Controversial S#!T

DMC doesn't get the big fuss over Jack Harlow's success ... because good music is always gonna do well on the charts, no matter who you are.

We talked to DMC leaving NBC Studios in New York, and the 57-year-old rapper sounds a bit confused, no doubt due to all the autographs he's signing ... but he offers up a good point about a musician's color being irrelevant.

He's calling Jack's haters out for being ignorant, saying creative outlets, like music, should be used to bring others together and make the community a better place ... not to tear each other apart.

As you know, Jack's new single "First Class" recently hit the top of the Billboard Hot 100 ... Top Dawg Entertainment President Terrence "Punch" Henderson sparked a debate on Twitter by saying Black artists have to be more awesome than their white counterparts to make it big.

The debate came up on Tuesday's episode of "TMZ Hip Hop" ... as DJ Hed and Rodney Rikai challenged each other on what's really fueling the Kentucky-born rapper’s rise to the top.

There's a new entry into the debate about whether Jack Harlow benefits from hip hop's version of affirmative action -- and David Banner says there's not much of a debate!!!

TMZ Hip Hop pulled up on the "Cadillac On 22's" rapper Friday at LAX, and picked his scholarly brain regarding the hot topic: Jack and his latest single "First Class" are on top of the Billboard Hot 100, and there are plenty of rap pundits who feel the only reason he got there is because he's white, and the majority rules in America.

Count Banner as one of those pundits. The former Mississippi teacher turned rapper told us being white is an advantage in all aspects of life, all around the world and hip hop is no different.

DB goes even deeper in the clip, claiming white people who denounce racism know they secretly benefit from it ... aka white guilt. He's confident even Jack would agree with that.

According to Billboard, "First Class" had the biggest single week of streams since rap juggernauts Drake, Future and Young Thug released the "Certified Lover Boy" hit, "Way 2 Sexy" in September 2021.

Blac Chyna's mom, Tokyo Toni, says she wasn't talking about the judge in her daughter's trial when she said, "I'm going to get that judge" ... she says it was all about Kris Jenner.

We got TT in Woodland Hills Thursday and asked her about her alleged threat, which she made Tuesday on Instagram Live.

Tokyo says she wasn't really talking about the judge, it was for Kris ... and when our photog pressed, she explained she views Kris as the judge because she feels Kris rules over all of the Kardashians.

Here's the problem ... before she makes the threat, she references the fact that the judge -- the real one, not Kris -- threw her out of the courtroom. And, then she says "I'm gonna get that judge." So, it's a gigantic stretch to believe she was talking about Kris.

Tokyo tells us her daughter's legal team told her to chill out on social media as the trial continues, and Toni makes it sound like that won't be a problem because she claims she was never talking about the case, and was only taking shots at the Kardashians.

Cam Newton is finally opening up about his controversial comments about women ... insisting he's not sexist.

Nearly two weeks after Newton was captured on camera saying he believed a real woman is someone who, among other things, knows how to cook and "when to be quiet" ... he attempted to clarify the comments in a new video on his YouTube page.

Cam admitted that he should have expounded on the remarks so they were more inclusive and less abrasive ... explaining what he was trying to say was "you can't expect so much from a person and give so little."

"I should have said on top of what I also said and mentioned that not only should a woman know when to be quiet, a man also should know when to be quiet," he said.

Cam continued, "Whether it's being whatever you need to be as a human being -- man or female -- you should be that. And, I think not going into depth like I should have, cost me."

In the video, Newton repeated over and over again that he did not believe men are superior to women. He also insisted he's a great father and a good member of his community.

"I never wanted to demonize or to shrink the woman's power in America," Newton said.

As we reported, Cam was ripped for his initial comments -- athletes, journalists and fans all over called them incredibly offensive. In fact, Travis Kelce's girlfriend, Kayla Nicole, said Cam was a straight-up "bozo" for the remarks.

Kevin Federline is not too pleased about Britney Spears' latest salvo -- that he wouldn't see her when she was pregnant -- and his lawyer has delivered a not-so-veiled threat, saying her account is false.

Attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, was leaving Craig's Thursday night, when a photog asked about Brit's most recent post, where she says, "... geez my ex-husband wouldn't see me when I flew to New York with a baby inside me and Las Vegas when he was shooting a video!!!"

Kaplan called her out, saying her account "is completely the opposite of what's true, she knows that," adding this warning ... "She should be very careful about pursuing a dialogue that's based on revisionist history."

