R&B megastar Ne-Yo says he's NOT GUILTY of stealing the title of his upcoming album R.E.D. from The Game ... even though Game released his R.E.D. album last year.

"No ... I don't feel like I ripped off The Game's album," Ne-Yo told us at LAX ... insisting he carefully selected the name of his album (which stands for Realizing Every Dream) because he felt it had a good fit ... not because he was trying to copy the rapper.

FYI -- Game's R.E.D. album debuted #1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart.

"Until The Game comes up to me and says he has a problem with it, I don't care what people think." ... Ne-Yo said.

He also points out that he's not the first artist to inadvertently use another artist's album title -- "Jay-Z did The Blueprint and so did KRS-One."

As far as Game is concerned, he recently told XXLMag.com he doesn't hold a grudge with Ne-Yo over the album title ... saying, "I’ve always known Ne-Yo to be a cool dude, so I’m pretty sure he got his reasoning."

We didn't think it was possible -- but Ne-Yo's baby mama just broke the African-child-adopting records set by Madonna AND Angelina Jolie ... combined ... agreeing to adopt 48 children in Swaziland.

Full disclosure -- Monyetta Shaw's not actually taking 48 children back to the United States with her ... but she did agree to pay for their living costs for an entire year ... a nearly $20,000 commitment.

Sources tell TMZ, "Football Wives" star Chanita Foster (below) -- who founded a charity called Beyond the Game to provide children in Swaziland with food, clothes, and education -- got in touch with Monyetta about sponsoring a child or two ... and Monyetta agreed.


But we're told, once Monyetta saw the 48 young faces in the charity's brochure -- she fell in love ... and insisted on adopting all of them.

Each kid costs roughly $30 a month -- and Monyetta adopted 48 for an entire year ... which means she's in for $17,280. Not bad.

Of course, to provide similar care in the U.S. would run roughly the same ... PER CHILD

Ne-Yo went on a redecorating mission last weekend at an Atlanta strip club -- dropping so much money on naked booty-shakers ... he literally covered the floor with singles ... and TMZ has obtained the pics.

Ne-Yo hit up the strip club on Saturday night with his fiancee/baby mama -- the one in leopard print -- and sources tell us, he rained down between $3,000-$5,000 in ones.

We're told he didn't drink a drop of alcohol either -- keeping mostly to himself in the VIP room for two hours between midnight and 2AM.

Just enough time to take over the entire club.

A man who allegedly threatened to shoot Ne-Yo in the head was detained for a psychiatric evaluation in L.A. ... and top ranking execs at Sony Music believe they are also on the hit list.

Sony Music Entertainment has just obtained a temporary restraining order against Jeff Choi -- who allegedly has been making deranged, escalating threats for months ... because he believes the music company released several songs ABOUT HIM without permission.

Sony claims Choi sent hundreds of threatening emails, made dozens of angry phone calls and even went down to the Sony offices in person to complain ... but was escorted out of the building after he became belligerent.

According to court docs, Choi believes Ne-Yo, Sony honcho Clive Davis and Sony CFO Kevin Kelleher are all to blame ... and he's made threats to "shoot people in the head" unless Sony pays him $800,000.

Sony security contacted the FBI -- which conducted its own investigation and decided to detain Choi for a psychiatric evaluation in August. He was eventually taken to a mental health facility, where he he continued to phone in threats to Sony execs.  The FBI and federal prosecutors have now decided to prosecute Choi for making the threats.

Sony then filed for the restraining order against Choi -- fearing he will make good on his threats when/if he is released from custody.

An L.A. County Superior Court judge granted the request -- temporarily banning Choi from going near the Sony offices and requiring him to stay 100 yards away from Davis and Kelleher.

The court will determine whether to extend the restraining order on Sept. 28.

Rapper Pitbull thinks Lindsay Lohan should be thanking him -- not suing him -- for including her name in his hit song, "Give Me Everything" ... claiming he thought the shout-out would HELP her career.

Pitbull went into serious mode during an interview for his official fansite -- wearing a suit and tie -- and said, "I was very surprised when I found out about the lawsuit ... at first I read it and I thought, 'This has got to be a joke.'"

As TMZ first reported, Lohan filed the suit last week -- claiming the rapper wrongfully used her name for commercial gain by using the lyric, "I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan" in the song.

The rapper says he supports Lindsay's career -- adding, "In no way shape or form would I wanna bring that on anyone ... I didn't look to defamate [sic], degrade or hurt someone's career."

"For me mentioning it ... on the number one record in the world ... I thought it would be helping someone's career and keeping them relevant."

He concluded by inviting Lindsay to be his guest at the upcoming MTV VMAs. So far, no word if he's received a response.

Lindsay Lohan has just sued the rapper Pitbull for a line in his mega-hit, "Give Me Everything," for a disparaging lyric about her.

