Music

Charlie Brown isn't about to let Dolly Parton's theme park get away with using his famous Christmas tune -- at least not on the watch of the song's cowriter.

Lee Mendelson's production company is suing Dollywood for using the song "Christmas Time Is Here" in a play the amusement park puts on each year. Lee cowrote the song -- famously featured in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" -- and his production studio owns the copyright.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Mendelson's company says it recently became aware Dollywood weaves the track into its stage play, "Twas the Night Before Christmas," which LM's team claims has been happening, without permission, since '07.

The use of the song is no secret ... you can find clips of the performance online, in which the cast sings the track. The iconic piano melody shows up as background music too.

Get the coffin and start making flower arrangements ... 'cause Shaq's son says Damian Lillard's rap career was just murdered by the NBA legend in their battle this month!!

"My dad bodied Dame Lillard," Myles O'Neal tells TMZ Sports ... "That's all I need to say. It's over, he won."

If ya missed it ... Shaq and Lillard have been at each other's necks the last couple weeks -- each releasing TWO rap tracks with a bunch of disses aimed at each other.

It all started after Dame went on "The Joe Budden Podcast" and questioned the NBA legend's rap skills ... which led to Shaq dropping this track a few days later.

The 2019 BET Hip Hop Awards are proof "Hot Girl Summer" is far from over ... because some of the sexiest celebs in the industry showed up to rub elbows with rising star Megan Thee Stallion.

Check out the pics from behind the scenes ... Lil Kim turned heads with her pink hair and huge fur coat, and Megan naturally drew a crowd.

The awards show returned to Atlanta -- after a brief hiatus in Miami -- for last weekend's taping ... and Quavo made sure to show out in his hometown, dripping with ice and hanging with Rick Ross. Talk about some BAWSES!!!

The musical performances were fire too ... MTS opened the show with her smash hit, "Hot Girl Summer," twerking on the top deck of the S.S. Hot Girl before being joined on stage by DaBaby.

Snoop Dogg ain't apologetic about his raunchy booty and money-throwing performance at the Univ. of Kansas this weekend ... saying he had one hell of a time, and the school should've known what they were getting into!

Of course, the rap legend pulled out all the stops for the Kansas Jayhawks basketball team's annual Late Night in the Phog pep rally on Friday ... complete with pole dancing women and money guns.

After the show, KU officials apologized saying Snoop's camp assured them before the show that his performance would be more family-friendly than his usual schtick.

D-O-Double-G addressed the show on the Howard Stern show Tuesday ... saying EVERYONE was loving it, and he was shocked when the school released an apology.

"The audience enjoyed that sh*t," Snoop said. "I don't know what the f*ck they talking about."

Stern asked Snoop about being asked to leave after the performance ... which he denies.

"That's a motherf**king lie. I had the time of my life. I enjoyed myself, hung out with the basketball teams."

Snoop believes the apology came from the backlash the school got after the performance ... and insists his time there was nothing but positive.

"I think it was more the publicity of what I did. they had to cover it up. And, I respect them, and I wasn't gonna put no smut on their name and say they did anything wrong because they invited me to come do what I do."

"And, when you pay for Snoop Dogg, you gon' get Snoop Dogg."

Lil' Kim wasn't about to let an anti-fur protester tell her what animals she can and can't wear ... nearly trading blows with the woman before security stepped in.

Kim was outside Verizon Media Studios in New York City Tuesday when multiple anti-fur protesters started shouting "Stop wearing fur!" at Kim. One woman got just a little too close for LK's liking ... and that's when she started walking toward the woman telling her to "back up" several times.

Lucky for the protester, Kim's security stepped in between the two and diffused the situation, 'cause it looked like the rapper was ready to throw down.

Lil Peep's mother says his management team and the company behind his final tour supplied the rapper with drugs, an unstable environment and pushed him to the point of exhaustion ... all factors that led to his tragic death.

Peep's mom, Liza Womack, filed a lawsuit Monday against First Access Entertainment and people associated with the company. Womack claims, starting in early 2017 during Peep's The Peep Show tour, the use of controlled drugs and illegal substances were allowed, normalized and even encouraged by management.

Womack says during a stop in London, her son was gifted a bottle of pills by one of his managers during a group dinner.

The docs claim the rampant drug use continued later in 2017 -- during Peep's final Come Over When You're Sober tour. Womack says Peep was regularly supplied with Xanax, Ketamine and other drugs while on the road.

During one tour stop on May 10, 2017, in Los Angeles, Peep's mom claims he was "barely able to communicate, let alone perform, due to his use of drugs." In the suit, she adds, despite being in a "comatose-like state" ... his managers allowed him to perform.

Hailey Bieber is finally ready to give it up -- pictures of her in her wedding dress, that is.

Mrs. Bieber just posted several professional shots of her wearing her custom backless gown, which was commissioned by Louis Vuitton's artistic director for menswear, Virgil Abloh. Sounds like he had it done through his other fashion company though ... Off-White.

Hailey thanked Virgil and co., writing ... "@virgilabloh thank you for making my vision come to life and creating my dream dress. You and your @off____white team are incredible and I’m forever grateful I got to wear your beautiful creation ❤️."

She also threw in some pics of her and the groom together, with Justin looking super spiffy in his tux. Hailey captioned a photo of them with, "last Monday was the most special day of my life:)." The words "TILL DEATH DO US PART" were embroidered on her train too.

Justin Bieber's firing off a new jab in his feud with Taylor Swift, mimicking that post-surgical banana video of her that went viral -- and while it is kinda funny, we're sure Taylor ain't laughing.

