Music

Travis Scott's seemingly genuine gesture of wanting to cover burial costs for those killed as a result of his Astroworld Festival has been turned down by the show's youngest victim.

The family of 9-year-old Ezra Blount -- who was allegedly trampled at the concert, and later died from his injuries -- is rejecting the rapper's offer to pay for the funeral ... this according to their attorney, Bob Hilliard, who just filed suit against Scott on behalf of the Blounts.

In a letter, obtained by Rolling Stone, Hilliard writes ... "Your client’s offer is declined. I have no doubt Mr. Scott feels remorse. His journey ahead will be painful. He must face and hopefully see that he bears some of the responsibility for this tragedy."

Blount was laid to rest in a private ceremony last week ... after he was taken off life support a few weeks following the tragedy in early November. Ezra became the 10th person in the death toll, with hundreds more injured.

This rejection came in response to an olive branch extended by Travis' attorney, Daniel Petrocelli, who sent the Blounts the funeral expense offer on behalf of his client, writing ... "Travis is committed to doing his part to help the families who have suffered and begin the long process of healing in the Houston community. Toward that end, Travis would like to pay for the funeral expenses for Mr. Blount’s son."

The island of Barbados is now an independent republic, and one of its leaders' first orders of business is crowning homegrown jewel, Rihanna ... a national treasure.

Monday marked an historic milestone for the Caribbean nation, as Queen Elizabeth II was removed as the head of state there and Barbados became its own independent body for the first time. It also served as an induction, of sorts, for RiRi -- who was dubbed an official national hero.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley -- who serves separately from the newly elected President, Sandra Mason -- bestowed Rihanna with the title, saying she had "commanded the imagination of the world through the pursuit of excellence with her creativity, her discipline, and above all else, her extraordinary commitment to the land of her birth."

Rihanna has done a lot for Barbados in several capacities -- not only does she rep her home in her music and elsewhere, but she's also served as an ambassador since 2018. Besides this latest honor, they've showered her with other accolades and gestures over the years -- including naming a street after her.

She's just the 11th Barbadian in history to be deemed a national hero.

Meanwhile, the rest of Barbados was celebrating the fact it no longer has to operate under the monarchy going forward, which was a long time coming. The island declared independence from the U.K. back in 1966, but remained one of its Commonwealth Nations.

For what it's worth ... the Royal Family was fully in support, sending Prince Charles down to make a speech praising Barbados' freedom -- a move that got mixed reactions due to the history of slavery and exploitation established by his ancestor, King James I, in 1625.

Barbados will continue to operate within the Commonwealth.

Ye's on a mission to help the homeless population of Los Angeles, meeting with charitable organizations and coming up with strategies he believes can help to ease the growing problem in the city.

As we'd shown you ... Kanye stopped by the L.A. Mission to drop off 1,000 meals last week but turns out he also took time to meet with the people in charge. We're told during his sit-down with Reverend Troy Vaughn, CEO of L.A. Mission, Ye laid out 4 ways he believes he can help the homeless.

First, Kanye wants to create a plan to continue feeding the unhoused by establishing a working relationship with orgs across the city. He also wants to use his own companies to help provide education, jobs and housing.

Ye believes he can use his platform and Sunday Service to inspire and uplift the homeless community in L.A. in only ways his artistry has been able to do with others.

Finally, Kanye wants to partner with other groups tackling the crisis and combine their efforts with his ability to provide a bold and innovative vision for the future. Together, he believes they can eliminate the homeless situation.

As we reported, Kanye also spoke to those in attendance at the mission, saying he believes God will bring him and Kim Kardashian back together ... inspiring millions of couples in the process.

Of course, the homeless population in L.A. has only grown since the start of the pandemic, with lawmakers and citizens looking for ways to help those in need.

Marilyn Manson's home was crawling with detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and it's related to his ongoing sexual assault investigations ... TMZ has learned.

Our law enforcement sources tell us Special Victims Unit detectives went to the shock rocker's home in West Hollywood early Monday morning, executing a search warrant.

We're told Marilyn was not home at the time ... and law enforcement forced entry with a warrant in hand.

Our sources say the search warrant is in connection to ongoing probes into sexual assault allegations against Marilyn ... and police seized media storage units, including hard drives, which will be reviewed before the case is submitted to the Los Angeles County District Attorney.

TMZ broke the story ... cops started digging into abuse allegations against MM back in February, meeting with one of his alleged victims.

As we've reported ... Manson is accused of locking women in a soundproof room in the home, something he allegedly did to punish them.

Kanye West is grieving the loss of his close friend, Virgil Abloh, and it seems he's deleted every post on his Instagram page in response the Abloh's death.

Ye's Instagram page went blank Monday, about 24 hours after it was announced the Louis Vuitton visionary had passed away after a private battle with cancer. Kanye has not spoken out publicly since the news broke, but the two had a very strong friendship, so you have to imagine he's devastated.

Celebrity tributes poured in from celebs, athletes and all sorts of people who had either interacted with Virgil directly or had been inspired by his work.

Kanye and Virgil had their bumps in the road along the years -- with Kanye upset Virgil had taken the Louis job -- but they resolved things in 2018 during an LV fashion show. The two embraced, cried, and everything seemed to be good from then on.

