Music

DaBaby says there are no hard feelings between Megan Thee Stallion and him -- at least on his end, in the aftermath of their public fallout that played out in rap lyrics.

We caught up with DaBaby in Bev Hills, and he perked up when we asked about repairing his relationship with Meg ... via new songs together.

Megan broke her silence this week for the first time since Tory Lanez's guilty verdict ... and lashed out at those who turned their backs on her. She didn't name names but we're guessing DaBaby fits that profile.

DaBaby and Meg have several collabs together ... including 2020's "Cry Baby," which earned a platinum plaque, but their relationship soured when DaBaby sided with Team Tory at the time he was arrested for shooting Meg.

And yeah, he kind of dissed her on his last album. But he seems to think she's willing to let bygones be just that. We'll believe it when we see it.

DaBaby tells us he has no issues with Tory either, but hasn't exactly been able to communicate with him due to his incarceration, obviously.

Post Malone just saw 3 of his tracks cross the 10-mil sales mark -- shattering Bruno Mars' previous record to become the artist with the most RIAA Diamond-certified singles EVER!!!

On Thursday, Post's hits "Circles," "Better Now," and "I Fall Apart" brought his Diamond total to 8 ... besting Bruno's previous record of 6.

It's another huge W for Post's already decorated career ... his "Sunflower" track from the "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" soundtrack is the RIAA's biggest song ever at 17x platinum!

The last time we saw Post, he told TMZ Hip Hop that song couldn't have become so legendary without the help of Swae Lee.

Post and his label Republic Records are now compiling all the 10-mil winners for the compilation, "The Diamond Collection" ... which is currently being promoted by his new single, "Chemical."

Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello didn't just hook up for old time's sake at Coachella ... they seem fully back together, and we know that from a 3-second video shot Wednesday!

Shawn and Camila were hand-in-hand, strolling down a street in Santa Monica ... near a bank of restaurants.

As we reported, they met up at Coachella last weekend and were smooching, hugging and dancing ... but the prevailing view was it was a one-off after their breakup a year ago.

Not the case -- clearly. Here's the mystery ... did they just happen to see each other at Coachella, was there planning, and could they have gotten back together even before the music festival?

S&C first began dating in July 2019, and quarantined together during the pandemic.

There was lots of buzz he recently hooked up with his chiropractor, Dr. Jocelyne Miranda, but that doesn't appear to be the case ... Jocelyne was at Coachella with Shawn and saw it all -- highly unlikely they were anything more than friends.

Kanye West was jammin' at designer Jerry Lorenzo's fashion show ... bopping his head near the front of the audience as they played one of his hits during the night.

Ye appeared to be alongside his wife Bianca at Jerry's Fear of God show at the Hollywood Bowl Wednesday night -- getting up when his track, "Feel the Love" played while his pal Pusha T was onstage.

Clearly, Kanye was digging the shout-out from Jerry, and some audience members reacted to the rapper dancing -- even without seeing his face, everyone knew it was him. Both Ye and Bianca were wearing his trademark full-head masks. Him in black, her in yellow.

Jerry's remained a public supporter of Ye -- even through all the antisemitism -- and posted in January that Adidas just wasn't the same without him.

As for the Fear of God show, Jerry showed off some collabs with Adidas, but with the event being an invite-only affair ... it's clear he's still backing Ye.

Aaron Carter's cause of death -- drowning as a result of being under the influence -- doesn't add up for his fiancée, which is why she wants a second opinion as to how he died.

Melanie Martin -- who shares a child with Aaron -- tells TMZ ... she's not satisfied with the findings of the L.A. County Coroner's Office -- which ruled Aaron's death an accident based on an autopsy following his sudden death last year.

The reason ... she says there are still elements surrounding the circumstances of his passing that don't quite make sense to her -- like the fact he was partially clothed in the bathtub when his body was found ... suggesting to her he was lucid before he died ... which could point to someone else being involved.

Another thing ... there was mention in Aaron's autopsy of a small abrasion on his left eyebrow and another one at the base of his septum. MM tells us that's a red flag to her and a sign of a possible struggle.

Because of these lingering doubts -- which Melanie says she and her son are entitled to have addressed -- she's mulling over the possibility of having Aaron's case examined a second time by a private investigator and medical professional ... only this time, private ones hired by the family.

Melanie also says she wants the additional investigation to give her peace of mind and closure ... as she believes Aaron himself would want no stone unturned.

