Music

Despite becoming the target of some politicians, drill music is no phase or fad ... so says heavyweight hip hop producer Hit-Boy, who knows a thing or 2 about making beats that stand the test of time.

TMZ Hip Hop caught up with the Grammy Award-winning producer -- who's made gold with JAY-Z, Kanye West, Nas and Nipsey Hussle -- as he launched his "Hit-Boy OG" hybrid strain of cannabis.

When asked about the longevity of drill music, today's hottest sound in rap music, Hit-Boy didn't mince his words and certified the bass-heavy subgenre is here to stay. HB's comments are timely and right on cue, too.

On Friday, up-and-coming London rapper JNR Choi decided to upgrade his TikTok viral "To The Moon" single by enlisting UK, Chicago and Brooklyn drill features from M24, Russ Millions, G Herbo and Fivio Foreign, respectively.

BTW, we got Hit-Boy while he was at the Lemonnade Van Nuys dispensary -- owned by Bone Thugs & Harmony manager Steve Lobel -- so, it was the perfect time for him to reveal the one track that blew his mind, while his mind was blown ... "Rare" by Nas.

Originally released as the lead single for 2021's "King's Disease II" album, the explosive piano medley infamously switched into an old-school break-beat for Nas to lyrically demolish.

Makes you wonder what they have in store for "Part 3." According to Hit, he and Nas have already started vibing on it.

Naomi Judd's death was top of mind at the Country Music Hall of Fame ceremony -- with her two daughters accepting the honor on her behalf ... and shedding tears while paying homage to her.

Ashley and Wynonna Judd were on hand Sunday at the CMA Theater in Nashville, where the Judds were inducted into the Hall. Of course, Naomi -- who made up half the duo -- had suddenly passed the day prior ... so her kids stepped up.

Their speeches were sorrowful and moving -- both AJ and WJ were weeping ... explaining how much Naomi knew she was beloved by all, which is what they say kept her hanging on for as long as she did.

Ashley also asked folks to come and see their widowed father, Larry Strickland. When Wynonna spoke, she offered up some much-needed humor ... but then said what everyone else was thinking -- that she was broken and at a loss for words.

Wynonna accepted her medallion -- and everyone gave her a huge round of applause. It was incredibly emotional all the way around ... and sorta astonishing that the Judd sisters even made it considering the shock of their mother dying.

As we reported ... Ashley and Wynonna announced Naomi's death Saturday, citing mental illness, but nothing more. Naomi was out publicly alongside Wynonna in recent weeks ... and was fully expected to make the ceremony, with no outward ailments anyone was aware of.

Naomi had been open about her mental health struggles over the years, saying she'd battled depression for a long time. The exact circumstances surrounding her death remain unclear.

Machine Gun Kelly's revelation he and Megan Fox drink each other's blood is drawing a warning from vampires -- yeah, the real deal -- and, believe it or not, they're reminding the couple ... safety first!

While MGK and Megan haven't explicitly used the V-word, many people on Twitter are labeling them that way, and now self-described vampires are weighing in on the famous couple's blood-drinking ritual.

Belfazaar Ashantison, the co-founder of The New Orleans Vampire Association (NOVA), is urging Megan and MGK to take proper precautions before drinking their lover's blood, including testing for potential diseases and blood-borne illnesses, from which he says vampires are not immune.

Megan and MGK have been together for nearly 2 years, which alleviates one concern, because Ashantison says most vampires do extensive research on their blood donors before using even the slightest drop. He says it took him 6 months to get to know his blood donor and feel comfortable drinking their blood, and they still get tested every 3 months just to be sure.

Soooo ... definitely not your grandpa's Hollywood vampire.

Father Sebastiaan, the founder of Endless Night Vampire Ball, is also urging Megan and MGK to be super safe with their blood drinking, specifically with regards to withdrawing blood.

MGK says he's willing to cut his chest with shards of broken glass to draw blood for Megan, but Sebastiaan says blood withdrawal should only be done through medical professionals.

While Ashantison and Father Sebastiaan admit they don't know all the ins and outs of MGK and Megan's blood ritual, they both agree -- no matter how weird it sounds to you -- if done safely, it's kosher for consenting adults.

This year's Stagecoach Music festival was one to remember -- just ask the flock of celebs who hit the desert -- throwing on their cowboy boots and hats for a weekend full of country music.

JoJo Fletcher, Becca Tilley, Diplo and Brielle Biermann were amongst a list of celebs to pull up to the star-studded fest and enjoy some good vibes.

Heather Rae and Tarek El Moussa clearly enjoyed their time on the festival grounds ... where they were spotted locking lips and wrapped in each other's arms.

Some other celebs included ... Sutton Stracke, Kyle Richards, and Dorit Kemsley, and Maren Morris. Of course, Maren Morris took the stage and gave a performance.

