Music

Jason Derulo wants everyone to follow their dreams and not be bogged down by following the silly rules drummed into their heads by their parents!!!

The "Swalla" singer checked in with "TMZ Live" as his new book “Sing Your Name Out Loud: 15 Rules for Living Your Dream" is flying hot off the presses.

Jason thinks the key to success is not to be afraid of failure. He says failed at the majority of the risks he's taken ... but still, the failures don't define him -- the successes do.

Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant are his inspirations — for the sheer volume of shots they missed to achieve greatness.

Jason says he's living proof being fearless in life works, and his book is the blueprint.

Nicki Minaj channeling a Barbie doll throughout her career worked to perfection, so thinks Issa Rae, who says she always associates the doll with the megastar rapper.

Issa plays President Barbie in the upcoming "Barbie" movie, and she and the rest of the cast did a full spread for TIME mag where she revealed, "My Barbie association is Nicki Minaj ... so it’s dope that she is a part of this movie in some way."

Nicki scored the lead-off single for the film with the track "Barbie World," a collaboration between her and Ice Spice where they pulled out all the stops for the colorful visual.

The song has been lighting up the iTunes chart in typical Nicki fashion ... but one person who may not feel the collab is so "dope" is Jason Martin.

Chrissy Teigen has announced she's a momma once again ... letting folks know all about her decision to have baby #4 via surrogacy.

CT broke the news on social media Wednesday about their new boy, Wren Alexander Stephens, by saying, "For as long as I can remember, I've always wanted four children" ... adding she'd always play with 4 dolls when she was a little girl.

That dream finally came true for Chrissy, saying she reached out to a surrogacy agency in 2021 -- the year after she and her husband John Legend sadly lost their son Jack due to complications.

As we reported, Chrissy and John also welcomed a new baby in January, with John dropping the news at a private performance -- Chrissy's post says their little girl, Esti, was done through IVF, just like their other kids, Luna and Miles ... getting pregnant during their search for a surrogate.

Chrissy says Alexandra, the "most incredible, loving, compassionate surrogate we could ever imagine," was a perfect surrogacy match for the fam.

She notes the first embryo didn't take for Alexandra, and she underwent surgeries to make sure the second transfer would work ... eventually learning the process was a success. She says baby Wren was born on June 19.

Cam'ron is publicly supporting Jim Jones amid the brooding brouhaha with Pusha T ... saying it's very clear who's got the better rhymes.

On Wednesday, Killa Cam fanned the flames and admitted he and Jim don't always see eye to eye ... but instructed Pusha NOT to use their past tensions as fuel for his future disses.

Cam says he's Team Harlem all the way and still acknowledged Pusha's rap skills. Nonetheless, he thinks Jim is currently winning the rap battle and won't give the Clipse rapper any points for using him as a prop -- he's retired as a rapper!!!

Jim took to those same Harlem streets to splash ether in Pusha's face with a fiery response. The Diplomat rapper threw jabs at Pusha, his brother Malice and their fashion sense, among other things.

Casanova was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison ... but the Brooklyn rapper's girlfriend says their fort is secured.

In a series of IG posts, Cas' partner Swaggy Jazzy disputed reports from earlier this month that Cas had his face damaged after being attacked in prison.

Jazzy scoffed at haters who predicted Cas would be slapped with the 60-year sentence he was facing and placed her focus on her fashion brand Dope Emporium.

Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, released a statement about the sentence sending a strong message, saying “Caswell Senior is not just a notorious recording artist, but he is also a high-profile leader of a vicious street gang and a magnet for gang violence. At a crowded Miami house party, Senior personally fired a gun that seriously injured and could have killed a victim, inciting a shootout."

He continues, "Further, Senior’s stature in the community was central to Gorilla Stone’s successful recruitment and nationwide expansion. Today’s sentencing — along with the other significant sentences that have been imposed in this case — shows once again that gang life is not worth it and will lead to many years in prison.”

Cas was hoping for leniency in the sentencing after renouncing his gang ties in a letter to the judge ahead of sentencing.

