Music

The ever-elusive Kendrick Lamar smashed 2022 with the year's biggest rap album ... yet outside of reposting updates on that project, he's not much for social media -- but turns out he's still getting his chat on.

According to Kendrick’s former TDE President Punch, Kung Fu Kenny's actually in a group chat with himself and JAY-Z and he claims they’re some funny mofos!!

Punch spoke to Complex about Kendrick's departure from the label -- after taking it to unprecedented heights -- and revealed he, Kendrick and Jay-Z once debated who was the funniest between them all.

He called Kendrick "super witty" to add to their "super funny."

Humor really has never really been part of Kendrick’s image. “N95,” the only video to drop from his 'Mr. Morale' album, is an artistic presentation for sure … but not very LOL-ish.

Britney Spears was faced with a scary situation as she ran out of gas in the middle of one of L.A.'s busiest freeways ... and cops were called to get her to safety.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ they got a call around 10 PM Tuesday for a report of a white Mercedes blocking the third lane southbound on the 101, just north of Balboa Blvd. Officers say when they responded Britney was seated in the backseat of a passerby's vehicle.

We're told Britney informed officers she ran out of gas while driving, and her car quit in the middle of the freeway.

Once the California Highway Patrol got traffic stopped, an officer got in the driver's seat of Britney's Mercedes to steer while she sat in the passenger's seat and the vehicle was pushed to safety.

LOX rapper Styles P intervened while cops arrested a woman, accusing them of roughing her up outside the NY juice bar he owns with Jadakiss ... and the whole thing's on video!!!

The video starts right in front of Juices For Life, just as a couple of Yonkers Police officers slam a woman to the ground and try to handcuff her.

The officers scream the woman is under arrest, but never specify why ... and that's when Styles P runs into the shot screaming at them. He tells another bystander to keep recording as he gets right up in the face of one of the cops, and yells about their aggressive tactics.

The woman recording claims the cops have been targeting women. Styles then challenges the officers, saying they were scared of Black people and were unfamiliar with the area.

At one point it seemed like they were gonna arrest Styles, but that didn't happen.

After cooling down a bit, Styles jumped on IG, and admitted he was wrong for his hostility towards the officer ... but admits seeing a woman involved in the ruckus made him act "out of character."

Styles has a star-studded 20th-anniversary concert scheduled next month to celebrate his "Good Times" weed anthem.

We're sure he knew how to calm down after this brush with 12.

A rare sighting of Frank Ocean for ya here ... although he tried to keep things low-key, his choice in majestic headwear might have actually drawn even more attention to him.

We spotted the reclusive singer Tuesday at LAX, where he stepped out of his car wearing a wig and a face mask -- good effort, but our photog recognized him all the same.

We asked him a bunch of questions -- about the wig, and his recent revelation that he micro-doses LSD. Not shockingly, he didn't have much to say. But, you really gotta see the hair ... it's kinda the latest craze in R&B. Think Anderson .Paak in Silk Sonic.

Regardless of fashion choices, this rare Frank Ocean sighting and his recent drops on Apple Music aren’t a coincidence.

Frank just celebrated the 10th anniversary of his classic album "Channel Orange" with two new "Blonded" Radio episodes, where he plugged his love for psychedelics. He's also gearing up -- at his own pace -- to headline the 2023 Coachella stage, so you know his return is coming.

Albert Pujols went deep last night -- inching him closer to A-Rod on the all-time HR leader list -- and fans at Busch Stadium went crazy, including Nelly, who got a high five from the baseball legend after he crossed home plate!

Pujols -- who rejoined the Cards after spending 10 seasons away from the team -- smashed the 685th homerun of his storied career ... and celebrated the monster shot with the St. Louis icon on his way back to the dugout.

Of course, Nelly's a huge deal in St. Louie ... and so is Albert. Even though the hip-hop star has seen Pujols belt numerous dingers over his 22-year career, you can tell Nelly was pumped!

