Music

DJ Kay Slay has died after a 4-month battle with COVID ... this according to his family and peers.

The NY-based legendary hip-hop ambassador passed away Sunday, first confirmed by Wack 100, and then others, as tributes started to pour in from across the industry. His family writes, "Our hearts are broken by the passing of Keith Grayson, professionally known as DJ Kay Slay."

They add, "A dominant figure in Hip Hop culture with millions of fans worldwide, DJ Kay Slay will be remembered for his passion and excellence with a legacy that will transcend generations."

Kay Slay, AKA Dez, started out as a graffiti artist in the '70s and '80s -- and later branched out into music ... making his big splash in the early 2000s through the local radio and music scene with his big personality and unique beat selection ... not to mention his wicked flow.

He's most famous for his mixtapes -- cranking out more than a dozen dating back to 2003 -- plus other solo and compilation artists, which often featured huge names in the game ... including Nas, Swizz Beatz, N.O.R.E., Raekwon, Lloyd Banks and Foxy Brown.

His "Streetsweeper" series is one of his major claims to fame, as was his recurring radio spot on Hot 97 -- which was dubbed the Drama Hour ... another nickname he bore. DJ Kay Slay was also known for his disses in his tracks, and was once called "Hip-Hop's One-Man Ministry of Insults" by the New York Times.

Dez contracted coronavirus in December and was hospitalized for a while. While he showed signs of recovering thereafter, it became clear over time he was struggling to get back to 100%.

DJ Kay Slay was 55.

The Weeknd and Swedish House Mafia wrapped up Coachella weekend 1 with an epic set on night 3, giving the massive crowd a night to remember.

SHM played solo for the first hour, with classics like "Don't You Worry Child" and "Save The World" -- easy to say the crowd was hyped.

The Weeknd joined the group onstage for remixes of songs like "Moth To A Flame" and "Sacrifice" off his latest album, Dawn FM. After their collab performance, the solo artist stuck around for the final hour to do some of his own chart-breaking hits like "Blinding Lights" and "The Hills."

The Weeknd headlined the Indio festival back in 2018, as well as held performances in 2015, and again in 2012 -- the same year SHM headlined.

Doja Cat had her first solo performance at Coachella, and she brought Tyga to the stage to perform one of their hits.

The recent Grammy winner got her own lineup spot Sunday, and the crowd was loving every minute ... along with her hits, she performed a new song, "Vegas," which is in Baz Luhrmann's new Elvis movie.

At one point, she started her song, "Juicy," but couldn't do it alone ... bringing fellow artist Tyga to the stage to collab. She also brought up Rico Nasty for their song, "Tia Tamera."

Doja joined Rico at the festival back in 2019, but this is the first year she's been given her own slot -- fitting to bring Rico back on the stage after she did the same for her years ago.

As you know, Doja claimed to be quitting music at the end of March after tweeting about her poor performance at Lollapalooza in Brazil ... her fans in Paraguay got upset that she never tweeted about missing their recent festival -- one that was canceled due to a deadly storm, so not really her fault.

A war broke out online between her and fans, even journalists, in Paraguay ... going off about leaving the music game, changing her handle to "I quit" and saying "This s*** ain't for me so I'm out. Y'all take care."

That's a wrap on the first weekend of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival ... and the celebs squeezed every last drop of day 3 with some wild shows, crazy looks and plenty of chill time by the pool.

Super model Shanina Shaik, rapper Quavo, Chloe Bailey and a bunch more stars soaked in the last day in Indio while musicians like Run The Jewels, Jamie XX, Doja Cat and The Weeknd with Swedish House Mafia closed out the Easter Sunday night.

A few stars took it slow on the last day by resting poolside and easing into the closing night ... Olivia Jade got a little R&R in a tiny black bikini and super model Allesandra Ambrosio floated into the day on butterfly pool floatie.

