Music

Kodak Black claims he had a perfectly good reason for having several oxycodone pills when he was busted last weekend … his legal team insists he needs them to deal with serious pain.

Kodak's attorney Bradford Cohen tells TMZ ... the "Super Gremlin" rapper has battled chronic pain after getting shot in February during a scuffle in L.A. over Super Bowl weekend. Cohen says Kodak was prescribed pain pills to take as necessary to deal with that injury.

What's more, prior to the shooting, Kodak alleged he was assaulted by guards during his stint in a Kentucky federal prison, before Donald Trump commuted his sentence and released him. We're told he suffers ongoing pain from the attack and the meds help with that pain.

Cohen says he's handed over proof to prosecutors that the pills were legally prescribed, in an effort to resolve the matter STAT.

Lil Baby is in especially high spirits heading into his Washington, D.C. tour stop with Chris Brown, and briefly clued us in on Gunna and Young Thug's moods ... even though we interrupted his Future flow.

The 4PF Records CEO kindly stopped his rapping rendition of Future’s "Back to the Basics" Tuesday afternoon outside Reagan National Airport. We caught him right at the "DC sniped it" line, so yeah ... he was getting hyped for the Capital One Arena show.

We asked if he had any update on how Thug and Gunna are holding up on the inside, and LB pumped the brakes on the lyrics. He assured us both YSL superstars are in good spirits and added a thumbs up, which is rarely faked in this day and age!

Earlier in the week, Gunna was able to video call with some relatives, and a short clip posted online was filled with laughs ... a good sign, for sure.

And just last week, Young Thug’s sister says she paid him an in-person visit that yielded similar vibes.

Both Atlanta-based rap stars have to wait until at least 2023 before they see trial but a friend like Baby is sure to keep them plugged in the rap world.

Desus and Mero’s Showtime series’ untimely demise put the spotlight on internal negative intentions … at least that's Charlamagne Tha God's take as he digests the surprising news.

Charlamagne pointed out how numerous outlets rushed to cover the breakup in spite of D&M’s 6-year TV run on Showtime and Vice ... and blamed the “culture” for rushing to highlight failure over success.

The Breakfast Club host didn’t specify which culture he was referring to, but D&M’s brand intersected the worlds of music, movies, comics and ... generally speaking, all things NYC.

The show’s official Twitter account closed the curtain Monday on Desus and Mero’s run -- all but citing the irreconcilable differences fans suspect behind the split.

Issa Rae's latest HBO series "Rap Sh!t" is about to debut, and she says you can expect to see characters spitting lyrics written by her favorite rappers ... all women!

Issa shouted out PineappleCITI, NCognita and Dreezy, who tells TMZ Hip Hop ... writing for the show was a breeze, seeing as how she's written for hip hop and R&B artists in the past.

She's sworn to secrecy as far as naming any co-collaborators for the show, but Dreezy assured us a few upcoming hot tracks have her fingerprints all over them.

"Rap Sh!t" -- which drops Thursday on HBOMax -- is centered around 2 Miami women looking to get ahead with their music, and, naturally, they also experience all the sinful spoils of the industry.

It looks and feels much like the life of City Girls Yung Miami and JT ... mainly because they're co-executive producers with Issa and several other people.

Dreezy also tells us the backlash behind women rapping about their bodies is a moot point, mainly because sex sells everything ... including rap, and "women are sexy AF!!!"

She claims women rappers have just as much variety as men, citing love songs, party songs, get money music, heartbreak and bad bitch music as different subgenres.

Justin Bieber's going back on the road again after hitting the pause button on performing -- which seems to signal he's all better after a serious health scare.

The singer announced Tuesday the Justice World Tour will fire back up at the end of July, with his first show set to take place at the Lucca Festival in Italy on the 31st. From there, he'll traverse the globe for the rest of his stops, picking up where he left off.

Among the countries/regions JB's expected to hit first ... South America, South Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and then circling back to Europe.

His team says Justin will make his way back to the States eventually, with dates forthcoming for concerts he'd postponed. Of course, this is good news for his fans -- the guy's been taking time off the past month and change amid a health scare that came out of nowhere.

The disease he was battling was called Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, which was virus-driven ... and caused facial paralysis, among other issues. Justin said he'd need time to recover.

French Montana is accusing record labels of embracing street violence related to their artists, and actually capitalizing off rappers’ deaths.

Comparing his entry point to today’s star rappers, French told Akademiks ... record labels are now taking life insurance out on artists in anticipation of them being killed in action.

French says when he began buzzing in the late 2000s through NYC aficionados Max B. and Dame Grease, labels and artists actually distanced themselves from street drama but now they’ve learned how to monetize the murders.