At age 42, Pujols -- a 3x MVP and 6x Silver Slugger -- can still put a charge in one and send it into the seats ... as demonstrated by how quickly he turned around a 94 mph pitch from Dodgers pitcher Mitch White.

Pujols announced in spring training that this would be his farewell year ... saying he planned to retire at the conclusion of the 2022 season.

But, don't fret too much Cards fans ... Albert's going out with a bang. On Tuesday, Albert confirmed he was participating in this year's Home Run Derby contest in L.A.!

Fake Drake will get his wish to fight in the Celebrity Boxing arena ... just not against the man to whom he owes his livelihood.

Damon Feldman of Celeb Boxing tells TMZ Hip Hop that Lamar Odom -- AKA ex-NBA champ, husband to Khloé Kardashian -- has agreed to square off against Frake ... and this one feels a little personal.

Lamar dropped a prefight video while rocking a Nipsey Hussle shirt ... and he seemed pissed Fake Drake was trying to drag the real deal into the ring. So L.O. promised to help his friend and lay out the impersonator once and for all.

Not to be outdone, Fake Drake shot a training vid of his pugilistic skills -- although he's mainly ducking punches.

He's gonna need some serious evasive techniques -- Lamar stands at 6'10, won championships with Kobe Bryant annnd has already beat up J Lo's ex-husband and knocked out Aaron Carter in Celeb Boxing matches so ... good luck Fake Drake.

While they're still deciding between Atlantic City or Miami, we're told the fight is definitely on for October 15.

Ne-Yo is a famous conductor of talent and as fate would have it, he crossed paths with Lucky Daye long before the "Roll Some Mo" singer became a Grammy winner.

However, things didn’t pan out between them on the professional level, because of a very personal matter. Ne-Yo revealed what went down when he went on Fuzzy West and Quincy Harris' "FAQ" Podcast.

He says he recruited Lucky in hopes of signing him, and even had him write Jaime Foxx’s part on 2008’s “Miss Independent Part 2” ... aka “She Got Her Own.”

In an act of friendship, Ne-Yo says he gave young Lucky access to his crib while he was away on business -- but with one very important restriction: do NOT treat my master bedroom like an OnlyFans set!

Well, according to Ne-Yo that's exactly what Lucky did, and that's when he knew their partnership was over.

Luckily, Mr. Daye bounced back … signing with RCA/Keep Cool and winning the 2022 Best Progressive R&B Album Grammy for his “Table for Two” LP.

As for his side of the Ne-Yo's bed story -- Lucky's been radio silent.

Lil Wayne's hometown concert event, Lil WeezyAna Fest, is ramping up again for its 6th run in New Orleans.

For this year’s fest, Weezy's recruited Moneybagg Yo, Coi Leray, Babyface Ray and Rob 49 to light up the stage with their performances.

The Live Nation Urban-sponsored event will take place at Champions Square on August 27, and Wayne shared his excitement by getting on IG to plug all the performers.

One key part of the event for Wayne is the fact 50 cents of every ticket sold will be donated to NOLA students' educational opportunities within the culture.

Young Money Records President Mack Maine added ... “As always, we will be honoring the many lives lost in Hurricane Katrina as this year marks the 17th year anniversary.”

Rick Ross and Birdman have a scarred history … and the Cash Money Records bossman clearly has NO issue with picking at that scab very publicly.

Baby was on DJ Akademik’s “Off The Record” podcast discussing his top CM artists like Drake, Nicki Minaj + Lil Wayne and the Hot Boys (although his mind went blank when thinking about something nice to say about Turk 👀) -- but he also listed off several other eventual superstars he had under his wing.

He proudly named Yo Gotti, Future and DJ Khaled as other protégés … but puckered up like a Lemonhead at the mere mention of Rick Ross’ name.

Birdman claims Ross sat in the shadows studying, and stealing moves that would lead to his own MMG imprint gaining traction several years later.