Here's the reality ... Melanie tells us she simply isn't sure if she'll be able to pull the resources together to do it all. As you might imagine, it's very expensive, and she says she's not equipped at the moment to get it done. Still ... she's considering her options.

Fact is, Melanie is on the same train as Aaron's mother, Jane Carter -- who recently told us the death scene photos that surfaced screamed foul play ... a theory she doesn't think investigators looked into seriously enough.

Melanie says she's even tried doing a little investigating on her own -- going door-to-door for surveillance footage ... but coming up empty. She tells us she wants the homeless housekeeper who was staying with him to get a second look by cops ... not to mention drug dealers she claims had it out for Aaron, and who might've been supplying him.

Suge Knight's name is a constant topic on hip hop podcasts these days, but the incarcerated ex-music mogul is about to tell his life story his way, and says it'll be nothing but raw, uncut facts!!!

TMZ Hip Hop spoke to the Death Row Records founder from the CA state penitentiary where he's doing 28 years for voluntary manslaughter -- and also plotting out a 10-season TV series on BLK Prime chronicling his life before during and after launching the legendary label home to Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre.

Even though he's behind bars, Suge told us he plans to provide voice-over for the series like Ray Liotta did as Henry Hill in "Goodfellas" -- and each season will chronicle a different era of his life.

Season 1 will dive headfirst into Pac's stint at Death Row until his death; season 2 will focus on Biggie's presence in the Death Row/Bad Boy beef; season 3 will be about Suge's friendship turned rivalry with Diddy; seasons 4 and 5 will tackle Dre and Snoop respectively.

Death Row's reputation as a hostile work environment has been discussed for years and Suge, being the big boss that he is, couldn't deny his office had its fair share of physical dustups.

According to Suge, he intentionally brought the competitiveness he learned playing football to his office space to make Death Row as tough as its name. He says Pac and Snoop had no problem thriving in the gangsta environment but does acknowledge those crazy times took their toll on the company.

The 5 other planned seasons dig into the N.W.A-era and Eazy-E ... plus the East and West coast tensions, the Crips and Bloods and, of course, Suge's trial and conviction.

The show will begin filming this summer and stream exclusively in the fall on BLK Prime ... a network Suge promises will leave his story intact, no matter how brutal it comes across.

Kick streamer MadiHunni is gonna need a really good dentist after one of her streams ended in pieces, literally.

Madi was vibing out by a pool with some friends over the weekend to LMFAO's song "Shots" before she slipped and completely faceplanted on the ground.

There are a few awkward moments, as she and her friends look completely stunned by her spill ... with the silence finally broken by her friend asking, "Are you ok?"

Madi grabs her mouth, apparently feeling some of her chiclets were missing, picks herself back up and checks out her teeth in the camera ... revealing two broken front teeth!

After the incident, she posted an IG story saying, "just f****** broke my front teeth on @ac7ionman's live stream" ... followed by a series of posts joking about the whole thing and asking around for dentist referrals.

She left off on a positive note, saying .... "tell me why i finally feel pretty for the first time in a month & it's right after i bust my teeth lmao"

Frank Ocean will not return to the Coachella stage for the festival's second weekend, dropping out after sustaining two fractures and a sprain in his left leg.

In a statement provided Wednesday to TMZ, Frank's reps say, "After suffering an injury to his leg on festival grounds in the week leading up to weekend 1, Frank Ocean was unable to perform the intended show but was still intent on performing, and in 72 hours, the show was reworked out of necessity."

They continue, "On doctor’s advice, Frank is not able to perform weekend 2 due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg."

Frank tells us, "It was chaotic. There is some beauty in chaos. It isn’t what I intended to show but I did enjoy being out there and I’ll see you soon."

TMZ broke the story, Ocean allegedly hurt his ankle on the festival grounds leading up to his show, causing some last-minute set changes ... so it appears things were much more serious than initially thought.

As we reported, fans were disappointed by the singer's performance at the festival Sunday night as he started an hour late -- there was also awkward pauses, fans could barely see Frank, and he didn't sing some of his most popular stuff. He also didn't sing some songs live, with a vocal track playing while he moved around the stage ... though the busted ankle might help to explain a few of those issues.

Now the question ... who will take his spot. As we reported, Blink-182 had a hugely successful return to the stage during the group's Friday show.

Calvin Harris also drew a massive crowd to the main stage when he hit the festival Saturday night.

