Music

Nick Cannon is the gift that keeps on giving -- and in his case, that gift is children, because the guy is having himself another baby ... #10!!!

The TV host broke the news Wednesday with his latest partner -- this time, it's ex-girlfriend (and already established baby mama) Brittany Bell who's carrying his new kid. They did a maternity shoot together, and BB's quite far along -- in the third trimester, it seems.

Brittany is barechested for some parts of the video -- with Nick right beside her, and at times, behind her -- and he even cradles her belly at certain points. There's more footage that shows them wearing matching outfits and hanging out at home with their kids.

Nick writes, "Time Stopped and This Happened," going on to tag Brittany and adding the hashtags #Sunshin and #SonRISE. He seems to be telegraphing ... they're having a boy.

He's been spotted with Brittany of late -- who seemed to be trying to hide a baby bump -- so perhaps this isn't all that surprising. They've obviously remained close ... very close.

Like we said, Brittany has already given birth to two of their kids -- Powerful and Golden -- and now, they're due for a third. This is Nick's tenth child, and he's got another on the way.

Remember, another partner of his -- Abby De La Rosa -- is currently expecting and due in October. That's baby #9 ... he just had baby #8 with Bre Tiesi last month. We know -- it's hard to keep track at this point ... but the big takeaway here is that NC is in double digits.

Offset’s legal filing against his ex-label Quality Control has opened up a can of worms … and they’re crawling in every direction!

Quality Control CEO Pierre "Pee" Thomas reacted to the breaking news that Offset was suing for solo independence with disdain — calling the estranged Migos rapper’s complaints "lame."

Offset — and his wife Cardi B sharply fired back at Pee … Offset claiming Pee had him blackballed for the past two years without even communicating.

Cardi echoed the lawsuit’s details … Offset paid QC millions to obtain his solo rights as an artist, but when he released his “5,4,3,2,1” single last week, he says QC tried to claim ownership, effectively ticking him off in the process.

Taylor Swift flipped through an old poetry book and decided to hijack the vibe and design for her own offering nearly a decade later -- at least according to a new lawsuit.

A woman named Teresa La Dart has filed suit against TS, claiming she and her company lifted crucial elements of her own published work -- a 2010 book called "Lover" that includes poems, anecdotes and photos -- for TayTay's 2019 book of the same name.

Of course, Taylor has her "Lover" album ... but this lady is going after her for the accompanying book she released as a companion piece to the hit record.

Per the docs, obtained by TMZ, La Dart insists the similarities between what she put out almost 10 years ago and what Taylor released are too close to ignore. She says her book was widely available and insinuates Taylor and co. saw it and then essentially created carbon copy -- trying to pass it off as original.

As for what exactly she thinks is so alike between her book and Taylor's ... there's a few things actually. Aside from sharing a title, La Dart claims the general concept of what Taylor did -- a "recollection of past years memorialized in a combination of written and pictorial components," according to La Dart -- is exactly what her book is, to a T.

La Dart also claims the style of the photos featured on the cover/foreword are very similar ... pointing specifically to the pastel pinks and blues in the color schemes of both books.

Retired NBA star Gilbert Arenas says he's happy to still be breathing after he cost Irv Gotti and Ja Rule $175k ... claiming he purposely busted up a bet they had on a game he was playing in -- and they were FURIOUS over it!!

Arenas -- who was on the Warriors at the time -- said he was playing a road game against the Rockets when he overheard Gotti and Ja mentioning they had bet on the Dubs to cover the spread that night.

Agent Zero says he had no idea what the spread was, but made it his mission to spoil their night ... knowing he had to score some more points to kill the bet.

Arenas said his Warriors were losing to the Rockets, led by Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley, and with the game out of reach, he came down the court and threw up a half-court three-pointer.

Naturally, the wild shot went in ... sinking any hopes Gotti and Ja had of cashing out that night.

"[I] came down and shot it," Arenas said. "And I could see the disappointment in their face. I won. I won the game. We're going back to the locker room, and I'm sitting there like, 'Yeah, I hurt somebody's feelings today.'"