Justin and the missus, Hailey Bieber, were live on IG from their kitchen Sunday when the Biebs decided to poke fun at Taylor, loudly whining ... "It's not the banana that I wanted!!!"

Hailey laughed out loud, and we're guessing most of Hailey's 22 million followers also chuckled -- but it's odd he made any reference to the Taylor vid, considering Taylor publicly accused Bieber and his manager, Scooter Braun, of bullying her.

Howard Stern's feeling the loss of Cream drummer Ginger Baker, but says he hopes it will lead to a tribute performance from the last surviving member of the British rock supergroup.

As we reported ... Baker died peacefully in a hospital in England Sunday, and Howard shared some of his memories of the drumming sensation as he was leaving Spago in Beverly Hills.

Stern tells us he was in high school when Cream released their final album -- fittingly titled "Goodbye" -- before breaking up ... and it was apparently worse than any breakup he personally went through.

"You rap 'cause you need it dawg, I do it for sport. When you run I see that tampon string in your shorts."

Yep, that's Shaquille O'Neal hitting below the belt in his 2nd-round of a rap battle with Damian Lillard ... where the Big Fella makes several comparisons between Dame and female genitalia.

In the new track, titled "Second Round Knockout Freestyle" ... Shaq compares Dame to a "queef" and then says, "Why would I clout chase a dude with camel toe in the front?"

He also tells Dame to call him Dr. Diesel and says he plans to bring Lillard in for his annual pap smear.

There's more ... Shaq also goes after Dame as a basketball player -- saying the dude sucks and has never won.

50 Cent is producing a new docuseries covering a wide range of celebs ... and the most interesting story on the docket is the rise and fall of Tekashi 6ix9ine.

Production sources tell TMZ ... Fiddy's scripted series will focus on Tekashi, Snoop Dogg, music producer Scott Storch, former NBA stud Rafer Alston and 50 himself.

The docuseries is called "A Moment in Time" ... and it will have 6 to 8 hour-long episodes dedicated to each subject. The project will be produced through 50's G-Unit Film & Television company.

Our sources say 50 is framing Tekashi's story around his brief but controversial rap career. As you know, 69 rose to fame by incorporating the Nine Trey Bloods gang into his music, only to be busted by the feds and turn into a snitch.

DeWayne Jessie is best known for playing the "Shama Lama Ding Dong" and "Shout"-singing Otis Day (of Otis Day and The Knights) in the beer-chugging, toga-wearing, float-crashing comedy masterpiece, "National Lampoon's Animal House."

DeWayne Jessie partied in the college classic alongside legends like Tim Matheson as the ladies man, Eric "Otter" Stratton, Peter Riegert as the frat-bro BFF, Donald "Boon" Schoenstein ... and, of course, John Belushi as the Jack Daniels chugging Greek God, John "Bluto" Blutarsky.

Keep your ears to the ground because Jessie still performs live as Otis Day and The Knights.

Cardi B is a master multitasker -- flying down to the Dominican Republic for some Merengue dancing with her fam ... all before a big show she's got in Texas a few hours from now.

The rapper was down in the D.R. Saturday -- Cardi's part Dominican herself, BTW -- with her sister, Hennessy, and some pals while they visited family and stuck around for a big get-together later in the night ... her grandmother's 80th birthday party, no less.

We got this video of Cardi doing her thing on the dance floor ... where she was cutting it up with the help of a DR legend -- accordionist and singer Fefita la Grande, who was handling stage duty for the night as Cardi and co. Merengue danced the night away.

Chance the Rapper was down to party with Megan Thee Stallion after the BET Awards ... within reason, of course.

The Chicago MC and his wife, Kirsten, paid Meg a visit late Saturday night at her private booth inside The Mansion Elan in Atlanta -- shortly after both of them took the stage at the award show for the pre-taped telecast ... which will air on TV Tuesday.

Chance -- who collab'd with MTS for his song, "Handsome" -- and Kirsten took shots with the "Hot Girl Summer" rapper ... but it looks like they weren't trying to get too loaded.

The homeless opera singer is already on her way to booking gigs and belting out her song to the back row -- playing a gig for proud Italian-Americans in L.A. ... and killin' it.

Emily Zamourka -- who went viral from a video of her crooning in a subway -- performed Saturday evening in downtown San Pedro for the Historic Little Italy Sign Unveiling & Festa ... which was flooded with reporters and cameras who wanted a glimpse of the soprano.

She did her thing -- which apparently consists of just one Puccini tune for now, not that there's anything wrong with that -- and got a roaring applause from the audience.

Afterward, she thanked everyone for having her out and did a few interviews with local media. Record producer Joel Diamond was on hand as well, telling people he was planning to do great things with Emily after getting her on an EDM/opera crossover song of his.

Taylor Swift and her BF are busting out of their usual shells ... and it already has fans buzzing there could've been a secret marriage -- but we think those fans are blind.

Tay Tay celebrated her 'SNL' performance Saturday night in NYC by attending the cast after-party at Zuma, and she brought actor Joe Alwyn with her too. The couple -- who've been dating since 2017 -- rarely do public appearances together, but they were all PDA'd up as they entered the party.

Joe and Taylor were hand-in-hand, but fans noticed a new diamond ring on Taylor's free hand. Cue the Internet speculation from Swifties that their hero is engaged or even ... already married!!!

Only problem with that theory is the ring is on Taylor's right hand, NOT her left. It's possible Joe and Taylor are changing all the rules, we guess. But, let's keep it real ... Taylor strikes us as more of a traditional.

Sorry, Swifties. But, uhhh ... she was good on 'SNL.' How 'bout seeing "False God" live for the first time? That counts for something, right?