In case that threat was too oblique, Kaplan got more specific ... "That story about Kevin in Las Vegas and Britney is completely erroneous, and he's not going to stand by and let that story besmirch what he did and his support of her back in the day."

Mike Tyson seemed to lose his cool on a plane on Wednesday night ... repeatedly punching a man in the face after the guy had apparently annoyed him.

TMZ Sports has learned ... the incident all went down at around 10:30 PM PT as Tyson was slated to fly out of San Francisco International Airport to Florida.

A witness on the plane says as he and his friend were boarding Tyson's flight ... the boxing legend was initially cool with them and the other passengers.

The witness tells us Mike took a selfie with him ... and then was patient with his overly excited buddy, who kept trying to talk to the 55-year-old fighter as he sat behind him.

Eventually, though, we're told Tyson had enough of the guy behind him talking in his ear ... and told him to chill. When the guy didn't, that's when the witness says Tyson started to throw several punches at the man's face.

Video we obtained shows Tyson throwing a flurry of blows at the man, which you can see bloodied the passenger's forehead. The witness says Mike walked off the plane just seconds later.

We're told the man who was punched received medical attention and then went to the police over the incident. We've reached out to cops for comment, but so far, no word back yet.

We've also reached out to JetBlue and Tyson's camp for comment on the incident as well, but no word back yet there either.

Novak Djokovic is condemning the decision to ban Russian and Belarusian tennis players from competing at Wimbledon due to the war in Ukraine ... calling the move flat out "crazy."

The Serbian tennis star spoke out against Wimbledon's decision to prevent tennis athletes from Russia and Belarus (a strong ally of Russia) from playing in the high-profile tournament on Wednesday ... saying it was the wrong move.

"I will always condemn war," Djokovic said. "I will never support war, being myself a child of war. I know how much emotional trauma it leaves. In Serbia, we all know what happened in 1999. In the Balkans, we have had many wars in recent history."

"However, I cannot support the decision of Wimbledon. I think it is crazy," he added.

The world's #1-ranked tennis player went on to say, "When politics interfere with sport, the result is not good."

As we previously reported, the All England Club dropped the bombshell news saying it was their responsibility to play their part in limiting Russia's global influence ... electing to keep Russian and Belarusian players from competing.

"In the circumstances of such unjustified and unprecedented military aggression, it would be unacceptable for the Russian regime to derive any benefits from the involvement of Russian or Belarusian players with The Championships," the official statement read.

"It is, therefore, our intention, with deep regret, to decline entries from Russian and Belarusian players to The Championships 2022."

It's been nearly two months since Russia, led by President Vladimir Putin, violently launched an aggressive war against Ukraine.

The most dramatic moment from this season of "The Masked Singer" has finally played out ... as Rudy Giuliani was revealed as a contestant, causing one judge to walk off set.

The whole thing went down on the FOX singing contest Wednesday night as the disgraced politician and former right-hand-man of Trump was revealed as The Jack in the Box. Giuliani got the boot after this week's performance of "Bad to The Bone."

While he's performing the song, you see a clearly pissed-off judge, Ken Jeong, say "I'm done" before walking off the set.

It was back in February when it was reported both Ken and judge Robin Thicke walked off in disgust after Giuliani's reveal ... but that didn't appear to be the case Wednesday, with only Ken leaving.

Hall of Famer Pam Shriver claims she had an "inappropriate" relationship with her much older tennis coach, Don Candy, when she was just 17 years old ... calling it a "miserable" experience.

The 59-year-old tennis commentator made the shocking revelation on ESPN's "Outside The Lines" this week ... when she detailed how her underage relationship impacted her every day.

"It affected me in almost every way," Shriver said. "He [Candy] was 33 years older. He was married. He was married long before I took my first lesson from him. I felt a lot of shame and guilt and I felt also a lot of anger, jealousy when his wife would come to tournaments."

"So I was just basically, at times, really miserable," Shriver added, "and because I was living the life of trying to be the best tennis player I can be, I really didn't understand how difficult the whole secret and the juggling was. And so I just kept it to myself."

Shriver told OTL some of her close friends eventually learned about her then-relationship with Candy -- who passed away in 2020 at age 91 -- but says at the time, what she was doing wasn't an uncommon thing.

"We weren't the only boundary-crossing relationship on the tour."

As for why the tennis legend chose to divulge this information over 40 years later, Shriver said she never allowed herself to think about how damaging the relationship with Candy was to her life and to her career.

Shriver notes Candy was not a predator -- nor did he physically or emotionally abuse her -- but says what happened was his responsibility.

