Music

Kanye West apparently finds the idea of Meek Mill being a high-ranking celebrity that's to be taken seriously laughable -- to which Meek says ... hey, at least I still have my wits about me.

The Philly rapper responded to a Clubhouse chat that Ye participated in this weekend -- during which, he mentioned Meek being part of a group of stars whom Kanye suggested were being rallied to reign him in amid his ongoing media appearances.

Ye -- apparently referencing someone else's plan to confront Ye in what sounds like an intervention setting -- name-dropped Diddy and Dave Chappelle ... and then Meek, which made KW laugh out loud and uncontrollably for several seconds.

He added, "What made somebody think Meek Mill could say something to me?" Somebody else on the CH tried defending Meek, saying he's a gangster -- but Ye wasn't buying it.

Welp, MM himself caught wind of the shade ... and he fired back with pretty spicy comments of his own. He took to Twitter Sunday and wrote, "Never lost my mind for fame or money … I still have my family …my people respect me … I’m freeing people from prison… I’m doing community service all month with children up close and personal."

Meek adds, "I’m chilling wit my son and his friends today.. y’all on clubhouse at 50 lol."

Meek and Kanye have been on fairly good terms in the past, having attended the same events and posing in the same shots even. MM has even gone so far as to say recently that he used to find Kanye to be a huge source of inspiration early in his career. Used to ...

Meghan Markle has someone in her corner besides Prince Harry -- Maren Morris says the wave of hatred for the Duchess makes no sense, especially considering the royal family's recent history.

The singer admits she hasn't seen the "Harry & Meghan" documentary on Netflix yet, but says she has seen "This profound hatred and annoyance at Meghan Markle, specifically, mostly coming from women" ... and she doesn't get it.

Maren unloaded on TikTok, saying ... "People are saying a woman should never take a man away from his family, that’s all that this is. Um, have you seen his family?”

While the new doc has, so far, been light on direct attacks of specific family members, the Sussexes are extremely critical of the royals, as an institution -- blasting it for, at best, unconscious bias ... or, at worst, planting intentional racist attacks against Meghan in the media.

Maren seems to understand exactly why Meghan and Harry dropped their senior royal status and fled to the United States. She pointed out the mistreatment, in her eyes, of King Edward VIII, Queen Elizabeth's sister Princess Margaret ... and don't get her started on Princess Diana.

Maren says Harry's mother "didn’t leave her children but she left the family.”

Her point here is ... royals have had beef with the family, and some have even left too -- so, why's everyone so bent over Harry and Meghan leaving?

Her theory is, "We are only living in this time of everything being so front-facing and people getting Netflix documentaries, what have you. This all feels very pointed at one woman as it mostly always has in history."

Cher is mourning the loss of her mother, Georgia Holt, who'd been battling illness for several months.

Cher announced the sad news late Saturday, simply saying ... "Mom is gone."

Georgia's been ill for a while now -- back in September, Cher tweeted, "Sorry I've Been Mia. Mom's Been Sick Off & On. She Just Got Out Of Hosp. She Had Pneumonia."

It did seem like she was making a turn for the better, because Cher also told fans her mother was "getting better" and was able to go home.

No word yet on Georgia's cause of death.

The phrase "she got it from her mama" could have been coined for Cher and Georgia ... who never looked anywhere close to her age.

Cher honored Georgia with the 2013 Lifetime documentary, "Dear Mom, Love Cher."

The film chronicled Georgia's childhood growing up in Arkansas, her 6 marriages and her show biz career. Long before Cher came along, her mother was a singer, model and actor. Sound familiar?

Georgia was 96.

French Montana is on top of the world, and it showed as he led a massive Times Square rally to celebrate his homeland of Morocco making World Cup history.

The rapper was a proud cheerleader Saturday evening as he stood on top of scaffolding, waving the Moroccan flag and chanting along with a crowd of thousands who were hyped up about their soccer team defeating Portugal -- sorry Cristiano Ronaldo -- and making it to the World Cup semifinals.

French -- who was born and raised in Casablanca, Morocco until his teen years -- had pure joy written all over his face after watching his Atlas Lions play the Cinderella role.

Morocco is now the first African, and first Arab-speaking country to advance this far in the World Cup tournament -- and they've defeated powerhouse teams like Belgium, Spain, and now Portugal, along the way.

Aaron Carter's mother accused his fiancée of causing his death, but Melanie Martin says not only is that not true … it’s also downright hurtful based on the reality.