"I didn't know how much money they had on the game. I didn't really know it was about betting, but I knew I hurt [Gotti's] feelings. I knew I hurt his feelings. He was disappointed even though they won. He was disappointed, so that means I won."

Thanks to a recent interview on the "Drink Champs" podcast, we now know that Gotti and Ja bet $175K on the Rockets to cover the spread against Gilbert's Warriors.

"We wanted to kill Gilbert Arenas after that," Gotti said on the podcast. "The whole arena knew we had 175 [thousand dollars] on this. The refs knew. Everyone knew."

Megan Thee Stallion's following up her "Traumazine" album release by playing some legal hardball -- forcing J. Prince and Carl Crawford to sit for depositions in the lawsuit over her contract.

Megan filed docs Tuesday notifying the court her lawyers will be grilling 1501 Entertainment honcho Crawford, as well as Prince ... the Rap-A-Lot Records founder, who Megan claims has been advising Crawford on business dealings.

The date and place are already set ... J. Prince goes first on October 24, and Crawford follows the next day -- both depos will be taken at an office building in Houston, and they will be recorded on video.

It's a major power move for Megan, who, as we've reported ... is suing her label, 1501 Entertainment, because she believes she satisfied the terms of her contract with her last 2 albums -- "Something for Thee Hotties" and last week's release, "Traumazine."

Megan says Crawford and co. aren't viewing those projects as albums, simply to keep her tied to 1501 -- but she says she's done with the label. She wants out, and she wants a judge to force Crawford to cough up royalties and other money she says 1501 owes her.

She says that number is at least $1 million, but wants a proper accounting to determine the actual damages.

Tensions boiled over on Tuesday morning ... when Megan, Prince and Crawford all volleyed accusations that ranged from the 2 men mishandling her business to Megan conspiring with Roc Nation to get out of her contract.

Getting an industry powerhouse like Prince to sit for a deposition is no easy task, and Megan's hope could be this forces Crawford to settle the lawsuit beforehand.

While Migos continues dodging break-up rumors, Offset's going to war with the group's record label ... filing a lawsuit over his solo career.

Offset filed docs, which TMZ Hip Hop obtained, and in them he accuses Quality Control Records of ignoring a deal they made back in January 2021.

According to the suit, filed Tuesday, Offset says he negotiated his solo deal, and "paid handsomely" for his artist rights ... but now that he's dropped a new solo project, he says QC isn't honoring the deal.

He just released the Baby Keem-produced solo single, "54321" … which he says QC incorrectly tried to claim as its own, an action he calls "hostile."

Offset also plans on releasing another song entitled "Code" with Moneybagg Yo this Friday, presumably just on Motown Records, the label he signed with for his solo career.

Migos sparked break-up rumors earlier this year when Quavo and Takeoff began releasing music under the moniker "Unc & Phew." Quavo was willing to talk about everything -- except the alleged split.

Offset's Migos deal with QC remains in place -- but when it comes to his solo work, he wants the court to declare QC does NOT own anything he's made since January 15, 2021, or in the future.

Every second wedding's gotta have a second honeymoon -- seems like that should be a rule -- and that's why Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are back in Europe for another romantic vacay.

Witnesses tell TMZ ... Ben and Jen pulled up to the Grand Hotel Tremezzo in Lake Como, Italy Tuesday -- arriving by private water limo, naturally.

The tables to the left of them were apparently kept empty ... even a glass facade was moved so they could get a better view of the iconic lake.

Security was also nearby to make sure their night went uninterrupted.

And yes, we're told they couldn't keep their hands off each other -- they put a pause on the kissing so Jen could head off to the bathroom, but when she came back they got right back to it!!!

Sounds like Ben was taking a look at Jen's wedding pics on Vogue's IG page -- truly her #1 fan.

As you know, they said "I Do" for a second time at his Georgia estate over the weekend ... after first eloping in Vegas last month. Wedding #1 ended with a family trip to Paris for their honeymoon.

Lil Yachty may have been born in August -- but the trendsetting rapper celebrated his 25th birthday with Drake like he was October's Very Own!!!

Yachty, Drake and several other friends took a coast on Drake's "Air Drake" private jet ... toasting to more life over chicken wings and Sprite.

