Baby, Don Toliver, Vory and Playboi Carti.

However, it wasn't until the final track where the biggest stunner of the night came ... a song with Jay-Z. What's more, Jay's producer and engineer, Young Guru, tweeted, "HOV did the verse today!!!! At 4pm" ... a possible reason the event's start was delayed almost 2 hours.

If you haven't followed along over the years, the feud between Kanye and HOV came to light in 2014 when Jay and Beyonce didn't attend Kim and Kanye's wedding. Things seemed to spiral after that, including public comments Kanye made during a show in 2016 when he lashed out at Jay-Z for not checking in on his family after Kim was robbed at gunpoint in Paris.

From there ... Jay-Z dissed Kanye on his "4:44" album and Kanye eventually split from Jay's streaming service, Tidal. The two hadn't collabed or been publicly cordial up until Thursday.

Jay-Z and Beyonce are going to be in the market for a cleaning crew ... after a mansion in New Orleans, they reportedly own, caught on fire.

TMZ has confirmed firefighters responded Wednesday night to a 1-alarm fire at the Spanish baroque mansion in the Garden District. We're told the fire department got the call around 6 PM and a little over 2 hours later the fire was fully extinguished.

At this point the extent of the damage is unclear ... but a 1-alarm fire's no joke. Apparently, it took 22 firefighters to knock down the blaze.

Luckily, there were no injuries and the cause of the fire is unknown. Thankfully, a properly working smoke alarm alerted the fire department about the blaze.

As to whether the Carters own the house ... Curbed New Orleans reported back in 2015 the listed owner, Sugarcane Park LLC, shows its mailing address is the one for Bey's management company, Parkwood Entertainment.

As for the house itself ... it was reportedly built in 1925 as a Presbyterian church before it was re-purposed as a ballet school. The 3-story house features a main residence, 3 separate apartments, 26-foot ceilings and a green roof.

UFC star Sean O'Malley and 6ix9ine made their bromance permanent this week ... 'cause Suga let the controversial rapper tattoo his '69' logo on him!!

The duo had a helluva weekend together in Miami ... clubbing, playing softball and eating expensive ass meals out in South Beach.

But, while the good times may fade away, there's one part of their bro-down that won't -- the wild new ink O'Malley got ... with Tekashi taking the matters into his own hands and doing the job himself!!

You can see shirtless O'Malley sitting while Tekashi, needle in hand ... is going to work on his right shoulder.

Granted, celebrity tattoo artist Tatu Panda was there to make sure Tekashi69 didn't screw up ... and eventually took over after the first few minutes.

O'Malley was pleased with his big and bold 69 tat ... saying "you da man!" in the comment section on the Instagram post.

But, Suga wasn't the only one to get tatted by Tekashi ... it looks like YouTuber SteveWillDoIt let him start a tat on his left hand, too!!

No word on if 6ix9ine got a tat as well ... but the dude's clearly running out of room on his body, so who knows?!

Suga recapped the whole weekend on his podcast ... saying Steve even gifted him a sick new Rolex in the process!!

Sha'Carri Richardson isn't competing in the Olympics -- but she's still making it onto millions of TV, phone and tablet screens across the world -- thanks to a new collab with Dr. Dre and Kanye West.

The Dre Beats commercial just aired during Game 6 of the NBA finals between The Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns.

The ad features Richardson donning a pair of the famous headphones while hitting the track and a never-before-heard Kanye song called, "No Child Left Behind" playing the background. West repeats the lyrics, "He's done miracles on Me" throughout the clip -- seemingly referring to God.

It's the first official listen the public-at-large has gotten of West's upcoming album, titled "DONDA" ... after his late mother. The Beats ad also worked as an announcement that the album will drop Friday.

Richardson has become the most talked about name in sports over the last few weeks after getting suspended and then disqualified from the 2021 Tokyo Game after a positive test for marijuana ... so it makes total sense why Kanye would want to collab for some album press.

Nicki Minaj is hooking up the mall cop who let one of her fans rap in a Zara, and it sounds like his 15 minutes of fame comes with an added bonus ... some social media clout with the Barbz!!!

We got the security guard, Michael, out Monday in NYC after he'd gone viral for letting one of Nicki's barbz, Zha Chanel, perform a cover of the new track, "Whole Lotta Money" ... on which Minaj features.

Michael was actually with Zha when he told us what went down when Nicki let her followers know she was looking for him to give him a gift for looking the other way during Zha's impromptu gig.

