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Nicki Minaj wants this on the record -- she F****** LOVES Kylie Jenner (but not Travis Scott) ... and will NOT be playing into a catfight narrative!!! GOT IT?! Got it, Nick.

The NY rapper cleared the air Thursday on her 'Queen Radio' show over a vid TMZ posted showing Kylie trying to avoid Nicki on the VMAs red carpet this week, saying Kylie's nothing more than an innocent bystander in this clear beef between Nicki, Travis and the music biz.

Nicki says Kylie is doing what anyone would do -- standing by their man. That's a bit of a flip from what Nicki tweeted over the weekend, blaming Kylie and Stormi for pumping up Travis' album sales. Now ... she insists they're all good.

Nicki Minaj can't top Travis Scott on the charts ... but she's got him beat when it comes to hosting a radio show.

Nicki WENT OFF on Travis during her Tuesday "Queen Radio" show ... giving the rapper the "Hoe N**** Of The Week" award and continuing to bash Travis and baby mama Kylie Jenner for what she says are unethical practices in promoting his new album.

Tell us how you really feel, Nicki!!!

Nicki is still SALTY about losing the no. 1 spot in album sales to Travis -- she's been griping about it all week -- and it doesn't sound like she'll get over 2nd place any time soon.

It's not all hate -- Nicki says she loves Kylie, Stormi, Kim and the rest of their fam -- but the Queen doesn't want to let Travis off the hook.

Nicki isn't afraid to air out dirty laundry ... even if other rappers are scared.

She's also been more than willing to stir up controversy this week ... 'cause she's now calling herself the new and improved Harriet Tubman.

Steve Wozniak went up against the real-life "Molly's Game" ringleader, but the look on his face says it all ... he can win the pot like the best of 'em.

The Woz and Molly Bloom spoke at the cryptocurrency convention, ChainXChange, at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, but had a meeting of the poker minds backstage before going onstage.

If you're unfamiliar with Molly ... she's a badass. Molly's the inspiration for Aaron Sorkin's first film as a director. He also wrote the script to the flick starring Jessica Chastain as Molly.

Molly ran a high-stakes poker game back in the day at the famed Viper Room in L.A. ... frequented by celebs like Ben Affleck, Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio ... and the freakin' Russian mob.

See, badass.

We're told the meeting between Wozzy -- an avid poker player -- and Molly played out more like a mutual admiration society. And, for the record ... no real money changed hands ... it was all in fun.

Kanye West's album, "Ye," is already crushing numbers ... and it's only been available for a few days.

Numbers for the 7-song project are astounding -- Kanye's filled the top 7 song spots on both Spotify and Apple Music -- and the album's already accumulated over 100 million streams total.

To add to those stats ...

-- #1 iTunes Album in 63 countries.

-- #1 Spotify global peak position.

-- #1 Apple Music album in 83 countries.

The crash of EgyptAir flight 804 into the Mediterranean Sea that killed 66 people was caused by a hot Apple product ... according to a new suit.

The families of several of the victims of the May 19, 2016 crash claim the tragedy was due to the co-pilot's iPhone 6S or iPad mini overheating in the cockpit and catching fire.

According to the docs ... an investigation revealed the device ignited and led to a bigger fire in the cockpit, which ultimately took the plane down.

It should be noted, however -- some industry experts have questioned this phone theory ... and believe the fire on the plane started beneath the cockpit in the avionics bay due to a short circuit or some kind of explosion.

Still, the families believe there's enough evidence to hold Apple responsible for the deaths of their loved ones ... so they're suing for damages. The airline is also listed on the suit.

Dolores O'Riordan's sudden unexplained death has made tidal waves in the music world -- just take a look at her sales online ... which are up over 900,000%.

Dolores' music both on her own and with her band, The Cranberries, dominated Amazon's music sales Monday after news broke of her death -- with one of The Cranberries' albums, "Something Else" surging at 913,350% in sales.

Her tunes also occupy the other top 4 slots for trending albums, which are up 147,552% ("Are You Listening?"), 107,520% ('Everybody Else is Doing It'), 93,781% ("To the Faithful Departed") and 77,096% ("Wake Up and Smell the Coffee"), respectively.