The 2 ‘bawses’ actually recorded an album together back in 2008 … only for it to be released with extra tardy sauce in 2013, but without any friendship to generate buzz for the record.

In 2017, Rozay went at Birdman's throat on the song “Idols Become Rivals” … ironically over his own claims Lil Wayne and DJ Khaled were in terrible label situations.

Prosecutors in New York say they discovered a scheme to sell stolen handwritten lyrics from some of the Eagles' most famous songs ... and now 3 men have been indicted as a result of the investigation.

Here's the deal ... prosecutors say the men were in possession of about 100 pages of Don Henley's handwritten notes and lyrics for the band's "Hotel California" album, with the men allegedly trying to fool auction houses into buying the memorabilia despite them knowing it was stolen.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg says the men fabricated stories about the origin of the documents, and their right to possess them, so they could turn a profit ... even allegedly engaging in a years-long campaign to stop Don from recovering the stolen manuscripts, which are valued at over $1 million.

Prosecutors say the manuscripts were originally stolen back in the 1970s by an author hired to write a biography of the band and then sold to rare books dealer Glenn Horowitz, who in turn sold them to Craig Inciardi and Edward Kosinski.

The D.A. says when Don learned Inciardi and Kosinski were allegedly trying to sell portions of the manuscripts, he filed police reports and told the men the materials were stolen, demanding their return.

Prosecutors say Inciardi and Kosinski then worked to fabricate ownership records to try and coerce Don into buying back the stolen property. At the same time, the D.A. says the men were trying to sell the manuscripts through Christie's and Sotheby's auction houses.

The D.A. says their office executed search warrants to recover Don's stolen manuscripts from Kosinski's home and Sotheby's ... and a short while later, prosecutors say Horowitz tried to use the death of Eagles founding member Glenn Frey to prevent criminal prosecution by claiming he got the manuscripts from Frey.

The men are each charged with one count of fourth-degree conspiracy. Inciardi and Kosinski are also charged with first-degree criminal possession of stolen property. Horowitz is also charged with first-degree attempted criminal possession of stolen property, plus two counts of second-degree hindering prosecution.

Don's manager, Irving Azoff, tells TMZ ... "This action exposes the truth about music memorabilia sales of highly personal, stolen items hidden behind a façade of legitimacy. No one has the right to sell illegally obtained property or profit from the outright theft of irreplaceable pieces of musical history."

T-Pain's not exactly shocked about Chris Brown's outburst about his "Breezy" album kinda bombing, because he says CB's got a bit of "princess" in him.

Teddy Pain was chopping it up with Akademiks on Twitch when the topic of CB’s record sales for his 10th album came up.

The "Breezy" rollout didn’t go as planned … debuting at No. 4 on Billboard and CB reacted in a fit of blanguage, promising to be on his "gangsta sh*t" once again -- which sounds like an adventure in and of itself!

T-Pain says it’s all because he’s been enabled his entire career and said his condition is far worse than being spoiled. When Ak tried to explain all artists have ups and downs in their careers, T-Pain pointed out CB’s lack of “adjustments.”

DJ Drama’s executive radar is zeroing in on New York City, where he's found the next rapper he thinks can blow: Badda TD!!!

The 18-year-old artist and Generation Now founder recently connected on “The World Is Yours: Gangsta Grillz” -- the latest installment in his legendary rap catalog.

Drama tells TMZ Hip Hop ... “Gangsta Grillz has always been about spotlighting artists defining their own lane and Badda TD is definitely up next out of New York."

The project features fellow NYC red-hot upstarts Ron Suno and Dusty Locane, and follows Jim Jones and Tyler, The Creator in the GG series.

Drama recently gave aspiring hip hop artists gems on how to get signed when we last saw him in person.

He and his GN co-execs recently inked a big extension with Atlantic Records and are doing it even bigger with Lil Uzi Vert and Jack Harlow.