Yachty was clearly in OVO mode -- debuting a new owl tattoo and even pulling up to Drake’s PJ wearing the Canadian megastar’s Chrome Hearts jeans, which he accidentally ripped!

Released as a merch rollout to support Drake's 2021 album "Certified Lover Boy," the collection has since grown hard to come by online ... and is extremely expensive.

Drake and Lil Yachty have been friends for years … Yachty recruited Drake for his platinum "Oprah's Bank Account" and cameoed in Drake and Future’s diamond-selling "Life Is Good" video.

Kanye West has been wearing a lot of black lately, but he's thinking blue for his future ... at least when it comes to landing a logo for his clothing line.

Ye's filed two new trademarks, obtained by TMZ, for a bizarre blue design he hopes to lock down as a logo. Unclear what the motivation is behind the logo ... it's a solid blue circle encased by another blue circle with jagged edges.

Interestingly enough, Kanye filed for another variation of the logo back in July, one without the color blue ... but it appears he's changed his mind.

However, this time the docs state, "The color(s) blue is/are claimed as a feature of the mark." Kanye fans might recognize the shade of blue is slightly similar to the same one he used on his "Jesus is King" album ... but we can't see any correlation between the album and logo.

As for the logo's use, the documents state it'll be for retail stores, online ordering services and online retail store services including clothing, footwear and headwear.

TMZ broke the story, Ye recently filed docs to land a trademark for "YZYSPLY" for retail stores -- so it's always possible the new logo and stores could go hand in hand.

Kodak Black is lending a major hand to Haitians cut off from food and water -- due to extreme gang violence -- by sending more than 35,000 bottles of H2O.

Kodak heard about the Caribbean nation's crisis, and decided to do something to help the situation -- dropping $50k to get tons of bottled water shipped there from Florida ... according to the rapper's attorney, Bradford Cohen.

We're told Kodak is using cargo ships to send over alkaline water, and the labels on the bottles read "LAST" because Kodak wants this to be the last time anyone in Haiti goes without water.

Once the shipment reaches Haiti ... Kodak and his team are working with Haitian government officials to ensure the bottles get to their intended destinations.

Cohen says Kodak is calling for a ceasefire in the rising gang violence that's turning Haiti into a war zone ... and the water donation is just his latest step in an ongoing effort to help the island.

The nasty letter John Lennon wrote to Paul McCartney in the '70s has sold at auction after 17 days of bidding ... with the winner coughing up some serious dough for the piece of Beatles drama.

Dylan Kosinski, a rep for Gottahaverockandroll Auction House, tells TMZ ... the Lennon letter sold on Saturday for a total of $70K -- a winning bid of $56K, plus the buyer's premium of $14K -- the fee for participating in the auction.

As we reported, John fired off a letter to Paul days after an interview critical of him and The Beatles appeared in a November 1971 issue of British music magazine Melody Maker, and John's reply is mostly scathing ... but also thoughtful and pleading.

John's frustration with Paul is clear from the jump ... telling Paul he's ungrateful for all the money he's getting from The Beatles.

As the 3-page letter rambles on, John takes issue with Paul dismissing his song "Imagine" and berates Paul for allegedly threatening to "get us whatever the cost" -- "us" referring to the rest of The Beatles.

The piece was estimated to fetch between $30-40K ... we're told there were 11 bidders gunning for the letter, with a total of 14 bids in 2 1/2 weeks' time.

Capitol Records is pulling the plug on its AI rapper FN Meka, and calling the unconventional and controversial signing an insensitive move on their part -- in retrospect, that is.

The label went public with Meka's contract on August 12, but Tuesday it did a complete 180° … apologizing to the Black community for not thinking things all the way through.

Sources close to the situation tell TMZ Hip Hop ... Factory New, the company that concocted FN Meka, was virtually blindsided by the news, learning of their shredded contract just moments before Capitol announced it was cutting ties.

We’re also told by label sources ... some angry staffers blame Capitol’s lack of diversity for the deal getting a greenlight, in the first place. One source claims the label has very few senior-level Black executives running departments.

FN Meka -- an artificial intelligence rapper with computer-generated lyrics -- featured overly exaggerated African-American tropes ... which triggered a major backlash.