Over the past few years, rappers such as Pop Smoke, King Von and Drakeo The Ruler were all killed … and subsequently had albums released posthumously to the public.

French also says today’s rap game is more dangerous than in the past, and blames social media for escalating the beefs saying, “One day a full war [can] go on.”

Fellow NYC-bred rap stars Nas and Jim Jones have both sided in the past with French and his notion that being a rapper is the world’s “most dangerous” j-o-b.

We recently caught him in NY as he broke down the complicated culture ... reacting to his friend/collaborator Lil Tjay’s shooting. His message: urging all hip hop artists and entourages to stay safe.

Sometimes guests on the TMZ Celebrity Tour get not one, but TWO extra special surprises --just ask the folks who had run-ins with Jamie Foxx and Lizzo!

First, it was Lizzo outside The Hollywood Roosevelt -- she just dropped her album "Special" last week -- and likely has a ton of promos to get done, but she still took a little time to chat it up with bus passengers ... even spilling on her favorite song from the album.

Then it was Jamie Foxx, who bus passengers spotted outside Avra in Beverly Hills.

The Oscar winner seemed to be catching up with a friend outside the celeb hot spot and gave our bus a friendly wave before joking he was going to hop on board.

If Aaron Judge seems to be moving just a tiny bit slower at Tuesday night's All-Star Game ... now ya know why!!!

The New York Yankees superstar was spotted partying in L.A. the day before the mid-summer classic on Monday ... hitting the Fanatics ASG bash in downtown -- and rubbin' elbows with Travis Scott and some NBA superstars while there!!

TMZ Sports has some pics from the festivities -- and you can see Judge, rockin' a custom blazer with a white shirt underneath, seemed to be enjoying himself big time as he chatted with the celebs at the venue.

AJ was grinnin' ear to ear while talking with Scott and Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin -- and he later posed for a pic with the two plus Joel Embiid and James Harden.

No word on what time Judge left the venue ... but don't worry, Tuesday's game doesn't start 'til 5 PM PT -- so dude's got plenty of time to recover if it did happen to be a late night.

Jason Derulo and Jena Frumes are co-parenting their son without a hitch, under completely different roofs -- and she's doing so under a brand new one ... TMZ Hip Hop has learned.

The R&B/pop star leveraged his Billboard and TikTok success to purchase a $3.6 million, nearly 5,000 sq foot fortress back in March, but it wasn't for himself. We're told Jena and their son Jason King live there exclusively, with plenty of room to, ya know ... wiggle.

The swanky pad checks off 5 bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms and features a pool with built-in spa and waterfall features, a soundproof movie theater -- plus an outdoor farmhouse and BBQ area.

Jason copped the house this past March amid a career resurgence that saw his TikTok following and bank account swell substantially.

Fans were initially shocked to see Jason support Jena at her recent runway gig during designer Luli Fama's Miami Swim Week show ... especially after cheating allegations fractured their relationship last September.

Nolan Neal, a contestant on both "America's Got Talent" and "The Voice," has died.

Nolan passed away Monday according to the medical examiner ... Nolan's cousin Dylan Seals tells TMZ he was found dead in his apartment in Nashville.

No official cause of death has been determined, but the singer has talked openly about his struggles with substance abuse. During an interview with WBIR in 2020, he admitted that he was still struggling with addiction while he was competing on "The Voice."

Dylan tells us Nolan lived with him for 4 months prior to the pandemic ... when Nolan was clean, jamming out and making music with him.

Nolan was featured on season 15 of "AGT" ... making it all the way to the quarterfinals where he performed an emotional original piece, "Send Me a Butterfly."

During his audition for the show, he sang a song called "Lost," which he said was the first thing he wrote after getting clean. The performance got a standing ovation from the crowd and all 4 judges.

Nolan also blew everyone away on season 10 of "The Voice," getting picked to be on Adam Levine's team, and making it to the knockout round before he was eliminated.

A Nolan Neal fan page posted Tuesday morning about his death, saying, "I can't believe you're gone from us" ... the caption ends with "Heaven just got a new music director."

Nolan was 41.

RIP

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck will soon be surrounded by their closest friends and family to celebrate their marriage at his estate in Georgia ... a plan almost IDENTICAL to how things were supposed to go down 20 years ago.

Sources familiar tell TMZ ... back when the couple got engaged in 2002, they planned on getting married at Ben's 87-acre property outside Savannah, GA. We're told everything was in place leading up to their big day -- including police and security to HOLD the unwelcome at bay before the couple decided to call everything off ... ending the engagement in 2004.

TMZ broke the story, Ben and Jen got married in Vegas early Saturday morning in a tiny chapel ceremony that included their kids ... but they'll throw a massive party at Ben's GA estate by the end of the month.

