Celebrity Feuds

MLB legend Joe Carter says he's "honored" to have been injected into the Drake vs. Meek Mill feud -- saying it's AWESOME that Drake used his image to go after Meek because "My kids feel I'm legit now."

Backstory -- Drake used an ICONIC image of Carter's Game 6 walk off homerun that lifted the Toronto Blue Jays over the Philadelphia Phillies back in 1993 as the cover art to his new diss track against Meek.

FYI, Drake is from Toronto, Meek is from Philly -- so, you can see why Drake decided to use the pic to reinforce his anti-Meek message.

As for Joe -- he LOVES IT -- telling TMZ Sports, "My Twitter's been blowing up! It put my name back in the mix!"

He adds, "I had no idea [Drake was going to use that photo] ... I'm honored that he used it."

Carter tells us he knows Drake and has seen him around Toronto several times over the years -- and says Drake is a great ambassador for the city, which Joe considers his 2nd home.

Drake is going after Meek Mill and this time with a vengeance, ripping on his manhood for being girlfriend Nicki Minaj's opening act.

The song -- titled "Back to Back" -- is actually his second diss song against Meek, but this one is way more vicious. In it, Drake raps ...

Is that a world tour or your girl's tour?
I know that you gotta be a thug for her
This ain't what she meant
when she told you to open up more

Drake also makes fun of Meek for not being the breadwinner in the relationship ...

Shout-out to all my boss bitches wifin' n****s
Make sure you hit 'em with the prenup

And how's this for ironic ... Meek Mill was booed when he came out onstage during Tuesday night's show with Nicki because he was 90 minutes late. The show was in ... Toronto.

Drake 2, Meek 0.

Nicki Minaj's former BF is putting her on blast and embarrassing her new BF Meek Mill in the process, claiming he ghostwrote some of the biggest hits on her latest album, "The Pinkprint."

Safaree Samuels just dropped a new song, "Lifeline," in which he accuses her of the Cardinal hip-hop sin ... not writing her own verses. It's the same charge Meek leveled against Drake.

But Safaree is brutal toward Meek, rapping "This n**** bent outta shape with a gorilla face/ My bars on 'The Pinkprint' no one will ever match/ My dick- print lil n**** u could never match."

We checked ... and Safaree only has an A&R credit on "The Pinkprint," so it's a bold accusation.

And it gets worse. Safaree fat shames Meek, saying, "I heard you told Philippe Chow you ain't goin' there ... You outta shape anyway you need to eat a pear."

Stealing lyrics and overeating ... brutal.

A rep for Wayne tells TMZ ... Lil Wayne was a Cash Money artist and it was their responsibility to pay David Banner, not Wayne.

If Lil Wayne doesn't know what the word "ironic" means, he does now ... he's being sued by a rapper for not forking over royalties ... which is exactly his gripe with Birdman.

Rapper David Banner claims he signed a contract in 2008 with Wayne's Young Money Records to produce two songs for Wayne -- "La La" and "Pussy Monster" -- featured on "Tha Carter III."

Banner claims Young Money told him in 2012 he was owed $138,787.19 in royalties ... but he never saw a cent. Banner also claims Young Money has gone radio silent, so he has no idea how much more he's owed.

Banner also says the same thing happened in 2009 with "Streets Is Watchin." He claims he was told he's owed more than $15,392.57.

Mike Epps is done with Hulk Hogan and what's more, Mike says Hulk has lost his hood pass and his ticket to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles.

Nicki Minaj went on TV to tell the world ... Taylor Swift screwed up when she assumed Nicki was attacking her over the VMA noms.

Nicki went on 'GMA' and revealed she and Taylor had a chat yesterday and Swifty admitted she was wrong when she went after Nicki on Twitter, jumping to the conclusion that Nicki was ragging on her over "Anaconda" being passed on for video of the year.

Birdman's finally breaking his silence on the Lil Wayne shooting, and despite police docs tying him and Young Thug to the suspect -- he's denying ANY involvement in a murder-for-hire plot.

Sources close to Wayne and Birdman confirm to TMZ what police docs insinuated ... that Birdman got a phone call on April 26, shortly after the bus was shot up in Atlanta. As we reported, police knew the call was placed between 2 phones registered to Birdman.

We're told the call came from someone in Wayne's camp who was understandably pissed, and anxious to tell Birdman what went down shortly before the shooting -- that Jimmy Carlton Winfrey had been kicked out of a club for harassing Wayne.

Winfrey was eventually arrested and charged with the shooting.

Our sources say Birdman assured Wayne he was not involved in any way, and vowed to help figure out who was behind it.

We're also told the phones being registered to Birdman is not surprising, because they're company phones and everyone using them -- Wayne's people, Birdman, and even Winfrey -- is associated with Cash Money or Young Money.

Kelly Rutherford was just dealt what could be an unrecoverable blow in her battle to regain custody of her 2 children.

A judge just ruled the actress had no recourse to wage custody war in California. Her ex-husband, Daniel Giersch, has an order from a judge in Monaco -- where he lives -- giving him custody of 8-year-old Hermes and 6-year-old Helena.