Taylor Swift asking her fans to chill out on John Mayer is having quite the opposite effect ... because her ex-boyfriend is seeing tons of hate come his way online.

Here's the deal ... Taylor pled with Swifties to take it easy on John when she performed "Dear John" at her recent 'Eras' tour stop in Minneapolis, as the song takes shots at her ex-flame.

But, as it turns out ... Taylor's fans are instead going after John on social media ... and there seems to be no letup in sight.

Look no further than John's most recent Instagram posts ... they are being flooded with negative comments from Taylor supporters, with some even blaming him for Taylor's call for a cease-fire.

Over on TikTok, Swifties are posting videos of themselves saying how they are going to go against Taylor's wishes ... promising to cyberbully John.

Twitter's also awash with negative comments -- as is usually the case on the bird app -- so John's getting heat from all angles.

Remember ... John's on the record saying Taylor's song is humiliating, and he's previously ripped it as "cheap songwriting" and a "lousy thing for her to do."

Looks like Taylor may have unintentionally poked the bear.

DJ Envy is barking back at Bow Wow's shots at the current year's output of hip hop music ... but is also predicting the tide will turn for taste buds all the same.

We caught "The Breakfast Club" host on the move at LAX and he had plenty of explanation as to why hip hop hasn't had a #1 anything for the first time in 30 years.

Envy put out a compilation with all the top rappers 20 years ago ... but notes how times have changed. He says today's volume of music releases makes it hard for songs to stick, as opposed to the past when people had time to memorize the music.

His veteran expertise picks Young Nudy, Toosii and Lola Brooke to be amongst the leaders of the new school ... but thinks Drake is set to blow the summer up with his upcoming album "For All the Dogs" ... a point Bow Wow also made during his red carpet rant.

All hopes are not lost like Envy said. There are also confirmed albums from Travis Scott, Lil Uzi Vert and Nicki Minaj ... and Future is swearing he's in "mixtape mode."

Zendaya and Tom Holland are clearly meant for one another -- jammin' out and singing one of Beyoncé's classics to each other at her latest concert!

The 'Spider-Man' costars and real-life lovebirds were spotted having an absolute blast at Bey's Warsaw concert Tuesday night ... singing "Love on Top" right in each other's faces as the legendary performer did it for the crowd.

Ya know, the one that goes, "You're the one I love, you're the one I need" ... obviously the 2 are still doing great as a couple -- and having a ton of fun, too.

The pair's been enjoying each other's company for a while now, going back to 2021 when they went public with their relationship. We've since seen them grabbing some Thai food, leaving Mumbai hand-in-hand, and even goin' wild at a Warriors game!

Most recently, Tom and Zendaya were spotted walking the dog earlier this month in London while she fed him some ice cream -- goals.

Jason Derulo is sweeping up his recent viral comments about never wanting to clean his own house ... but the fact still remains he never wants to clean his own house.

TMZ Hip Hop caught up with Jason out in NYC on Tuesday as he promoted his new book “Sing Your Name Out Loud: 15 Rules for Living Your Dream," which contains the quote many on social media deemed a little too rich for their blood.

Jason explained to us the quote is motivational and stems from his impoverished upbringing in Broward County, Florida. It even rubbed his mother the wrong way at the time but he ended up making it big time and he wants to share the wealth ... hence his new book.

He just celebrated his son's 2nd birthday ... and the party ran his pockets a cool $30k.

Nicki Minaj is fully in the corner of the Chicago 14-year-old who shot and killed a man to protect his mom while she was being attacked, saying she's willing to help him go to college.

The rapper chimed in on the viral case, which has spurred a lot of conversation online over the past week or so. She took to IG to sound off, and it's clear she believes the 14-year-old and his mother did absolutely nothing wrong here ... even if it cost a life.

Nicki passionately writes, "That 14-year-old boy that backed dat hammer out when that grown ass man was punching his mother in the face as if she were a MAN; is a true hero."