BTW ... her music sales on iTunes are also skyrocketing -- with Cranberries' albums dominating the number 3rd, 6th, 7th and 9th spots on their Top 10 Albums chart.

As we reported ... Dolores died Monday unexpectedly. Her bandmates sent out a message saying ... "We are devastated on the passing of our friend Dolores. She was an extraordinary talent and we feel very privileged to have been part of her life from 1989 when we started the Cranberries. The world has lost a true artist today."

Sources connected with the singer tell TMZ she had been "dreadfully depressed" in recent weeks.

She was 46.

Cardi B already said you couldn't f*** with her if you wanted to -- now that applies to her fiance, Offset, who got hacked this weekend ... 'cause Cardi's coming with legal fire.

Cardi's attorney, Scott Mason, tells TMZ that videos released over the holiday weekend of a nude Cardi, among other videos, were illegally obtained ... and that her team is doing a full investigation to find the culprits.

At least a couple different clips said to belong to Offset surfaced Friday -- the same day Cardi's new single "Bartier Cardi" dropped. One appears to show Cardi dancing naked, and rumor is that it's the beginning of a full-blown sex tape.

Another video shows a separate naked woman in a hotel bathroom, with Offset allegedly behind the camera. Lots of people speculated that Offset had cheated on Cardi before proposing ... but the couple put that to rest with their own parody sex tape.

Cardi didn't seem bothered by the fact her nudes were out in the public -- she's an ex-stripper, after all. But she's definitely not cool with the stealing part. Her lawyer says once they find who jacked the footage, they'll pursue all legal remedies under the law.

A group of violent robbers who were allegedly brutalizing Los Angelinos in a series of cellphone robberies has been busted ... TMZ has learned.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ, they were doing surveillance on 2 men -- Ricardo Rivas and Bryan Escobar -- because cops had evidence the pair was hunting for people walking down streets, eyes trained on their cellphones. The men would then allegedly point a rifle at them and commit the robberies. We're told some of the victims were attacked -- struck in the face with the butt of the rifle.

Our sources say the thieves were part of a ring that was stealing new models of smart phones and then sending them to El Salvador, Russia and Turkey for resale, where they could not be traced.

We're told the 2 men -- both in their early 20s -- also allegedly committed at least one carjacking.

Most of the robberies went down in the San Fernando Valley.

Our law enforcement sources say cops decided to move in Wednesday night when they saw the men load their car with a sawed-off shotgun.

We're told 3 men were arrested, but they didn't have the goods on the 3rd so he was released. They are still looking for another man they say was involved in the crime spree.

We're also told the D.A. will file felony robbery and carjacking charges against Rivas and Escobar as early as today.

Apple's admission to slowing down older iPhones isn't sitting well with one California man ... so he's going after the tech giant on behalf of all his fellow outdated iPhone users.

A new class action suit has been filed by Stefan Bogdanovich, an L.A. man who, like millions of other people, uses an iPhone ... but not an iPhone 8. He claims Apple's tactic of slowing down older iPhone models causes users to suffer -- specifically those with the 7 or 7s -- and take a hit to their wallets.

Bogdanovich claims Apple's decision to slow the operation of older phones to save battery life was never requested or agreed upon ... and it lowers the value of their phones. He also believes -- like many other users -- that it's just a ploy by Apple to get folks to buy the newest iPhone.

He wants Apple to stop slowing down older phones and get some payback for damages.

Chad Johnson is sticking a fork in his NFL comeback ... telling TMZ Sports IT AIN'T HAPPENIN' ... 'cause he says his body's "too f**ked up" to play anymore.

The 39-year-old tweeted the N.Y. Giants for a tryout earlier this season after Odell Beckham Jr. and Brandon Marshall went down with season-ending injuries.

And after the way he balled out with legit NFL superstars during off-season training sessions, it seemed Ocho was serious about one last hurrah with the pros.

So, when we saw Chad on his way out of the Apple Store in L.A., we asked him straight-up how the comeback was coming along.

Spoiler: It's not.

But Chad explains why he needed to finance his new, expensive iPhone X and it's pretty hilarious.