The investigation into DaBaby's bowling alley fight has hit a snag ... and we're told, oddly enough, the alleged victim is the reason.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... the investigation into DaBaby's bowling alley brawl with DaniLeigh's brother, Brandon Bills, has hit an unexpected roadblock because the alleged victim is no longer cooperating with police.

We're told, even though much of the fight was caught on camera, it's very difficult to move forward without a victim.

As we showed you, DaBaby and his crew got into a massive fight with Brandon at a CA bowling alley, back in February. Cops were on the case, after video footage seemingly showed the "Suge" rapper throwing the first punch ... before his crew gets involved.

After reviewing the footage, police reportedly opened an investigation into the rapper.

ICYMI, beef between DaBaby and Brandon escalated ... after Brandon's sister, DaniLeigh -- DaBaby's baby mama -- publicly aired some issues. At one point, DaBaby and DaniLeigh got into a blowout fight and DaniLeigh was arrested for assault.

We're told the bowling alley investigation remains active but isn't going anywhere at the moment ... because Bills isn't working with police.

No word on why Bills isn't cooperating ... but of course, he could change his mind.

Last week, DaBaby shot a trespasser on his North Carolina property. In the 911 audio following the shooting, DaBaby talked back to the dispatcher and told them he'd refuse to put his gun down when cops arrived.

Before this little musician was selling out concert venues with his dynamic voice and elite guitar-playing skills, he was just a simple kid growing up in Australia.

This tank-top tot has definitely made his imprint in the music industry and has been relevant since the late '90s ... and has four Grammy awards to back it up! Although he particularly sticks to one genre, he has stepped out of his box and collaborated with musicians such as Pink and Jason Derulo.

Still not too sure who this platinum blonde boy could be? You can catch him still rockin' the same hairdo.

Isaiah Rashad broke his silence this weekend about a sex tape that appears to out him as LGBT friendly -- and he's taking all the love and support he's received in stride.

The TDE artist -- who's had a solid and loyal fanbase for years, dating back to the 2010s -- performed Saturday at Coachella ... the first time he's taken the stage publicly since a private tape of his leaked back in February, showing him engaged in a sex act with two men.

The clip went viral, conjuring lots of reaction from the hip-hop community, including shock. Fact is, Isaiah had only ever indicated he was into girls ... at least in his music, anyway.

While there were some who chimed in with homophobic jokes and insults, there were just as many who spoke up having Isaiah's back -- including some prominent figures in the industry, like The Game, who said people's private lives were no one else's business but their own.

Isaiah was clearly keeping tabs on all the chatter that surfaced, as he compiled a lot of it into an intro video that he played before coming out to rock his set.

IR performed with tons of energy and didn't explicitly say anything about the sex tape until later on when he was nearing the end ... giving thanks to his fans for the solidarity, even indicating they may have saved his life with their messages of positivity and embrace.

It also appears the guy was getting emotional during one of his songs -- eagle-eyed viewers watching the live stream from home spotted what look to be tears coming down his face.

Tons of people are giving Isaiah props for tackling this issue head on at Coachella, the most public of spaces. Also ... him getting embraced like this is indicative of where we are as a culture ... namely, it ain't that big a deal if a rapper is anything but straight these days.

Megan Thee Stallion might be taking a page out of Tory Lanez's book -- she seems to have addressed their legal battle/past relationship in song ... and she did it at Coachella.

The MC performed Saturday in Indio, and at one point during her set ... she took to a moment to debut a new track, while also touching on its significance to her as talked to the crowd. And she did it in not-so-subtle terms either, although refrained from naming names.

Meg says, "This song is very mf'ing personal to me, and it's to whom the f*** it may concern -- and I really feel like my ladies with f*** with me on this one," telling the DJ to drop it.

Listen to it for yourself ... it's all about Meg dissing dudes she used to mess with, and promoting the idea she's independent, etc. Empowering stuff, no doubt, and while it could be directed at anyone ... it's hard to shake the feeling this might be aimed at Tory too.