She continues ... "If he wants to go to college, I'd love to help. It's what ANY son should've done for their MOTHER. She raised a dope kid & should be so proud. Also, God knew b4 she knew; that she'd be attacked that day & made sure they had protection on DECK."

NM finishes with a simple message, "God is GOOD." Now, as for her offer of assistance for higher education -- she didn't really elaborate ... but ya gotta figure she's talking about cash here. If the kid sees this, it'll be interesting to see if he takes her up on it.

As for the case itself ... it's a doozy. Carlishia Hood and her son were charged with first-degree murder after the teen shot and killed 32-year-old Jeremy Brown on June 18 at a restaurant ... this after an argument ensued inside, and Brown was filmed repeatedly punching Hood in the head.

Right as he's wailing on her, her son enters the restaurant from outside and opens fire on Brown. Cops say Brown then fled, but allege that Hood ordered her son to finish the job and continue shooting him outside ... which he then did. Brown died from gunshot wounds.

Amid a lot of uproar, Cook County prosecutors dropped all the charges against the mother and son ... saying they didn't have enough evidence to proceed with a prosecution. Since then, Hood has sued the City of Chicago and a few cops too ... claiming she was unjustly arrested/charged -- and that the whole ordeal has caused a lot of emotional distress.

Her legal team has been echoing what a lot of others have argued -- namely, that the use of deadly force here was justified and that Hood/her son were simply defending themselves.

Diddy's ongoing lawsuit with alcohol dealer Diageo just took a nasty turn, with the booze brand announcing they were cutting ties after he filed suit last month ... but Diddy is firing back.

Diddy's attorney John C. Hueston tells TMZ Hip Hop Diageo's attempts to shut out the Bad Boy mogul is essentially like "firing a whistleblower who calls out racism. It’s a cynical and transparent attempt to distract from multiple allegations of discrimination."

Hueston says Diddy repeatedly raised concerns regarding Diageo's senior execs allegedly using racially insensitive comments prior to filing the lawsuit, which they claim caused biased decision-making on the company's part.

For it's part, a Diageo spokesperson tells us, "We are saddened that Mr. Combs has chosen to recast a business dispute as anything other than that and chosen to damage a productive and valued partnership. Mr. Combs’ bad-faith actions have clearly breached his contracts and left us no choice but to move to dismiss his baseless complaint and end our business relationship. Mr. Combs has repeatedly undermined our partnerships and threatened to publicly defame Diageo if we did not meet his unreasonable financial demands."

They continue, "Diageo believes strongly in the CIRÔC and DeLeón brands and remains committed to their success, which is why we tried for years to salvage the broken relationship with Mr. Combs. We funded the purchase of DeLeón for the joint venture and proceeded to invest more than $100 million to grow the brand. Despite having made nearly a billion dollars over the course of our 15-year relationship, Mr. Combs contributed a total of $1,000 and refused to honor his commitments. We have exhausted every reasonable remedy and see no other path forward."

Diageo is said to have acknowledged the issues by specifying in Diddy's contract that they'd treat his DeLeon tequila the same as other tequila brands, and he only filed the lawsuit in hopes to enforce the contract's fine print.

Young Thug's prison-time album "Business is Business" just got a boost ... with new raps from Nicki Minaj and the late Juice WRLD.

Album executive producer Metro Boomin fired off his personalized deluxe version of the recently released project on Tuesday ... introducing the "Money" track which features Nicki and Juice, and an additional song that closes the album titled "Sake Of My Kids."

Several other songs on the tracklist are rearranged from the version that dropped last Friday ... and Metro says the current edition is the vision he originally had for the album.

Drake, Future, 21 Savage, Travis Scott and others also helped Thug complete the album as he sits courtside for his RICO trial in Georgia.

Hits Daily Double projects Thug's album could sell upwards of 100k units in its first week and could be rap's first #1 project this year ... if Morgan Wallen doesn't stand in his way.

Bow Wow isn't mincing his words ... he thinks today's wave of hip hop is complete trash and it's to blame for the lack of #1 hits!!!

The veteran rapper didn't hold back on the BET Awards red carpet when asked by Power 106 about the state of today's music.