Melanie tells TMZ … posts publicly shared by Aaron's mom, Jane Schneck, last week -- in which she outright accused MM of killing her son -- are completely contradictory to what she says was a fairly good relationship with Jane before Aaron passed.

While he was alive, Melanie says Jane would often thank her for having Aaron’s best interest at heart -- and that she explicitly expressed to her that she knew how much Melanie loved Aaron.

One example … Melanie says while she was helping Aaron get his teeth fixed -- Jane was singing her praises and called her a good woman. It's because they used to have that kind of relationship that Melanie says Jane's attacks are so hurtful.

Despite that, Melanie tells us she doesn't hold the posts, which have since been deleted, against Jane -- she knows everyone in Aaron's life is grieving in their own way.

There's also this … Melanie says after Jane's posts, an assistant for Aaron’s sister, Angel, called her directly to apologize, and to let her know they were taken down.

Melanie also says she's been invited to the memorial the family will hold next year to spread Aaron's ashes.

For what it's worth, Melanie points out she was one of the few people still actively trying to help Aaron when he died -- and says she too is still mourning the loss.

Melanie wants to make peace with Jane, because she tells us it's still her hope for Prince, her son with Aaron, to meet his grandma after Christmas -- as they'd planned to do before Aaron was found dead at his home last month.

Kanye West may never win another music-related award again, but there's one group that's honoring him with a not-so-flattering title ... "Antisemite of the Year."

After several weeks and nearly 10,000 votes from members online, watchdog group StopAntisemitism has named Ye the most problematic person of 2022 when it comes to the group's mission.

Liora Rez, SA's Executive Director, tells TMZ, "Kanye uses his celebrity platform to push dangerous antisemitic tropes about Jews and power and he refuses to stop. His continuous onslaught of bigoted statements has resulted in horrific antisemitic acts perpetrated by white supremacists, Black Hebrew Israelites, and other fringe groups looking to cause Jews harm."

She continues, "Jew hatred is already out of control in the United States and the last thing we need is a celebrity like Kanye to add fuel to that fire.”

It's not hard to find the evidence backing Kanye's "Antisemite of the Year" victory.

As we reported, it was shortly after he declared he was, "going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE" when a group was spotted hanging a "Kanye is right about the Jews" sign over an L.A. freeway.

Just a few days after that, Kanye told Piers Morgan he only wished harm on Jewish people who did him wrong in music and business deals.

Finally, it was last week on Alex Jones "Infowars" when Kanye declared he loved Hitler, denied parts of the Holocaust and demanded Nazis get hated on less when things really ramped up.

We know Adidas, Balenciaga and some of Kanye's closest friends have all cut ties ... he even lost an honorary degree.

Behind this minty-fresh scramble is a gentleman who has quite the voice, and when he's on the stage he loves to pair it with a fresh set of moves. Trace around the unknown figure, and see if you can detangle this beauty of a beast!

When it comes to fashion, this poised guy loves to wear a good suit, and if you don't hit the high notes ... you're definitely getting the boot! All in all, this musician hopes you have "A Legendary Christmas."

"That's what Christmas means to me, my love!"

Diddy has added another member to the family ... announcing he's welcomed a baby girl into his life, who really takes after her old man.

The Bad Boy honcho broke the news Saturday, which came out of nowhere -- saying he has a new daughter whom he's effectively named after himself. Diddy writes, "I’m so blessed to welcome my baby girl Love Sean Combs to the world. Mama Combs, Quincy, Justin, Christian, Chance, D’Lila, Jessie and myself all love you so much! God is the Greatest!"

It's unclear when this kid was born, or who the mother is ... Diddy didn't spill those details. But, he's clearly happy about the latest bundle of joy, so we suppose that's all that matters. The baby marks the 7th child of his -- he has 6 other children from different women.

Of course, this is taking the internet by complete surprise ... as no one even seemed to know Diddy was an expecting father of late. We know he's in a polyamorous relationship with Yung Miami -- but there's no suggestion she's the mom, as she hasn't appeared preggo at all.

They were spotted out together as recently as this past week, and YM looks as slim as ever. It's also not entirely clear at this point if Miami was even aware of this child of Diddy's. She responded to a Twitter user who told her to hop on a podcast, as the public has questions.

Her reply was simply a pair of eyeball emojis ... which is pretty telling in and of itself.

We've reached out to Diddy's rep for more clarification ... but so far, haven't heard back. In the meantime -- congrats, Puff.

Fat Joe’s latest round of storytelling has landed him in the crosshairs of Luther “Uncle Luke” Campbell … who disagrees with Joe’s recollection of a key Florida rap timeline.