The property, about an hour's drive from Savannah, features several homes, including a 10,000 square foot main house and a smaller, 6,000 sq. foot home ... so there's plenty of bedrooms for guests.

Jennifer released a statement shortly after we broke the wedding news, saying, "We did it. Love is beautiful. Love is kind. And it turns out love is patient. Twenty years patient."

Drake's brand new home apparently already had an unwanted visitor ... cops arrested a man there who claimed the rapper was his dad.

LAPD tells TMZ ... cops were called to the rapper's Beverly Hills-adjacent mansion last Friday after an employee saw someone near the pool house.

Police questioned the 23-year-old ... the man claimed 35-year-old Drake was his dad and he was just waiting for him to come home ... but obviously cops weren't buying it.

The man was arrested for misdemeanor trespassing ... we're told the guy never made it inside the house.

Drake plunked down $75M for the estate a few months back, buying the property from "Take That" singer Robbie Williams.

We're told Drake wasn't home during the incident. As we reported, he's been spending time in Sweden, where he apparently had his own run-in with police.

Johnny Depp seemingly had a new female companion in his life, which is true ... but there's nothing romantic about their relationship, TMZ has learned.

Depp, unsurprisingly, made headlines over the weekend when he was spotted in Italy accompanied by the redhead. Johnny was in town for the Umbria Jazz Festival -- where he played with Jeff Beck -- and fans speculated the woman might be Depp's new girlfriend.

However, it's just not the case ... we've spoken to sources who tell us the woman is working on Depp's upcoming movie "Jeanne du Barry" as a French teacher.

Makes a lot of sense to bring your teacher on the road if you're Johnny, and live a lifestyle of constant travel and performance.

The movie will mark Depp's first in 3 years, he's playing Louis XV in the project, which centers around the life of Jeanne Bécu, Louis' mistress when he died.

Lil Durk says he’s taking a break from social media, but that’s not why the Chicago rapper is trending -- that's all about a wild casino brawl, where some folks think Durk got slept!

The viral footage shows a man with blonde dreadlocks KO’d. There's no doubt the guy goes down, but the ID has definitely been in question.

Well, turns out it’s neither Durk, nor his doppelganger, Perkio who caught the viral haymaker.

The man on the receiving end of the bruising is actually a self-proclaimed Houston venture capitalist by the name of James Lett IV, who, by the looks of things is enjoying his newfound fame -- posting his face to prove the punch left no dents, and bragging about his increased social traffic.

Judging from the OG poster’s timestamp, the fight appears to have gone down over 4th of July weekend inside a Florida casino -- but it got hot online following announcements from both Durk and Perkio.

Durk announced an Instagram and Twitter hiatus Monday just as the video began to trend … which only fueled rumors it was him.

Durk gave a shout-out to his fallen brothers King Von and D-Thang and also reiterated the same timeout speech to his Twitter legion.

It appears he’s just focusing on making his next hit, and not ducking comments about the fight video.

DaBaby’s heinous remarks about HIV patients cost his Dua Lipa feature maximum exposure, but according to one of his Billion Dollar Baby artists ... he still made off with a pretty penny.

Stunna 4 Vegas poured the tea, revealing -- at least according to him -- DaBaby got $350,000 last year for appearing on DL's “Levitating (Remix).”

In his VladTV interview, Stunna went on to vouch for DaBaby’s character, saying he was in good standing with all his fans and funds.

During DaBaby’s “cancelation” period, he says DB’s cash and car flow didn’t stop. They say there's no such thing as "bad" publicity, and that's totally true in this case ... if Stunna's stats are accurate.

Remember, as that controversy was exploding ... DaBaby had dropped a Lil Wayne collab that got him back on the Billboard chart. The song peaked at No. 2 and went 4x platinum.

But he eventually had his credit snatched from the Billboard charts after the July 2021 backlash from Rolling Loud engulfed the internet.

Dua immediately ripped into DB … citing how she was “surprised and horrified” at her collaborator’s words and distanced herself from the situation in a fiery response.

Boosie Badazz is back to his happy place -- his own personal car lot -- after nearly blowing a gasket following his now viral run-in with Georgia law enforcement.

In a video posted to his newly minted Instagram -- yes, he's back -- Boosie reminded himself he’s overcome hard times, and basked in his beautiful collection of mostly black cars.

Boosie is clearly in a good mood … rapping along to Louisiana classic hip hop Mac and Soulja Slim’s “Can I Ball.”

Throughout his car tour, you can see a Chevy Corvette, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Cadillac Escalade, a Rolls Royce Phantom and several more-high end vehicles

Boosie was just the passenger when he and another man were pulled over and cuffed last week on the side of the highway -- and cops claim they were following safety protocol when they handcuffed the men.