He says his ears have been incredibly offended this year ... every male rapper he hears talks about "slidin' on the opps" while the women only care about landing a rich dude.

Bow hasn't released an album in over a decade ... opting to make a living performing his classics on his successful Scream Tours instead of forcing creativity in the studio

He thinks talent will eventually creep its way back into the game ... and thinks its best bet is contributions from Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, and Drake ... the latter star who's about to drop a new album titled "For All My Dogs" soon. Ode to Mr. Wow?

Bow's not alone in his thinking. Ty Dolla $ign says he's pivoting to dance and Atlantic Records signee Symba just took a dump on this year's XXL Freshman list ... which is supposed to signify the new crop of artists leading the charge.

Snoop Dogg's biopic is being set for a big-scale movie production ... and Tha Doggfather personally selected Allen Hughes to direct his life story!!!

Allen recently had Snoop take part in his docuseries "Dear Mama: The Saga of Afeni and Tupac Shakur" and says Snoop's request caused Universal to fast-track the film -- and they're currently looking for their leading man!!!

Allen famously got his start directing rap videos with his twin brother Albert before they went on to achieve legendary status in the culture for shooting the films "Menace II Society" and "Dead Presidents."

He hasn't done an actual movie since 2013 but says the Snoop biopic will give him and the fans a chance to relive the grit of 'Menace' ... seeing they've been asking for a sequel for eons.

Allen also says he's still on board for the Marvin Gaye biopic but it's currently taking a back seat to the Snoop production.

Rapper Trina is not pregnant, TMZ has learned ... despite some serious fan speculation after her recent performance at the BET Awards.

ICYMI, Trina took the stage over the weekend to honor 50 years of hip hop with Trick Daddy at the big award show ... however, her performance sent fans into a debate about whether or not she's in fact pregnant.

A rep for Trina tells TMZ ... "She is not pregnant despite fans' speculation following her performance at the BET Awards. Just like any other woman, her weight fluctuates. She is asking for fans to just move on from this."

Trina's debunked pregnancy rumors before, having to shoot down theories back in 2021 after the BET Hip Hop Awards -- and she's spoken out about her struggles with her weight in the past, but it looks like people are assuming yet again.

Adele is just like the rest of us -- piling onto Tom Sandoval with her Vegas audience ... even though she's kinda just figuring out the backstory and pertinent details as she goes.

The singer was back to bantering with the crowd Monday, only this time she wasn't talking subs ... she was going on about "Vanderpump Rules." Specifically, Adele wanted to know who the guy that cheated was ... and what exactly he does for a living.

It's a fair Q. Folks who don't watch the show -- but who might've heard about the drama regardless -- have probably been asking the same thing ... and Adele got some answers from ticket holders. Well, sorta ... people weren't all that helpful in painting a clear picture.

Adele polled one fella in the audience, and he simply blurted out ... "He's trash." She jokingly agreed, but clearly wanted her question answered -- and he told her Tom's a server who's trying to be a singer now. That's not *entirely* accurate ... but Adele seemed satisfied.

For those unfamiliar ... Tom is a local restaurant/business owner in L.A. who mingles with the 'Vanderpump' staff as a bartender. He's been part of the cast since pretty much the beginning, and yes -- he is indeed in a band ... and he does, in fact, sing.

While Adele didn't seem privy to any of that info ... she's certainly heard about him pulling a fast one on his longtime girlfriend, Ariana Madix, by hooking up with her best friend and fellow castmate, Raquel Leviss -- which blew up in his face earlier this year after we broke the news on the affair.

As we've reported ... there's been a lot of mud-slinging in the aftermath, but now -- Bravo's ready to do it all over again. Only problem is they haven't signed Raquel for the new season just yet ... as she remains at her mental health facility ... and they're starting production on Wednesday. Obviously, they want her back.

Time will tell if she inks a deal ... but it'll also be interesting to see if the 'Scandoval' has actual legs. This thing's starting to feel fully squeezed -- and there might be some fatigue.