Sounds like Zha -- along with Michael's store manager -- went out of their way to get him connected to Nicki, and he says he couldn't believe it.

After Nicki got proof it was really him, she told Michael she was going to like one of his Instagram pics to get the likes rolling in ... and he says his phone's been blowing up ever since.

Even better -- she also tagged him in one of her IG stories ... so now his follower count's skyrocketing too!

Michael says he's enjoying the ride, and he's not sure if he's going to get in any trouble for letting Zha do her thing, but he doesn't care if he does -- he's just happy to support Black artists, and get some positive vibes in return.

Dr. Dre's son, Curtis Young, is ready to step out from his father's shadow and make a name for himself in Hollywood ... and he's doing it by landing a starring role in a feature film.

Curtis tells TMZ ... he's not only starring in the new film, "Charge It to the Game," but also composing original music for the movie.

The film is a coming-of-age story about 4 best friends finding their way through adolescence and navigating obstacles along the way ... and Curtis says he's playing the role of Kong, one of the friends' older brothers.

It's pretty cool ... Curtis says his character's younger brother is being played by Snoop Dogg's son, Julian Broadus ... and Swizz Beat's son, Nasir Dean, is playing one of the 4 best friends.

Curtis, who says he's always wanted to get into acting because art's in his blood, will score the film with Nasir.

His big break's been a long time coming ... Curtis had auditioned to play his father in "Straight Out of Compton," but didn't get the part, even though he felt he had a good shot.

Nicki Minaj sure does appreciate the fan love she receives -- but she loves it even more when her adoring base can worship her uninterrupted ... for which one mall security guard is getting a personal shout-out from the Barbz herself.

The rapper reposted a video originally shared by TikTok user @zhachanel2 ... in which they take an impromptu karaoke sesh -- with a new song NM is featured on, "Whole Lotta Money," -- right into a designer fashion store in a what appears to be a mall somewhere in NYC.

So, imagine a Times Square street performer busting into a Zara and literally cutting loose with a portable speaker. That's exactly what happened here, and that's when security stepped in to shut it down ... well, kinda. The dude half tried, but didn't seem to care.

Check it out ... he tells Zha and their photog that they can't be "doing that" in here -- but he makes no real attempt to stop it ... instead, choosing to walk and throw his hands up.

Nicki loved the fact that the dude let the show go on ... taking to IG to write in part, "it's the security guard sayin "y'all can't do that in here" while walking AWAY from the festivities chile I am TIDE," going on to explain that the whole interaction was absolutely hilarious to her.

Queen Nicki wasn't done there though ... she followed up with another message on her story, and it sounds like she wants to hook the guard up for not being a jerk and letting Zha do the damn thang.

She says, "Someone tell the security guard in that video I posted that I'm lookin for him." Nicki adds, "I wanna send him a gift for being such a sweetheart to one of my babies."

Damon Dash just took another L in court at the hands of Roc-A-Fella and Jay-Z ... but their legal war's far from over, and they could be duking it out again soon.

A federal judge just shot down Dash's bid to get a temporary restraining order which would have blocked Friday's meeting of the record label's shareholders -- a meeting where Dash claimed Jay would try to pass bylaws restricting Dame's ability to sell his stake in RAF.

According to legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Dash says he's trying to sell his 1/3 interest in Roc-A-Fella, but claims Jay's trying to do anything he can to block him.

Dash claims he recently learned of a Friday afternoon meeting between Jay and the third RAF founder, Kareem Burke, and he raced to court to get a judge to stop it.

But, the judge denied DD ... and instead, told him he could sue later if he takes issue with whatever comes out of Friday's meeting.

Kanye West and Irina Shayk are very much in a relationship despite reports to the contrary, and rumors she turned down an overseas trip with him are nonsense ... TMZ has learned.

Sources close to the couple tell us they're still dating, just as they have been for months, and recently spent the Fourth of July weekend together in San Francisco -- and not in hiding either. We're told the couple dined out together at the fancy restaurant, Mourad.

Afterward, Kanye took off to Paris for the Balenciaga show during Fashion Week. Page Six reported he wanted Irina to go with him but she declined -- however, our sources say that's not true. We're told Ye hadn't invited her because it was a quick business trip, he flew in and out of Paris the same day.

The Irina-free trip sparked speculation their relationship was "cooling off" -- but we're told things are as hot as ever.

As we first told you ... the musician and supermodel have been together for months, though word of their relationship didn't break until after they hung out in France for his 44th birthday, and hopped on a private jet back to the States together.