One of the biz moguls on "Shark Tank" thinks Apple's latest iPhone is priced ridiculously ... but it's still gonna sell like crazy and it will make him a bloody fortune.

We got Canadian businessman Kevin O'Leary Wednesday at LAX and he says the reason the iPhone X is gonna be so damn expensive at $1,000-plus is 'cause Apple has become a luxury brand, and more than that ... it's turned into a lifestyle.

Apple's head honchos gave the biggest plug possible to an unsigned, independent artist during their iPhone X launch, and she could land a record deal because of it.

We spoke with British singer/songwriter Emma Blackery -- whose EP, "Magnetised," and the artwork to her single got shown to millions of people tuning in Wednesday to Apple's presentation -- and she says it was a godsend.

Emma tells us she and her team knew her album and artwork were going to be on Apple's site, but got taken by surprise with the unexpected cameo on the jumbo screen. As of now, she's mostly known as a vlogger on YouTube.

As you might imagine, her fan base has soared since -- not to mention her business opportunities. She says multiple record labels have come calling ... and she's picking up.

Too Short's got big plans for the new iPhone X ... we're just not sure the women in his life will be down with it.

We got Short leaving TAO in Hollywood with 2 smoking hot chicks -- which is totally relevant to what he says about Apple's new $1,000 rollout. We asked him about what everyone agrees is its coolest feature -- the 3D facial scanning.

If you think Steve Jobs was a genius -- wait until you hear how Short plans to use the phone.

If Apple's smart, they'll get this guy a cubicle. Now!

Apple unveiled the much-hyped iPhone X -- and it's both pretty awesome and pretty damn expensive!!!

The announcement came Tuesday morning at the Steve Jobs Theater in Apple's new HQ in Cupertino, CA ... where the final item introduced was the iPhone X. The new phone has a radical new design -- no more home button, edge-to-edge display and a bunch of other cool features:

-- Animoji tracks 50 facial muscle movements to create your own emojis

-- Wireless charging

-- And, of course, Face ID to unlock the iPhone X

It unlocks after recognizing your face and only when you look directly at it. It won't unlock if you're facing away. There was a hiccup when the X wouldn't unlock but a backup phone solved the issue.

For those concerned about safety ... facial recognition data is stored on a chip in the X and NOT sent to an Apple or third-party server, per Apple, which added there's a 1 in 1,000,000 chance that a random person can unlock your iPhone X.

The iPhone X starts at $999 and pre-orders start October 27. They ship November 3. Apple also unveiled the iPhone 8, 8 Plus, new AppleWatch and AppleTV. The company next year plans to unveil AirPower, a charging station for multiple Apple products.

Steve Jobs' widow brought her best accessories to Croatia -- her daughter, hot bf and Steve's yacht.

Laurene Powell hit up the historic city of Dubrovnik in southern Croatia flanked by 19-year-old daughter Eve and bf Adrian Fenty ... the former mayor of D.C.

Docked not far off the coast was the 256-foot, $100 mil yacht, Venus ... commissioned by the late Apple founder back in 2008. He never got to enjoy it -- Steve died a year before it was finished in 2012.

Laurene will take it from here ...

Kanye West isn't interested in bonuses from Apple, Spotify or any other streaming platforms ... 'cause he's done with exclusive releases.

Sources with knowledge of the conflict between Kanye and Tidal tell us Kanye does not want to enter into any more exclusive album releases or contracts with streaming services to host any upcoming projects of his, because he wants to avoid what happened on Tidal ... too limited access for far too long.

We're told when Kanye does drop new material, he plans to make it available on as many music platforms as possible ... so more people can listen as soon as it's released.

We broke the story ... Kanye has split from Tidal over a money dispute, and both parties face possible legal action if he goes to another streaming service. His last album, "The Life of Pablo," was exclusively on Tidal for about a month and a half, and we're told that's affecting his decision to widely release his music.

As we reported ... Kanye's business beef with Tidal predates the release of Jay-Z's album "4:44" ... in which he disses 'Ye.

The bottom line, though ... new Kanye music should be coming to a streaming service near you in the near future.