Many fans and pundits took issue with the AI entertainer (or its creators) using the n-word, and romanticizing run-ins with police.

The virtual rapper’s debut single “Florida Water” single actually features Gunna, who is currently incarcerated.

We recently spoke to Krayzie Bone of Bone Thugs-n-Harmony about the situation ... who felt the dawn of the AI rapper is not only inevitable, but ultimately bad for human rapper job security down the line.

Kodak Black earned a platinum plaque for this year's hit “Super Gremlin” -- a passionate accusation of betrayal toward his former Sniper Gang artist Jackboy, but now Jackboy's clearing the air.

He's just dropped a new track ... "Renegade Freestyle (Closure),” which samples Jay-Z and Eminem’s legendary duet.

Kodak and Jackboy had a public falling out over numerous topics on Instagram Live last summer and Jackboy opens up as many old wounds as possible on the record.

According to Jackboy, Kodak has never visited Haiti despite repping the country's culture regularly, and even serves as a “federal agent” in exchange for immunity through Donald Trump. Again, that's just Jackboy's claim ... but it is true Trump was Kodak's saving grace when he was incarcerated.

Kodak’s recent run-ins with the police suggest he’s not above the law -- he's also not above a lawsuit.

Florida rapper Hotboii’s career stalled last year when he got caught up in a RICO case that authorities claim involved warring gangs … but he just scored a legal victory that may help his chances of being released on bond.

Hotboii’s lawyer, Bradford Cohen, tells TMZ Hip Hop his client’s Miami gun possession case was dismissed on Tuesday … but the RICO case in Orlando remains open.

Hotboii's bond was revoked when he surrendered last month in Miami to deal with the gun case and Cohen thinks this dismissal could provide a silver lining to getting his bond reinstated.

Hotboii was also part of the 34-person indictment dubbed “Operation X-Force” … a concentrated effort to thwart the alleged crimes of rivals Army Gang and 438 Gang.

The 22-year-old rapper was riding high this past summer when Drake put the stamp of approval on his newly released “WTF” single … but saw the buzz fizzle when he surrendered to authorities last month.

Miami rapper Zoey Dollaz recently dropped "Dollaz" from his handle, but added a money notch to his biz profile -- essentially starting a bulletproof version of Uber or Lyft.

On Tuesday, Zoey hit up "TMZ Live" to discuss Aegis -- the bulletproof car service he named after the Greek god Athena’s protective cloak -- and he told us he was partially inspired by his own brush with death.

Zoey is actually a shooting survivor himself, having been shot in December 2020 outside Teyana Taylor’s birthday party in Miami.

On top of that, he and Young Thug survived a shooting while driving around Atlanta … where he guestimates 75 rounds were fired in their direction.

That was enough of a spark for him to start Aegis operations with just 2 vehicles back in January 2021. Zoey says proudly he rented out 23 cars to artists during this year's Rolling Loud Miami festival.

Zoey says his company isn’t just for rappers ... he actually counts Manny Pacquiao as a past client and he wants pro athletes and regular citizens fearful of road rage to utilize his services.

He's based in Miami but has availability in major U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, Atlanta, Texas, Chicago and NYC.

The Washington Post reports Americans have purchased more than 43 million guns over the last 3 years -- and many, in and out of the industry, have called rapping. "the world's most dangerous job."

Kanye West will not be charged for allegedly punching a fan after a heated exchange outside an L.A. hotel.

The Los Angeles City Attorney's Office tells us, "After a thorough and careful review of all the evidence, our office is declining to file based on no reasonable likelihood of conviction." Translation -- there's likely just not enough evidence for a conviction.

As we reported, Ye got into an argument that turned physical back in January near the Soho Warehouse, according to law enforcement sources. We're told things got so heated, Kanye pushed and punched the male fan.

The case was being investigated as a misdemeanor battery, which carries a maximum jail sentence of 6 months.

We obtained a video of an irate Kanye, shot around the time of the alleged assault. You hear Kanye yell, "Did y'all say that or not? Did y'all say that or not?" "Cuz that's what happened right f****** now."