Joe was a guest on Math Hoffa’s “My Expert Opinion” over the summer -- where he claimed to have been the first cosign for future legends Trick Daddy and Pitbull … and spun their early demos into successful career launches -- like the Don he says he is.

Joe also took credit for blowing up his fellow Bronx rapper French Montana — but the 2 Live Crew founder, who just came across the interview, couldn’t stomach the Pitbull and TD comments and dug into his bag of receipts ... which Rick Ross found rather amusing.

He actually commented under Luke's long caption, laughing at his word selection.

Anyway, Luke says it was HE who put Trick Daddy on -- via their 1996 booty-shaking anthem collaboration "Scarred" -- recorded right when TD came home from jail and started his career ... suggesting FJ was full of it for claiming he had discovered him.

The proud Miami native said the same for Pitbull ... noting he signed the Cuban megastar to his Luke Records imprint during his career origins, which happened back in 2001.

Bottom line ... Luke is directly contradicting Joe's recollection of events, and dares him to correct the record, as he says he has proof to back his memory. Not just that, but Luke went on to say he actually dug DJ Khaled out of obscurity and made him mainstream too.

Joe hasn't responded yet -- but the dude's been catching a lot of flak lately for such tales -- including the assertion that Latinos were equally important in founding the hip hop genre.

Nick Carter is still front and center with the Backstreet Boys, and based on their live performance Friday night ... fans are backing him after a woman sued him for sexual battery.

BSB took the stage at MSG for Jingle Ball -- singing the Wham! classic, "Last Christmas" -- and the crowd went wild, particularly when Nick solo'd on the first verse. It was the group's first performance since Nick was accused of the 2001 assault.

TMZ broke the story ... Shannon Ruth, who is autistic and has cerebral palsy, filed suit Thursday, claiming Carter forced her to perform a sexual act on him while on his tour bus. She was 17 at the time.

Nick denies the alleged incident ever happened, but as we reported ... ABC canceled a Backstreet Boys primetime holiday special that was set to air this coming week.

Several Nick Carter hashtags, including #IStandWithNickCarter, were trending Friday, in response to ABC's move and the lawsuit.

Other performers Friday night included Dua Lipa, Lizzo and The Kid LAROI.

The all-star lineup drew plenty of NYC celebs in the audience too ... such as Bethenny Frankel.

Britney Spears put a cap on her birthday week with a little booze, a lot of cake and a middle finger for her haters.

Decked out in a red jumpsuit and set to Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby" ... Brit broke out some of her usual dance moves, and seemed to indulge in champagne.

Near the end of the video she puts her whole face in a creamy birthday cake, and happily smears it everywhere.

The celebratory post is one of her first since last weekend's head-turning shout-out to her sister. As we reported, the seemingly sweet note to Jamie Lynn Spears caught everyone off guard, since Britney's been on the warpath against her -- along with their mom and dad -- for years.

BS shut down her IG a few days after that -- leading some to believe the Jamie Lynn love-in was either a sarcastic jab or not really posted by Britney.

She acknowledged her IG pause in Friday's caption, saying ... "Yep it's my b-day all week and I know my Instagram has been down a few times but honestly I did the last two times myself !!! Oops ... I accidentally pressed wrong button."

Not sure her suspicious, and protective, fans will buy that, but she's back ... with a face full o' cake.

BTW, Britney also dropped some early New Year's resolutions -- including her desire to crash a wedding and sing a few songs.

One of Madonna's iconic '80s MTV Video Music Awards -- this one for "Best Female Video" -- has a new home after a lucky buyer snatched it off the auction block.

RR Auction tells TMZ ... Madonna's VMA, aka the Moonman trophy, for her hit song "Papa Don't Preach" went to the highest bidder, who dropped $38,484.

As we reported ... the shiny Madge memorabilia was expected to fetch around $60k before the bidding began, so someone got themselves a sweet deal.

In case you didn't know, the song came out in 1986 as a single from her album "True Blue" ... and it became the pop star's 4th number-one hit.

"Papa Don't Preach" -- Madonna's song about teen pregnancy -- ended up garnering 3 VMA noms and a Grammy nomination for "Best Female Pop Vocal Performance."

A few other big-ticket items at the auction included Tom Hanks' screen-worn military uniform from "Forrest Gump" ... which sold for $20,771.

R. Kelly isn't admitting a damn thing when it comes to the "I Admit It" album that dropped Friday -- speaking from jail, he calls the recording a plot to screw him over in court.