Rage Against the Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha had a twist of fate during his Windy City performance … the guy messed up his leg, forcing him to rock out while grabbin' a seat.

Zack and his bandmates were 4 songs deep into their set at the United Center in Chicago on Monday night when the singer started hopping on one leg as he ran across the stage during "Bullet in the Head."

The video, obtained by TMZ, shows Zack trying to shake it off, but instead, he has to grab onto nearby equipment to stay standing ... unclear exactly what went down, but a serious ankle injury could be at the root of it.

Clearly, Zack could have used some medical attention, but he had other ideas -- the rock star parked himself on top of sound equipment for the rest of the show, belting out song after song.

At one point, crew members appeared with a walking boot for Zack on the side of the stage, but Zack wasn't having any of it. He just kept on rocking out while poppin' a squat.

Zack's band members came over and hugged him an hour later as the show wrapped up, before being carried off stage by stage personnel.

Griselda rapper Conway The Machine isn't playing nice with NYC DJs Funkmaster Flex and Suss One -- he's telling the old-school vets is time to hang it up for good.

The slick words targeted the city’s top 2 hip hop stations: Hot 97 and Power 105 … while sharing his tales of seeing Flex in public, and claiming he's clueless about the current hip hop scene.

Conway also essentially called a Suss One a sellout for nabbing "The Wendy Williams" gig, and shrugged him off on live TV after a fan stated Conway was in his Top 5 ... with the likes of Nas and Jadakiss.

Suss One has collaborated with numerous Mariah Carey, French Montana and several other big names -- and he joined the 'Wendy Show' in its last couple of seasons.

He says despite Flex and Suss One’s lack of radio support, he and his Griselda team of Benny The Butcher and Westside Gunn have been been given stamps of approval by Raekwon and the Wu-Tang Clan.

Age is a touchy subject in rap. There’s always a tug-of-war between new energy and veteran talent.

Justin Bieber continues to take time away from his tour and focus on his health -- and he's got his wife by his side -- while the two share a kiss and cuddle on a boat.

Justin and Hailey were in Coeur d'Alene over the weekend, where they hopped on board to get some sun and a little PDA. The couple was with some friends ... and seeing Justin out and about again is encouraging.

As we reported, the singer announced last month he was battling a scary case of Ramsay Hunt syndrome. Bieber explained the health issue had left him paralyzed on one side of his face, and that he needed to take time off from his world tour to focus on getting better.

It's hard to tell from the photos, but the fact Bieber is traveling has to mean he's close to getting things back to normal. He told fans he had planned on completing physical therapy and wouldn't return to tour until all was well again.

Omarion's been a hot topic since his Verzuz battle with Mario -- where the other B2K members deemed "he got served" -- but now ya could say Omarion's hitting back with some docuseries tea.

The singer appeared Monday on "TMZ Live" and let us in on his secret to handling all the shots his ex-bandmates have been throwing -- not to mention all the drama from their infamous Millennium tour -- and he says it's all about staying "unbothered."

Omarion says his upcoming docuseries "OMEGA: The Gift & The Curse" will shine the spotlight on the truth of the band's nasty breakup, which came to a head when Lil Fizz began dating Apryl Jones, the ex-girlfriend and mother of Omarion's 2 kids.

Talk about must-see -- following his Verzuz, Omarion hopped on Instagram to thank Mario for the competition, but also fired back at the B2K crew, calling them little more than "backup dancers."

For their part ... Raz-B, J Boog and Lil Fizz ordered a side of extra petty with their responses. They unified to post a scene from the cult classic R&B flick "The Temptations" ... the one that depicts the lead singer looking like a sucker.

Fizz later followed with receipts proving there's no longer an "O" in B2K. At least legally, anyways.

Despite it all, Omarion says he doesn't hate his old crew, and revealed his inclusion in B2K has always been a point of contention -- having been the last member to join -- and he blames older music execs for pushing them to the breaking point.