The Menendez brothers getting a new trial because an ex-member of Menudo is accusing their father of rape is no slam dunk ... it's more of a Hail Mary, according to a criminal defense lawyer.

Attorney Alan Jackson joined us Wednesday on "TMZ Live" and we asked him what Lyle and Erik Menendez should be expecting from Menudo member Roy Rosselló's explosive revelation about their father, Jose Menendez.

Alan believes the chances are remote the Menendez brothers get a new trial based on Roy's accusation.

Still, Alan says Lyle and Erik's defense team will try to get the accusation before a judge and present it as new evidence in hope of overturning their convictions -- because even if it's a long shot, it's something.

The way Alan sees it ... Roy's claim is unlikely to change anything for Lyle and Erik, who were convicted in 1996 of murdering their parents, despite arguing their father sexually molested them for years and they only killed him out of fear.

Alan says Roy's accusation -- that music executive Jose drugged and sexually assaulted him in the Menendez family's New Jersey home -- isn't directly connected to the evidence pointing to the brothers murdering their parents with shotguns.

K-pop star Moonbin, of the popular boy band Astro, has died.

Astro's label Fantagio shared the tragic news with fans Wednesday ... saying the singer "left us and became a star in the sky." The company says it's "deeply mourning" the shocking death alongside his family, droves of fans, and fellow artists.

Fantagio says the family will hold a private funeral with close family, friends, and colleagues.

An official cause of death has yet to be revealed, but South Korean police reportedly found him dead in his apartment in Gangnam-gu, Seoul after allegedly not showing for a recent rehearsal.

Fans of Moonbin know he started working as a model in 2004 when he was just a child ... then transitioned into acting, first grabbing a role in 2009 on the Korean drama "Boys over Flowers."

He then debuted with Astro in 2016 with 5 others -- MJ, Jinjin, Rocky, Cha Eun-woo, and Yoon San-ha. They went on to come out with some hits, including "Candy Sugar Pop" and "Baby." Rocky left the K-pop group in late February of this year.

Moonbin took a brief pause from the band in 2019 due to health-related reasons but made his return the following year. The group had a concert scheduled for mid-May, but that's reportedly been canceled.

He was only 25.

GloRilla's gold-selling single "Tomorrow" is now at the center of a lawsuit from an artist who says the Memphis rapper and her producer Macaroni Toni sampled his nearly 30-year-old track to create their song ... but never got permission.

In docs obtained by TMZ Hip Hop ... Ivory Paynes of the NOLA-based rap group Dog House Posse is claiming Glo and Toni sampled his 1994 song "Street of the Westbank" to craft "Tomorrow" ... claiming it takes key elements from his song, like the piano, cello and drum tracks.

Glo's record home Collective Music Group and her publishing companies Warner Chappell Music and Sony/ATV Music are also named in the suit.

Her remix "Tomorrow 2" -- which features Cardi B -- is also listed, as that track also utilizes the same instrumental. Cardi is not listed as a defendant in the case.

R. Kelly has officially filed an appeal in his federal sex crimes case out of New York -- and he's got a laundry list of reasons why he thinks his conviction should be reversed.

According to legal docs, obtained by TMZ, the controversial singer -- who was found guilty in 2021 on 9 federal counts that included RICO charges as well as charges pertaining to sex crimes and human trafficking -- says he got a raw deal throughout the lengthy trial.

For starters, R. Kelly's legal team simply argues the government did not meet its burden of proof in court ... despite a jury convicting him on all counts. His lawyers have specific gripes about the jury and some of the evidence prosecutors were allowed to submit during trial.

For the jury, his attorneys say that at least 4 of the jurors selected have since admitted prejudging his guilt before handing down their official verdict -- and he says at least 2 of them had watched the "Surviving R. Kelly" docuseries, and should never have been seated on the jury.

As for the underage girls he's alleged to have groomed and molested ... Kelly seems to have an explanation for what happened in each case. He says some were, in fact, at least 18 years old when he met and engaged in sexual relationships with them -- despite prosecutors' insistence the alleged grooming started while they were still minors.

In the cases where Kelly is alleged to have met with actual minors ... his team claims he was misled by those girls at the time about their real age.

Now, on the evidence front -- his team claims there was a lot of stuff that was allowed in during the trial that shouldn't have been seen or heard by the jury ... and hurt his ability to get a fair trial.