TMZ obtained this audio Kelly's attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, says he recorded Friday shortly after they'd met. The disgraced singer immediately shuts down the notion he'd put out any music right now, much less something with the lyrics, "I Admit It," because he's trying to appeal his latest federal conviction.

Even more mysterious ... Kelly seems to insinuate the album recordings aren't even his voice. He says, "I hope people recognized my voice and know that" he wouldn't be recording in the middle of a legal battle.

As we reported, it certainly looked and sounded like he'd release a 13-track album, with the title track addressing many of the allegations leveled against him.

After just a few hours, though, the project was pulled from Spotify and Apple Music -- as Kelly's label, Sony Music, denied any involvement in the recording or in distributing it to the streamers.

His legal team later told us, they were investigating to figure out who may have released the music. BTW, we know it was uploaded by Ingrooves, a distributor owned by Universal Music Group ... with no ties to Sony Music.

Also, the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed R. Kelly didn't produce any songs using equipment in prison.

During this voice recording, he seemed to want to prove it's not his voice on "I Admit It" -- so, he broke into a few bars of his song, “When A Woman's Fed Up."

He thinks there's a clear difference, but listen for yourself.

A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie is making good on his promise to celebrate his birthday all month ... even if has to cut the festivities short to conduct an interview!!!

The Bronx-born rap star stumbled into The Breakfast Club on Friday still lit from his latest birthday celebration to promote his long-awaited comeback album "Me Vs. Myself."

When the ball dropped at midnight, the newly minted 27-year-old was front and center in Times Square soaking up love from his adoring fans.

A Boogie says he later fell through Starlets strip club for the after-party ... and graciously gifted Charlamagne with the stacks of singles in his designer jacket during the interview!!!

A Boogie says he tossed $30K in strip clubs over the past two nights ... which means he hasn't been sleeping and flexed the Walmart-sized bags under his eyes to hammer home his point.

He also had been under the impression they were $100 bills. A gracious Charlamagne accepted the generous gift but also stressed the importance of donating to charity ... to which A Boogie agreed.

A Boogie's new album features guest spots from Lil Durk, Tory Lanez, G Herbo and Kodak Black, who hops on the follow-up to their nearly-diamond collab "Drowning."

R. Kelly's legal team is digging deep into the mystery of who dropped an unauthorized album using his name and recordings, and his attorney says they've already got their sights set on a few possible suspects.

R. Kelly's criminal defense attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, tells TMZ the disgraced singer's lawyers, entertainment attorneys and trusted friends are all trying to get to the bottom of who currently has access to his music catalog. She says they have a small group of people who they've ID'd as culprits ... but notes a potential problem could be his material changing hands.

Bonjean says she spoke with R. Kelly Friday afternoon -- he was surprised and upset about the music's release without his permission.

Bonjean tells us stuff like this has been a reoccurring issue for R. Kelly ... claiming a bunch of studio equipment, computers and masters were taken shortly after his 2019 arrest. She says there's also been an issue with his calls and emails being stolen from prison.

As we reported, an album called "I Admit It," featuring a bunch of R. Kelly's SoundCloud tracks, silently made its way to major streaming platforms Friday but was quickly removed. A source at Sony Music told us it appeared to be a bootleg version.

SZA finally answered the prayers of her fans, releasing her new album "S.O.S." after a nearly 5-year drought ... and her supporters' emotions are in shambles!!!

Thousands of enthusiastic fans worshipped SZA as their "toxic queen" Friday on social media ... lapping up her lyrics as their new hostile gospel.

As the album title suggests, the TDE 1st Lady tackles a ton of alarming topics. She hits everything from admitting to getting a BBL on the opening title track, and desires to kill ex-lovers on songs "Kill Bill" and “Smokin on my Ex Pack” among those detailing other relationship drama ... which Drake helped shape back along the way.

Drake and SZA dated years ago ... a fact he made public to the world via 21 Savage's "Mr. Right Now" song back in 2020.

In a new interview with Big Tigger for Audacy, SZA revisited their relationship, comparing Drake to "Regina George" from the iconic film "Mean Girls" 'cause of his passive-aggressive ways.

SZA was reacting to the recent 'SNL' skit that lampooned Drake's past exes banding together to start a support group but says they still remain friends to this day!!!

"S.O.S." serves as the follow-up to SZA's debut album "CTRL" -- which dropped all the way back in June 2017.

The project features a hefty 23 tracks ... which makes sense. TMZ Hip Hop caught up with the sultry singer ahead of the big drop and she told us she was sitting on 100 songs and obviously picked her favorite quarter of tracks.