Shriver said after her mom died last August, she did some reflecting on her experience ... and one of her biggest regrets is not telling her parents what happened.

"It's a tough one to tell parents, but there's nobody who wants to keep you safe and healthy more than your parents."

"I just feel like it's time. For me, I feel like it's important for my healing and it's important that I can maybe feel that me coming forward and talking about my story in detail might just help a few young players. Maybe it'll help coaches to understand that they need to not cross that boundary."

Tekashi 6ix9ine has a No. 1 record with Nicki Minaj, but even that accomplishment isn't stopping the rainbow-haired rapper from publicly calling BS on her.

6ix9ine is reacting to his "TROLLZ" collaborator's demand for her Barbz to drive up the YouTube numbers on her new Fivio Foreign record, "We Go Up" ... and he thinks it was an insane request.

"Crazy" was his actual choice of words.

It's doubtful Tekashi meant any "malice" toward Nicki when he sounded off via DJ Akademiks Instagram. It's just interesting because he claimed on "TMZ Live" that he only responds to drama; never instigates it.

He even went so far as to deny having any hate toward Lil Durk, the late King Von or even Fivo ... despite a ton of lyrical evidence to the contrary. So, why stir the pot with Nicki over her Fivo collab???

No doubt, Nicki's had a topsy-turvy relationship with her infamous legion of fans, and on today's episode of "TMZ Hip Hop" the crew addressed her latest attempt to press them into action.

Whether you agree or disagree with the approach, it appears to be working. At the time we posted, the video had 1.4 million views and was No. 1 on YouTube's trending charts.

As the war between Russia and Ukraine continues to rage on, Russian tennis players will be banned from this year's Wimbledon tournament ... arguably the biggest, most important tennis tourney in the world.

The story was first reported by Sportico Tuesday morning ... and The All England Club -- who runs the club which hosts Wimbledon -- later released a statement explaining the move.

"Given the profile of The Championships in the United Kingdom and around the world, it is our responsibility to play our part in the widespread efforts of Government, industry, sporting and creative institutions to limit Russia's global influence through the strongest means possible," TAEC announced.

"In the circumstances of such unjustified and unprecedented military aggression, it would be unacceptable for the Russian regime to derive any benefits from the involvement of Russian or Belarusian players with The Championships. It is, therefore, our intention, with deep regret, to decline entries from Russian and Belarusian players to The Championships 2022."

Of course, Russia is in the midst of a brutal invasion of Ukraine ... and has routinely, without mercy, shelled civilian populations over the 50+ day war.

Belarus -- a strong ally of Russia -- is presumably banned because of the country's involvement in the war. They've acted as a jumping-off point for Russian forces ... as Belarus shares a border with Ukraine.

Many of the West's sanctions have also been aimed at Belarus.

Wimbledon kicks off on June 27 ... and goes through July 10.

The ban is bad news for tennis star Daniil Medvedev, the current No.2 ranked men's tennis player in the world, who won't be allowed to compete.

One of Medvedev's contemporaries, Andrey Rublev, who's also from Russia, will be banned from competing at Wimbledon as well.

You'll recall, Rublev famously wrote, "No More War Please," after advancing to the Final at the Dubai Championships in February.

Josh Groban isn't ditching his mask in the air, despite the new rule allowing people to fly without covering their mouth and nose ... and he has reasons why.

We got Josh at LAX Tuesday, and he puts it plainly -- his voice is his livelihood, so extra protection is needed.

Josh acknowledges he may be in the minority -- people on his flight were cheering when the captain came on and said masks were no longer required. But, Josh has a different, personal point of view ... partly because of his parents. There's also the business of touring that makes going maskless problematic.

A federal judge ruled Monday the CDC's mandatory mask policy on planes was illegal. The Justice Dept. has said if the CDC wants to appeal they will oblige. For now ... no masks.

Fat Joe's taking a break from ripping mics to tear into America's healthcare system and the politicians allowing hospitals to essentially steal from patients ... and TMZ Hip Hop's learned he's taking this fight all the way to Washington, DC.

Joey Crack recorded this incredibly powerful message last month in the Bronx, calling out healthcare "crooks" for hiding hospital prices -- something that's actually illegal, but as Joe points out ... no one's policing the system.

Joe teamed up with Power to the Patients to demand change, and you can tell he's feeling this cause as much as any verse he's ever recorded. As he says on the spot, "When we can't see or compare prices, hospitals charge us whatever they want. They robbing us!!!"