For instance, he says details about his sex life and/or conduct and behavior with former partners or exes of his -- accounts of which dove into STDs, sexual preferences and behavior in the bedroom -- were not relevant to the crimes being alleged against him, and were simply a way for prosecutors to sway the jury.

He also pushes back on former employees/associates of his that were trotted out on the stand ... saying a lot of them falsely testified to things they had no real knowledge of and weren't privy to in their capacity as staffers.

He's asking the appeals court to reverse his convictions or, at a minimum, order a new trial. Of course, there's a second federal case in which he was also convicted out of Chicago. No appeal for that just yet

Latto seemingly geared up for a rap battle against Nicki Minaj while performing at Coachella, but Akademiks says the "Big Energy" rapper doesn't have the bars to win the war!!!

Ak gave his honest assessment of Latto's potential timeline for engaging Nicki in a rap beef, and thinks Latto would be better suited pushing her career away from this saga.

As the more experienced MC, Ak notes Nicki's bars will come off as more clever and fans will gravitate to everything she says. In other words, disses about ass shots will only fly so far.

He also doubted Latto and Nicki would ever cross paths to exchange words in person ... à la Cardi B and Nicki's near-brawl during 2018 New York Fashion Week.

Ak thinks Latto's only chance to best Nicki is to recruit other female rappers who've had their own personal problems with "The Pinkprint" rapper -- like Megan Thee Stallion and Doja Cat -- and shame her with low blows about aging and being a big ol' hater!!!

Drake has more robot problems on his hands -- after his record label pulled the plug on one viral AI song that was using his voice ... two more, which are also solid, have cropped up.

The tracks are floating all over the internet and live on several platforms -- including YouTube and TikTok ... although it's unclear where exactly they first originated from. One is called 'winters cold' and another is labeled 'Not a Game.' Like we said ... both aren't half bad.

The first sounds like a pretty standard Drizzy track ... with a catchy beat and lyrics that slide without a hiccup, almost as if the human himself was rapping. However, if you actually listen to what the AI is saying ... it doesn't actually make too much sense. Still, it's catchy as hell.

This second AI song is a little more obvious as being a fake ... AI Drake's voice, in this instance, sounds a little off and the flow isn't quite as clean or varied as actual Drake's.

Again, though ... not a terrible reenactment of the real McCoy -- and Twitter's howling about how close machines have come to doing their best rendition of Aubrey. Remember, this all comes on the heels of yet another AI song that went viral this weekend that's been yanked.

Of course, we're talking about 'Heart on My Sleeve' ... which features both fake Drake and fake Weeknd. Universal Music Group apparently issued takedown requests of the song -- which was on Spotify and other streaming services ... and then slammed it to no end.

The label said, in part ... "The training of generative AI using our artists’ music (which represents both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law) as well as the availability of infringing content created with generative AI on DSPs, begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation."

UMG says they appreciate their publishing partners' help in getting these phony songs off the digital air ... but it sounds like they're going to be busy as time goes on.

Yung Miami is confirming her whirlwind and very public relationship with Diddy is no more -- but not without clarifying a few things, including why she got "Pee Diddy" trending!!!

The City Girls rapper sat down with "The Cut" as its newest cover star ... claiming she and Diddy remain friends, even after ending their romantic entanglement.

She also refused to put a formal title on their situation, which pretty much fizzled when it was revealed Diddy welcomed a newborn daughter last October.

The pair were inseparable at one point in time, frequently spotted together at award shows and parties, and Diddy also helped launch Miami's podcast career on his Revolt TV network ... which opened up speculation about their sex life.

On one episode of her award-winning "Caresha Please" series, Miami fawned about her love for golden showers in the bedroom ... but, in the interview, she says that didn't necessarily mean it was the Bad Boy mogul who was raining over her.

And while she and Diddy are over, Miami says she plans on making "Caresha Please" a household name like Rihanna's Fenty.

Sean Garrett is more than a little leery about adopting AI in the studio, because if it comes down to us versus the machines -- as many fear it eventually will -- he's always riding with us.

We caught up with the prolific producer/songwriter Tuesday in NYC, and he admits he's curious about using the artificial software, but not to the point where it overshadows the human contribution.

Sean's been a part of some huge records -- such as Usher's "Yeah," Nelly's "Grillz" and multiple Beyonce jams -- and doesn't think that success could have been duplicated with a ghost in the computer.

Or as he puts it, "If it ain't from the soul, that s**t ain't real."