The song -- written by Ne-Yo and Afrojack, also defendants -- has a line:

Hustlers move aside, so I'm tiptoein', to keep flowin'
I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan.

Lindsay is pissed, claiming in her lawsuit ... "the lyrics, by virtue of its wide appeal, condemnation, excoriation, disparaging or defamatory statements by the defendants about the plaintiff are destined to do irreparable harm to the plaintiff."

Lindsay, who claims in the lawsuit she is "a professional actor of good repute and standing in the Screen Actors Guild, is suing under the New York civil rights laws, which protects people from having their name exploited for commercial purposes.

Lindsay alleges the appearance of her name in the song "causes [Lindsay] to be associated and identified in connection with defendants."

The suit -- filed by Stephanie Ovadia -- seeks an injunction to stop all of the defendants from broadcasting the song.  It also seeks unspecified damages.  Ovadia is the same lawyer who filed the E*TRADE lawsuit on Lindsay's behalf, which settled for a confidential sum.

Ne-Yo is in the middle of a series of shows in Japan -- but he's doing the concerts minus a few of his backup dancers because, according to sources, they were too afraid to travel to Japan in the wake of the recent earthquake.


We're told when the tour manager informed the dancers they were still going ahead with the Japan dates, several dancers were worried about their safety -- specifically the threat of aftershocks and exposure to radiation.

According to our sources, four dancers decided not to make the trip to Japan. Our sources say those dancers were then told by the tour manager they were dropped from the rest of the tour, which is just one show in Korea on March 30.

Ne-Yo has two more shows in Japan, March 22 and 24, with some proceeds from the shows going to victims of the earthquake.

Ne-Yo is staging a one-man boycott of the new Michael Jackson album -- telling us he doesn't want to listen to it because he doesn't think MJ would have EVER wanted it to be released.



The singer/songwriter/producer was in NY this weekend -- where he explained MJ was such a perfectionist, "If Michael was still alive ... I don't think the album would be out yet."

He added, "I'm gonna stick to my old Mike." 

Ne-Yo is desperately defending his manhood after video surfaced of him crying his eyes out at his Manchester concert on Wednesday -- telling all the nasty bloggers who made fun of him to "go to hell."


Ne-Yo ended up walking off stage after the break down, canceling the rest of the concert due to an "illness." Here are the highlights from his blog on Global Grind:

"Basically, I have an issue with not knowing when to say enough is enough, so last night in Manchester, my body said it for me. I've never had to stop a show ... I cried harder than I have in a very long time with no shame whatsoever.

To anyone out there that would like to question my manhood because of this I'll say this to you: If the one thing you cared about more than anything else in the world was threatened or even taken from you ... and this didn't spark some kind of emotional outbreak within you ... then with no shame I'll say you are truly a stronger man than I.

And to the bloggers....go to hell."

Happening hot spot Bellevue, Wa. was supposed to be the scene for a big New Year's Eve shindig hosted by Ne-Yo. And it probably would have been awesome ... if only he showed up.

According to a lawsuit filed last week in Maryland, Wet Entertainment booked Ne-Yo for the NYE gig and paid him $95,000 up front. The organizers claim they made all sorts of arrangements for the show -- promotion, travel, hotel, etc.

They claim Ne-Yo's people made it to Washington -- but no Ne-Yo. The show was 86'd.

Wet is suing Ne-Yo and the booking company that made the deal for the $95K plus more than $1 mil in damages.

The booking company had no comment. A call to Ne-Yo's agent was not returned.

Fast-rising R&B star Ne-Yo is just so sick that R. Kelly tossed him from his tour, he's suing Kelly's promoter, alleging that they kicked him off the tour because he was getting more love from the fans than the main attraction. Yo ho!

In the lawsuit, filed in L.A. Superior Court against Rowe Entertainment of Atlanta, Ne-Yo (real name: Shaffer Smith) alleges that an "unknown representative of R. Kelly urged Rowe to terminate" him because of the "audience's and critics' more favorable reaction to Smith than the reaction to R. Kelly."

When Ne-Yo was dropped from the tour just before Thanksgiving, "contractual differences" were cited. Real crazy talk! Ne-Yo, who was set to make $785,000 for 25 dates, says he's only been paid $50K of that, and he's suing for that and for other compensatory damages.

Reps for Rowe didn't return a request for comment.

UPDATE: R. Kelly's spokesman, Allan Mayer, said, "The idea that R. Kelly had anything to do with Ne-Yo being dropped from the Double Up tour is just plain silly. As we said at the time, Ne-Yo was dropped because of a contractual dispute with the tour promoter, and in fact Ne-Yo is not suing Kelly but only the promoter. Ne-Yo may think blaming the situation on R. Kelly will improve his chances of collecting from the promoter, but if he does, he is sadly mistaken. Anyone remotely familiar with R. Kelly knows heis confident enough in his own abilities to be happy to share the stage with enormously talented people -- the more talented, the better."