The Bronx icon has some A-list companies in the fight for patients' rights. You might recall ... Susan Sarandon and Cynthia Erivo filmed their own PSAs last year for Power to the Patients, which aired during the Oscars.

Susan also joined us on "TMZ Live" to tackle the hot button issue.

We're told Fat Joe's so serious about this campaign, he'll be attending the White House Correspondents' dinner later this month to rep the org, and, hopefully, get some DC powerbrokers onboard with the effort.

Trick Daddy insists his restaurant did NOT take a hit, following his controversial take on Beyoncé's singing skills -- and yet, the rapper-turned-chef is firing some new shots.

He joined "TMZ live" to clear the air on those comments he made about Bey. ICYMI, his restaurant, Sunday's Eatery, got flooded with bad online reviews, starting last summer, when he said "Beyoncé can't sing."

The joint's Google ratings dropped from 4.8 to 2.6, but TD tells us Sunday's Eatery weathered the storm just fine. Most importantly -- for the Beyhive, anyway -- he also called Beyoncé the greatest entertainer (not singer) in the world.

As far as those bad reviews, he blames trolls and not Beyoncé's dedicated fans ... because he says, "real fans" understand people have different opinions.

The whole experience isn't making him shy, though ... he offered up what he admits will be an "unpopular opinion" -- "Kevin Hart ain't funny."

Kareem-Abdul Jabbar isn't holding back his feelings on the HBO series "Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty" ... saying the whole production violates a cardinal sin -- it's boring!!

The Lakers legend went to town on the show -- which has garnered strong reactions (both good and bad) over its characters' portrayal of the Lakers players from the 80s --  in a lengthy blog post, accusing the series of being "drearily dull."

"There is only one immutable sin in writing: Don’t Be Boring! 'Winning Time' commits that sin over and over," Kareem wrote.

KAJ prefaced his comments by saying his opinion has nothing to do with his portrayal on the show ... and that although the show attempts to retell actual stories, he's not "a stickler" for everything being factual.

Kareem, however, went on to lament how some of the characters being portrayed in the production -- including Jerry Buss, Jerry West, Magic Johnson and Cap himself -- are depicted, saying they are presented as caricatures of themselves instead of as real people.

"Jerry Buss is Egomaniac Entrepreneur, Jerry West is Crazed Coach, Magic Johnson is Sexual Simpleton, I’m Pompous Prick," KAJ wrote.

"Amusement park portraits that emphasize one physical feature to amplify your appearance—but never touching the essence," he added.

Kareem says his issue with WT was never enough to amount to outrage, but he admits it never held his interest. Instead, Kareem says the filmmakers "replaced solid facts with flimsy cardboard fictions that don't go deeper and offer no revealing insights."

Of course, Abdul-Jabbar isn't the only Laker great to take issue with the show. Magic told us a few weeks back he was "not looking forward to [the show]" when we saw him out in Los Angeles.

Actor Quincy Isaiah -- the man playing Magic -- recently defended the project, saying his intention wasn't to disrespect any of the Lakers icons, and he hopes guys like Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar recognize it's just storytelling.

But, after reading Kareem's post, it doesn't sound like he'll be tuning in much longer ... if at all.

Michelle Obama's brother has major beef with a private school in Wisconsin that he claims booted his two sons after complaints of racial bias in their curriculum.

According to reports, Craig Robinson and his wife, Kelly, are suing the University School of Milwaukee -- a private pre-K-through-12 institution -- saying the honchos excused their boys last year without merit ... and in complete retaliation for something their parents brought to their attention.

The Robinsons allege that in 2021, while their kids were doing virtual learning, they filed two reports to school administrators detailing what they felt were examples of racist stereotypes and bias embedded into their lessons and homework assignments.

It's not entirely clear what exactly they felt was problematic -- beyond use of the word "plantation" and an apparent insensitivity to socio-economic status, as Craig explained on 'GMA' -- but in any case, the Robinsons felt strongly enough to flag it to USM.

Shortly thereafter, the Robinsons claim the school sent a letter notifying them that their sons -- who were 11 and 9 -- were being dismissed ... because of what the school felt was a hostile attitude and "complete breakdown in your family's trust of and respect for USM," per the suit.

The Robinsons say they're shocked, as they felt their kids were "model students" and that they'd taken the proper steps to address what they genuinely believed was a problem.

Now, they're pissed and want some justice -- suing for breach of contract and racial discrimination. BTW, looks like this school ain't cheap by any means ... tuition for each kid ran the parents more than $20k each. So, you can understand why they're fuming.