Tory Lanez might be on a good luck streak in Vegas -- he's still partying there after a run-in with the law ... over marijuana TSA allegedly found in his bag.

TMZ has learned Tory was stopped Sunday morning in the Las Vegas airport -- where he was attempting to board a flight outta town -- and according to law enforcement sources ... a TSA agent found a "large" amount of ganja in one of his bags.

We're told TSA temporarily detained him, but eventually let him go ... without the stash, of course. The feds are holding that. While marijuana is legal in Nevada, it's still not legal federally ... and that means ya can't fly with it.

Tory's not letting that little hiccup with the law ruin his weekend. Since he probably missed his outgoing flight, he's turned this into a biz opportunity ... and now he'll be onstage Sunday night for a performance at Drai's.

If he wants to get high beforehand, someone's gonna have to puff puff give ... 'cause Tory ain't got it!

The man that was allegedly beat up by DaBaby and his crew was apparently throwing the N-word around during his confrontation with the group ... at least according to new video.

The North Carolina rapper posted the footage himself Saturday, which appears to show Gary Prager pacing back and forth on the grounds of the mansion where the alleged beating took place in December ... and sure enough, you hear him scream "n*****s" in a rage.

DB's caption reads, "On today's episode of 'Let's Make DaBaby Look Like a Bad Person'" ... going on to accuse Prager of being a "PROUD white supremacist" ... adding that he (Prager) was "lying to TMZ & LAPD. Not knowing that he's caught on camera."

Later it reads, "These are the type of people y'all validate & let assassinate DaBaby's character." DaBaby also says Prager spat in his face, but the vid doesn't seem to show that.

For starters, nobody lied to us about this story -- DaBaby has, in fact, been charged with felony battery as it relates to this case ... so his beef is actually with Prager and law enforcement officials. DaBaby will have a chance to confront Prager's claims in court.

As for the guy screaming out the slur ... yeah, that's bad. It's unclear if him saying this occurred before or after the alleged assault -- but we suppose it doesn't really matter ... no excuse for invoking racism in any event.

DaBaby apparently thinks this will help make him look better in the public's eye -- but he seems to have bigger issues beyond just this one event, if we're being honest.

DJ Khaled turned into Adam Sandler to appease his son who was in the mood for some Mickey D's -- looking far and wide for a burger/toy combo ... and finally scoring!

The music producer went on an elaborate mission, it seems, to honor a weekend tradition he and 5-year-old Asahd apparently have -- namely, going out to the Golden Arches and securing the kid a Happy Meal.

Sounds like this is a tradition of theirs ... DJK calls is "Happy Meal Saturdays," and Asahd seems more than happy to tag along. Plus, just great father-son bonding right here.

Anyway, fast-forward to the hunt ... which was way harder than Khaled imagined. He filmed himself pulling up to a McDonald's that actually served Happy Meals ... telling both the drive-thru window workers (and his fans) that they'd struck out at 5 other locations.

He says this McDonald's was still serving Happy Meals ... and you can tell the staff was stoked to oblige, getting selfies with Khaled and asking him to drop some of his lines, which he happily did.

While Papa Bear was grateful to have gotten what he needed for his boy -- he was flabbergasted at how hard it was to come across a Happy Meal ... but there's a reason.

Word is ... McDonald's is phasing out current iterations of their staple menu item to replace the not-so-environmentally friendly plastic toys with biodegradable ones ... all in an effort to be more eco-conscious. So, it sounds like Happy Meals might be on pause at the moment.

Kid Rock and Bruce Springsteen are going head-to-head in a very unofficial fan poll taking place on the internet -- and wouldn't you know it ... it's politics as usual, yet again.

Somebody posed the strange question this weekend ... asking Twitter quite simply, "Bruce Springsteen or Kid Rock" -- and boy, did the bird app people give her a piece of their mind. Lo and behold, this turned into political mudslinging -- as these things often do.

Of course, Kid is much more so associated with right-wing views -- so as you can imagine, people who lean that way were coming out in fierce defense of KR ... dubbing Bruce as a leftist, etc. Ditto for fans of the Boss -- they too were name-calling.

Interestingly, the original question-poser tried to weed out the associations and connotations that each artist might carry outside of music, and answered her own question based solely on skill. In her mind, she doesn't think Bruce is all that he's cracked up to be.

Most music fans would probably disagree with her ... and the evidence is in the cold, hard numbers here. While musical taste is certainly subjective -- you can't deny that Bruce runs laps around Kid when it comes to hit singles, sales and overall popularity big picture.

On the Billboard Chart alone, Bruce takes the cake -- he's got a total of 26 songs that made it on the Billboard's Hot 100 list, 12 of which cracked the Top 10 ... with "Secret Garden" and "Dancing in the Dark" sticking around for 23 and 21 weeks, respectively.