Lil Durk got a rude awakening, when some people busted into his home and exchanged gunfire with him and his girlfriend ... this according to law enforcement.

According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation ... the rapper and his girlfriend, India Cox, were the victims of a home invasion and aggravated assault this past Sunday a little after 5 AM.

Law enforcement tells us several unidentified individuals entered Durk's home in the Chateau Elan neighborhood of Braselton -- about an hour outside Atlanta -- and a shootout ensued.

The GBI says Durk and India discharged their firearms, but they were not injured during the incident.

It's unclear exactly how many people allegedly entered the home, but cops are asking for tips from the public in the case as part of the investigation.

Cardi B scored a legal victory in her ongoing battle with a blogger -- a judge just tossed the blogger's countersuit against the rapper.

The court ruled in favor of the rapper, saying the blogger, Latasha K, couldn't prove Cardi was connected to the assault and emotional distress she claims to have suffered back in 2019.

In docs, obtained by TMZ, the judge said Latasha "failed to produce any evidence that [Cardi] herself threatened [Latasha] or made her believe that she was going to harm her."

The judge continued, "Instead, [Latasha] has only made allegations that others who may be associated with [Cardi] made these threats ... and has failed to demonstrate here that the threats ... were directed by [Cardi]" or committed by anyone working for her.

As we reported, Latasha claimed Cardi assaulted her -- even though they were never in the same room -- and she was in such fear for her life she felt compelled to reach out to the FBI.

In any event, the judge ruled there wasn't enough evidence to support Latasha's claims and dismissed them.

BTW, she got a similar reaction from the FBI, which told her to move if she was so concerned.

Blueface's jeweler wants to make it crystal clear, the rapper doesn't owe him any money -- contrary to the online digs from Tekashi 6ix9ine ... and Tekashi can go shove it, according to the jeweler.

We got Gavriel D., the founder and CEO of NYC Luxury, Monday in NYC ... and he stopped to give us the 411 on Blueface tatting the name of Gavriel's company on the side of his head.

You'll recall the "Bleed It" rapper raised eyebrows last week with the tat on his dome, and drew Tekashi out of his troll hole to comment. He insinuated Blueface is broke and can't afford to pay for his bling, so he turned to human billboarding.

Gavriel says that's total BS ... and says there's only one logical explanation for the tat -- Blueface loves the brand!!! It's true. Blueface is known for giving his favorite brands serious real estate space on his dome. He's done it with Corvette and Yves Saint Laurent.

The celeb jeweler also told us a while back he joked with Blueface about his Corvette tattoo and that he should get an NYC Luxury one too. We're told Blueface one day, out of the blue, FaceTimed him and voilà ... there he was on the table getting the tattoo done.

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky appear to be mixing business with pleasure -- and they're not being low-key about it ... rocking some seriously eye-catching outfits.

RiRi and Rocky appeared to be filming a music video together Sunday in the Bronx. You can see they're dressed to the nines with bright-colored furs and hats. Rihanna's colorful taste also showed up on her gemstone-filled grill.

It seems the entire neighborhood was invited to the project ... you can see a parade on the streets as cameras were rolling. There was also a wardrobe change later in the evening ... with Riri rocking the hell out of a red dress and heels.

A$AP recently revealed he's around 90% done with his fourth studio album, "All Smiles" -- so, we're guessing this is a shoot for one of his tracks. Rihanna hasn't dropped a new album since "Anti" in 2016, and fans are thirsting hard for new music ... but this probably isn't it.

It makes sense they're working together, musically. As you know, they've been inseparable for weeks now. He literally swept her off her feet recently ... and called her "the love of my life."

Cardi B and Offset threw a princess-themed bash for Kulture's 3rd birthday -- complete with a castle -- but the proud parents also made sure to have some WAP-themed fun for themselves.

The guest of honor arrived to her event in full princess regalia ... she rode in a horse-drawn carriage with mom and dad, while wearing a bright pink dress and, of course, a tiara.

Cardi's outfit matched her little girl's and they made a grand entrance together -- through a tunnel of balloons -- into the castle. The party had the usual kid stuff ... a petting zoo, Disney princesses and a Cinderella cake, but also a DJ to make sure Cardi and Offset had fun.

While the happy couple was grinding on the dance floor ... Cardi's baby bump was very prominent.

Cardi just revealed -- during her BET Awards performance with Migos -- she's expecting their second kid.