The kids have been living with their dad in Monaco but Kelly won the right to get them for the summer. Today's ruling clears the way for Daniel to take them back.

Kelly has been fighting for 3 years, but it's mostly been a losing battle.

Taylor Swift blinked first ... giving Nicki Minaj a full-on apology in an attempt to squash their Twitter war. There's hope for world peace, after all.

Taylor tried to dismiss the whole mess, saying ... "I thought I was being called out. I missed the point, I misunderstood, then misspoke."

Swift took the high road, and seemed to accept Nicki's explanation that her initial Twitter rant about a VMAs snub was not an attack on Taylor ... although she never explained who she WAS targeting.

Anyway, Nicki thanked Taylor for the apology ... and now everyone can play nice.

Meek Mill must have really pissed off Nicki Minaj with his Drake-bashing ... because he gave her a very public apology, and sorta backpedaled off his Drake hate.

Meek and Nicki were performing Wednesday night in Virginia when he gave her a "special apology" for absolutely ripping apart her BFF Drake ... claiming he doesn't write his own rhymes.

Meek didn't back off the accusation though ... adding he was "upset as a fan" that Drake's verse on his album was written by someone else, according to Meek.

Miranda Lambert claims cheating was not the only reason her marriage fell apart ... Blake Shelton was way more into "The Voice" than her, and she felt like an abandoned wife ... so say our Miranda sources.

Our sources say Blake's hit TV show was a constant source of conflict between them. She says he had to spend between 7 and 8 months a year in Los Angeles ... a place she "hates." Nevertheless, the sources say she would fly to L.A. to see him -- sometimes just for a day.

But Miranda claims he rarely reciprocated by coming to Oklahoma or wherever she was working.

The sources say Miranda felt abandoned and ultimately said, "This is no way to live."

As for the cheating ... both sides are not backing down and accusing the other of infidelity.

Drake and Meek Mill's beef just went way beyond a silly Twitter war -- because an alternate version of a Drake hit was just leaked ... and it features the alleged ghostwriter's vocals and verses.

The song is "10 Bands" ... and Quentin Miller's version is damn near identical to Drake's. Funkmaster Flex first played it late Wednesday on NYC's Hot 97 ... throwing gasoline on the fire Meek started by accusing Drake of not writing his own raps -- a HUGE insult in hip-hop.

Meek and a few other rappers are claiming Drake used Quentin's take as a reference to record his final version. For what it's worth ... Miller does have credits on several Drake tracks, including "10 Bands."

Drake's remained silent about the allegation -- except for a comment to a friend on social media ... "I signed up for greatness. This comes with it."

Katy Perry just weighed in on music's biggest bitch sesh -- calling Taylor Swift a full-on hypocrite for accusing Nicki Minaj of taking down a woman.

Perry thinks it's hysterical Swift told Nicki ... "It's so unlike you to pit women against each other." The joke, to Katy ... is that Taylor went for her neck with "Bad Blood" -- and proceeded to make a ton of cash off the song that's all about throwing shade at Katy.

Nicki took notice -- and favorited Katy's tweet.

Taylor might wanna call for backup.

Safaree Samuels wants to set the record straight after Meek Mill's verbal assault -- saying he's not gay ... he's just an awesome dancer.

Nicki's current BF, Meek ... went after her ex during that Tuesday night Twitter rampage. He referenced an old clip of Safaree dancing, and said ..."This n***a SB was twerking mannnnnnnn....i always thought u was gay."

Sources close to Safaree tell TMZ ... he has no problem with anyone who is gay, it's just not HIS thing. We're told the video is from a Jamaican dance battle Samuels did when he was 17 -- and he thinks Meek should be less concerned with his moves ... and more concerned about Nicki.

According to our sources, Safaree says Minaj still reaches out to him from time to time.

#MicDrop

The next UFC superfight might just have a little NBA flavor to it ... 'cause hoops star Serge Ibaka tells TMZ Sports he's serious about battling Matt Barnes ... he's just gotta win a championship first.

In case you missed it ... Barnes went on ESPN's "SportsNation" earlier this week and blasted Ibaka, calling him a "fake tough guy" and saying he's desperate to fight OKC's big man.

Ibaka fired back on Twitter ... asking UFC honcho Dana White if he'd be interested in (awesomely) putting the NBA stars in the Octagon. But last night in Hollywood, Serge seemed to dismiss Barnes as more of a clown and less of a fighter. Nonetheless, he says he'll still kick Barnes' ass ... after he's taken care of one important piece of biz.

DeAndre Jordan knows it's coming, knows he's gonna catch it -- the absolute WRATH of Dallas Mavericks fans, but last night he could NOT care less ... for one awesome reason.

DJ celebrated his 27th birthday with a bunch of NBA pals at Mastro's Steakhouse in Bev Hills, and on his way out addressed the inevitable -- the Clippers' first game in Dallas and how the fans will treat him.

Watch the video ... 'cause DeAndre's response makes it clear he's soooo FULL of something, and that's dessert.