Kid, meanwhile, only has 6 songs that made it into the Hot 100, and just one made into the Top 10. That'd be "Picture," which hung in tight on the chart for a total of 34 weeks.

And on pure numbers alone for units sold -- Bruce, again, beats Kid ... he's got about 150 million record sales worldwide, compared to KR's 27 million. So it's not really a contest or a matter of opinion in this regard ... Bruce has, objectively, outperformed the Kid.

Like we said, the discourse around this bizarre juxtaposition seems to have devolved into nothing more than a Democrat vs. Republican chat -- with each camp coming to their own artist's defense.

That's the way of the world lately, we suppose -- but again, to each their own. With that said, we'll put the question out there right here ... who's better, Kid or Bruce???

Rihanna wants to make it clear to everyone ... she and A$AP Rocky are solid.

A$AP headlined at the Smokers Club Festival Saturday night in WeHo, and RiRi was backstage showing her support.

She's reportedly just weeks away from giving birth to her first child, but showing up at the club was clearly important to her.

There's been lots of drama over the last few weeks. As we reported, A$AP was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon last month in connection with a shooting last November in Hollywood. A$AP and Rihanna were blindsided by cops who met them at LAX and hooked Rocky up. They then searched his house for weapons but did not find the gun used in the shooting.

Rapper Pooh Shiesty won't be a completely free man even after he does his time for a wild shootout -- the artist will have some serious restrictions, according to legal documents.

Pooh's sentencing docs, obtained by TMZ, show he'll have to be on supervised release for 3 years once he completes his 63 months in prison, and the supervision comes with a bunch of rules attached.

During the 3 years, Pooh isn't allowed to associate with any of his co-defendants or gang members ... and his PO has permission to search Pooh and his property from time to time.

The rapper will also have to go through a treatment program for drugs and alcohol.

As we reported, he's currently serving the 5-plus year sentence over a South Florida shootout from back in October 2020.

Naomi Judd -- the Grammy-winning country star and one half of the mom-and-daughter duo The Judds -- has died ... this according to her kids.

Wynonna and Ashley Judd released a statement Saturday, saying ... "Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness." They add, "We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory." No other details were offered.

NJ's passing comes as a bit of a shock -- while she's been public in recent years about different personal struggles she's grappled with throughout her life, including depression dating back to her childhood, nobody seemed to know the extent of what she was battling.

Naomi had also made clear that her issues had left her and her country duo-daughter, Wynonna, estranged for a time ... but they'd recently reconciled and were actually due to hit the road again this year for an arena tour across the country -- the first in over a decade.

Plus, Wynonna and Naomi were supposed to appear together Sunday as inductees into the Country Music Hall of Fame ceremony -- so the timing of this tragedy is stunning.

The Judds first formed in 1983 and had a massively successful career for about a decade thereafter -- during which they cranked out six studio albums, over 20 hit singles (many of which charted in the Top 10 and higher) ... and won 5 Grammys between '85 and '92.

Some notable songs ... "Love Can Build a Bridge," "Girls Night Out," "Grandpa," "Young Love," "Let Me Tell You About Love," "Maybe Your Baby's Got the Blues," "Give a Little Love," "Have Mercy," "Turn It Loose," "I Know Where I'm Going," among countless others.

The group disbanded in the '90s, during which each woman ventured out solo into their respective careers ... and Naomi even dabbled in television with one-off appearances, either as a side character or herself ... and eventually got into movies as well.

She's appeared in hit series like "Frasier," "3rd Rock From the Sun," "Touched by an Angel," "Sisters," "Maybe It's Me," and more. Naomi's also starred in flicks like "An Evergreen Christmas," "Someone Like You...," "A Holiday Romance," "The Family Tree," "Newlyweds," etc.

BTW, Ashley had her mom cameo in at least one of her films ... so they were obviously close. Naomi's survived by her husband, Larry Strickland, and her celebrity daughters.

She was 76.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon's relationship is often seen as bitter, but this week ... Macca seems to have made it clear ... him and John can still come together, even now.

The Beatles frontman was performing this week in Spokane, WA ... and toward the end of the show, during an encore performance, PMC started strumming to his band's song "I've Got a Feeling" -- which appears on The Beatles' last album, "Let It Be."

The song is also featured in their new 'Get Back' documentary ... featured as one of the songs Paul and co. performed on the rooftop of Apple Corps HQ in London.

Of course, he was also side by side with his then-bandmates -- including the late Lennon -- which is what this moment all the more cool ... Paul beamed in JL's video performance of the song live and worked it into the set.

As soon as John's face appeared on the screen behind Paul, the audience went crazy ... and it seems his vocals were coming through quite nicely through the sound system in the building.

Paul weaved in and out of John's singing seamlessly with his own, and at one point ... they were in a full-blown duet together, just like old times. Before John faded out, it appears Paul even turned to face the screen to give a thank you wave.