The reason we say that ... there's a telling lyric in there about how "d*** don't run me," and of course -- Tory himself used that very same term not too long ago on Twitter, which landed him in trouble with a judge, albeit temporarily.

You'll recall, TL suggested he was sleeping with both Megan and her friend (the other woman in the car) and that's what he apologized for ... not for shooting her in the feet.

Earlier this month, Tory was briefly remanded into custody for this tweet ... a judge found he was indirectly speaking to Megan, which violates her protective order against him as their case plays out. Tory was sprung the same day, however, and went on to drop a new song/music video within 72 hours of bailing out -- again, seemingly addressing the sitch.

Billie Eilish did not disappoint on Day 2 of Coachella ... certainly judging by the crowd that came to watch her headline the night.

Billie can add another title to her achievements ... at 20 she's the youngest musician ever to headline the festival.

She sang a bunch of hits from her first 2 albums, but before doing so she eyeballed the crowd to make sure there were no bad seats. BTW ... she and Finneas didn't perform "No Time To Die," a song for which they just won an Oscar.  Also missing from the set ... "Nobody Like You."

Khalid jumped on stage to perform "Lovely" with B.E., and the crowd ate it up.

Near the end of the set, she also brought out Blur, Gorillaz and The Good, the Bad and the Queen frontman Damon Albarn.

Travis Scott didn't get to perform on any official Coachella lineup this year -- following the Astroworld tragedy -- but he settled for the next best thing ... an after-party.

The rapper got on the mic early Sunday morning during the Bootsy Bellows get-together in nearby La Quinta, where we're told he got onstage around 3 AM (about an hour before things were set to start shutting down) and cranked out 5 of his songs from the DJ booth.

As you can see ... it was a very stripped-down and limited show, similar to what he did at a pre-Oscars party last month. Travis was keeping it relatively chill as far as energy ... nothing compared to what he might normally do at a regular concert.

At one point, Trav even played DJ ... pulling double duty, and the remaining crowd that was there seemed to dig it. It's safe to say, the guy's testing the waters slowly but surely ... and it would appear he's still very much got an audience that's down to see him.

Of course, Travis making an appearance in the vicinity of Coachella is interesting in and of itself -- as you know, he was slated to headline until he got bumped over Astroworld -- but there was still some hope he could cameo seeing how Kanye West was hired ... and there were rumblings he might bring Travis out during his set.

That fell through, so it was all but certain TS wouldn't pop up on stage there in Indio.

Plus, there seemed to be bad blood between him and Billie Eilish -- at least from the outside looking in -- who sorta took shots at him during a concert of hers a few months back -- even though she downplayed any animosity toward him specifically when confronted by Ye.

The Indio Desert is in full swing as the second day of the Coachella Music Festival heated up the festival goers and tons of Hollywood celebs in the process.

Olivia Culpo, Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner, Justine Skye, David Dobrik were just a few of the famous faces that could be spotted roaming the desert for while acts like Megan Thee Stallion, 21 Savage, Billie Eilish ... and even music composer Danny Elfman performed to the excited throngs of fans.

The day was not only filled with music and art ... there was a ton of VIP parties going down in the surrounding area. Anastasia Karanikolaou and Lena Waithe partied at the Spotify Party while Revolve continued their model day parties.

This year's fest has been getting referred to as the "Influencer Olympics" and you can see why ... people like YouTuber James Charles and Lele Pons have been making most of the photo ops around the grounds.

Mark Hoppus from Blink-182 has great cause to celebrate, because he's cancer free!!!

We got Mark Saturday night leaving Craig's in WeHo, and he and his wife, Skye, seemed like a heavy weight was just lifted from them ... this, after Mark's oncologist gave him the news, which he says is a great blessing.

Mark handled his cancer battle privately ... he revealed he was dealing with it back in June and was always hopeful, and his optimism paid off. Not to say he didn't struggle ... Mark went through a round of chemo for lymphoma.