It was seriously awesome, and kinda puts to bed the idea that there's any bad blood between the pair -- despite the fact Paul recently cast blame on John for breaking up the band.

Adele is close to finalizing a deal to bring her Vegas residency to a new home ... with her sights set on a premiere date in a few months.

Sources with direct knowledge of the singer's plans tell TMZ ... she and her team are in serious talks with the people over at Planet Hollywood, and will do the show at Zappos Theater -- barring any unforeseen setbacks.

As we reported, Adele was supposed to do a residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace earlier this year -- but the show was derailed and canceled after what she first claimed was a COVID outbreak, but then it came out the postponement was really over creative issues.

Our sources say there'll be some major perks for Adele at Zappos ... she'll have full creative control over the show. And, get this, we're told Adele will also rake in a large cut of ticket sales -- a significant enhancement considering Zappos holds 7,000 people compared to The Colosseum's 4,100.

As for the dates, the official schedule is still being worked out, but the aim is for a late summer start that will run through the end of 2022 -- makes sense considering she recently revealed she wants to have a baby in 2023.

You'd think there might be some bad blood between The Colosseum and Zappos with Adele -- but both venues fall under the Caesars Entertainment family -- so all is good.

Adele's been spending the last few months with her bf Rich Paul, taking in NBA games and even dropping in at a London gay bar for some fun.

DaBaby is facing criminal charges for a beatdown a man claims he suffered for trying to stop the rapper's entourage from shooting a music video on his property.

The rapper has been charged with felony battery by the L.A. County District Attorney's Office ... over an incident from early December last year ... which allegedly left a guy, Gary Pragar, with serious injuries.

There's another man named Thankgod Awute who's being charged as well. Prosecutors claim he was DaBaby's cohort in crime ... they hit him with felony robbery.

Pragar filed a lawsuit in February, claiming he was attacked for enforcing basic property rental rules at his place.

DaBaby and his team rented a massive pad that Pragar manages in L.A. ... and Pragar says he was told it was going to be a vacation place for DB and his pals. Pragar says he made clear ... there was a guest limit -- no more than 12 -- which he claims DaBaby's management team agreed to in a rental agreement.

During their weeklong stay ... Pragar says he became aware there were way more than 12 people at the property at any given time and complained to DaBaby's team ... getting assured, falsely he says, that they wouldn't be there for long.

Eventually, on Dec. 2, he says he paid a visit himself and realized they were shooting a music video there with an entire film crew and a ton of other people around -- upwards of 40, he says -- and Pragar tried to shut the whole thing down by talking to DaBaby.

That's when he claims he was attacked by someone in DB's crew, part of which was caught on video. He says DB ordered the guy off of Pragar, but then allegedly sucker-punched him in the face, knocking out his tooth ... this, per the lawsuit.

Sounds like Pragar went to the authorities after this, and now they're coming down hard on DB and co. Tough few weeks for DaBaby -- this is just the latest incident for him in a string of seemingly nonstop hiccups.

Post Malone did a good deed -- a very good deed -- for students who were grieving over the death of their principal.

Post recorded a video for students at P.S. 56, The Louis Desario School in Staten Island. Principal, Phil Carollo, died suddenly last month at 49 ... apparently from a heart attack.

Phil's widow Erin tells TMZ ... her husband was a huge Post Malone fan ... the fam would take car rides and all they played was PM as the couple and their kids sang along.

Well, Phil would have celebrated his 50th birthday Friday, so folks at the school wanted to do something special. They held a carnival, and wanted Post to record a vid honoring Phil that could be played to all the students.

One of the teachers, Linda Acevado, started an online petition to get Post to record the video.

Linda was undeterred ... a colleague had a friend who somehow had a way to get to Post, and he recorded the video.

You see Linda in the video break down in tears as an emotional Post offers words of comfort to the students.

Travis Scott has another fellow artist supporting his decision to resume his music career following the Astroworld tragedy that left 10 people dead.

TMZ Hip Hop caught up with Tinashe at LAX, and the R&B starlet feels it's prime time for Cactus Jack's comeback. While she acknowledged the festival was indeed a "sensitive subject," she doesn't feel Travis should be banned from performing ... provided additional security measures are in place.

The singer -- who just fired off the deluxe version of her "333" album -- actually collaborated with Travis on her 2014 debut album "Aquarius" and echoed much of what T-Pain told us earlier this week.

As for the various Astroworld lawsuits still hanging over Travis' head ... both sides have accused each other of "tainting" the jury pool

Attorneys for victims have criticized Travis for his charitable initiative, Project Heal, calling it a thinly-veiled attempt to get into a jury's good graces -- while reps for La Flare claim a new documentary, "Concert Crush: The Travis Scott Festival Tragedy," is a cash grab, and one that could potentially taint a jury.