Well, now things are good, and he's looking forward to getting back in the studio with Travis Barker and co.

Speaking of Travis, you gotta hear Mark's wife when our photog asks about Travis and Kourtney tying the knot.

Post Malone spreads the love -- and the message of love -- at a wild party during Day 2 of Coachella.

Post performed Saturday night at Coachella Revolve Party at the Merv Griffin Estate in the Palm Springs area, and he had words for the crowd.

Post was emotional, talking about the need to spread love to family, friends and strangers. He talked about struggles -- in Ukraine, the COVID pandemic, and just dealing with life. He tried to inspire the crowd, saying it takes a second to help course-correct someone who is struggling.

Then he gave the crowd what they came to see ... an awesome performance of "Congratulations," and for good measure, he brought out Quavo.

Then, as the show was about to end, P.M. jumped into the crowd, lost his shirt and everyone went wild.

Cardi B and Offset's baby boy Wave Set Cephus can thank his rapper father for his super cool first name.

Sources connected tell TMZ ... the Migos rapper was the one who came up with the name Wave.

Once Cardi and Offset knew they were having a boy, we're told they started throwing around words and names for their first son ... and when Offset suggested Wave, both parents loved it.

The middle name is a much different story.

Our sources say Cardi and Offset spent much longer figuring that out ... originally toying with Marley ... a play on Cardi's middle name, Marlenis.

We're told Cardi didn't like Wave Marley Cephus -- it just didn't have the right ring -- and when the kid was born Sept. 4 and his parents saw him for the first time, Cardi and Offset decided to go with Set.

So, both names are courtesy of Offset. Most of Offset's friends call him Set.

As we reported ... Cardi B and Offset waited nearly 8 months to reveal the boy's name and post the first pic.

We're told Cardi and Offset took their time because they get a ton of negativity on social media, especially toward their kids. They waited for the perfect occasion -- their Essence cover shoot.

Rihanna and A$AP Rocky are tied at the hip despite breakup rumors … literally, take a look for yourself.

Here’s video, obtained by TMZ, of the couple  at an airport terminal in Barbados Friday -- where they’re shoulder-to-shoulder, and eventually … waist to waist, thanks to Rocky’s wrap-around with his arm.

He brings in her close as they exit … the first glimpse of clear PDA we’ve seen between them since all this nasty gossip surfaced this past week.

Photos of this outing popped up over the weekend, but paps weren’t able to capture A/R embracing like this. It certainly seems to put all this nonsense to bed -- namely, they’re clearly together, and not split up as the internet would have you believe.

We’d already been told by our sources that the whole thing was BS, but now ... here’s visual evidence to prove it even further for those who might still have their (unfounded) doubts.

And in case that wasn’t enough, the woman A$AP is alleged to have cheated on Rihanna with -- Amina Muaddi -- shut it down herself, calling all the speculation an “unfounded lie.”

As you know, RiRi is carrying Rocky’s baby -- and looks like she’s ready to pop any day now. Rihanna announced her pregnancy back in January ... she and Rocky have been dating since 2020, this after knowing each other for years.

Chris Brown has got more woman troubles ... but TMZ has learned, this time it's not of his doing.

LAPD sources tell us ... Chris is having an issue with a woman who keeps showing up at his San Fernando Valley home. Two weeks ago police were called because she would not leave. By the time cops arrived, she had skedaddled.

We're told, the next two days someone called the cops saying Chris needed a welfare check  ... but police knew it was BS.

The drama didn't stop there ... our sources say, CB's security called the police again last week because the same woman returned to Chris' home and got into a screaming match with his security.

We've learned, police ended up taking an incident report because there was no crime ... but they wanted to document what went down. They were told the woman in question had been seen on the street by the singer's gate around 10 times.

Oddly enough, this isn't the first time Chris has had unwanted visitors at his home.

Remember ... Chris had a yard sale at his home a few years back ... wonder if anyone got any crazy ideas when he made his address public.