One of, if not the last time, the two saw each other was at Kanye's "DONDA" listening event in Chicago.

While his cancer battle was entirely hidden from the public, those closest to him -- including Kanye -- knew Virgil had been sick for quite some time.

Virgil was just 41 years old.

GWAR shows are known for being hardcore ... but things got so crazy for one fan, he found himself without his prosthetic leg and desperate for the performers to help him out.

The heavy metal band had a show in L.A. last week and everything came to a halt when a fan named Baron Vidar, who has a prosthetic leg, was apparently crowd-surfing and lost his limb. Vidar made it to the front of the stage, and somehow was able to get the attention of GWAR members to get his leg back.

The band's guitarist stopped the show, and announced to the crowd, "If anybody's got a fake leg out there, or got an extra fake leg, send it this way cuz this guy needs his f****** leg."

Then, almost instantly, the leg pops up in the hand of a member of the crowd about 50-feet back, and is passed back to Baron.

Baron was able to get his prosthetic fitted back on, and presumably enjoyed the rest of the show without incident.

Teyana Taylor went to the hospital over the weekend ... because she says her body just gave out.

Teyana took a pic of herself in a hospital bed ... telling fans in Connecticut she was sorry for canceling at the last minute and promising a make-good at some point in the future.

It's unclear what happened, but Teyana's had a rough couple of months. Back in August, she discovered lumps in her breasts and underwent emergency surgery ... fortunately doctors gave her an all-clear.

As for the latest scare, she said, "... my body simply just gave out, which actually started a few days ago. SHUT DOWN, my body actually low key betrayed me cause ah bitch was tryna get on that sage."

She went on to caution, "But honestly you have to listen to your body and know when to sit down, or it will definitely sit you down. In the ER ... I've since got the proper fluids and nutrients put back into my body all night/morning & will take the next few off days to continue to recover."

Teyana made news earlier this month after stopping her show in the wake of the Astroworld catastrophe to make sure people in the audience were okay.

Kanye West's fleet of cars from his Wyoming ranch did huge numbers on the auction block ... and the winning bid for one of his trucks made history.

Ye's used vehicles were open for bidding at Musser Bros. Auctions ... and the owner of the auction house, Harold Musser, tells us the winning bids for the 7 cars totaled a whopping $434,780.

We're told the auction, which ended Tuesday, had over 137,000 views and over 800 bids from folks spread across the country -- from Florida to California -- making this the biggest auction ever for Musser Bros. Sounds like Yeezy is a big deal.

One of those bids set a record ... we're told Kanye's 2019 F-150 Raptor sold for $86,900, including the 10% buyer premium ... making it the most expensive Ford Raptor ever sold.

TMZ broke the story ... Kanye sold his old ranch fleet back to his local Ford dealer in Cody, WY and the dealership turned around and enlisted the auction house to sell the cars.

Kanye unloading his Wyoming wheels makes sense ... because he's also listed his massive Monster Lake Ranch for $11 million ... and the heavy-duty trucks are better suited for ranch life than his new beachfront property in Malibu.

Ye ... he's no longer a Ford truck man.

Rico Nasty is going through a very tough time on tour with Playboi Carti -- and it seems his fans have forced her to contemplate ending her life ... which is sounding an alarm.

The rapper posted some troubling messages over the weekend, giving insight into her mindset in the middle of this Narcissist Tour ... and it looks bleak.

One tweet reads, "Crazy how I wanted a tour bus my whole life and now I just be on the tour bus crying myself to sleep every night." She adds, "I dead ass need at least two hours out of each day. To just cry."

Further tweets were even more upsetting ... she wrote, "Y'all win," following up with, "I wish I was dead just as much as y'all do trust me."

She has since deleted these, but fans captured them and were clearly disturbed and worried about her mental health ... which appears to be in bad shape at the moment. Of course, folks who've been following Rico's journey of late know she's been dealing with a lot of BS.

We're referring to at least two separate incidents over the past month and change while she's been on the road with Carti, acting as his opener ... both of which were pretty ugly.

In one instance earlier this month, Rico was loudly booed during a stop in L.A. as she tried to take the stage before Carti ... and things got combative quickly. She was cursing at the concertgoers, trying to perform, but they just weren't receptive to her at all.

About a week or so later in Portland ... somebody actually threw a water bottle at her while she was rapping, and it led to a would-be rushing of the fans.

Rico jumped down from the stage and tried going over the barricades, before security stepped in. People say she's been dealing with this type of harassment (and more) during the entirety of the tour ... and we can only imagine what she's been dealing with online and elsewhere.

Many are calling on Carti to publicly disavow his fans who may be perpetuating this toxic environment -- arguing it'd go a long way from him. However, so far ... he's been silent.

SoFi Stadium seemed a little too easy to slip into ahead of a big BTS concert -- so much so that many felt COVID protocols were being broken ... even though the venue refutes that.

The Korean pop band performed Saturday at the arena in L.A., and as the gates opened for ticketholders ... some say they saw laxed screenings by security and other personnel, which they believe also meant vaccination cards weren't being checked or enforced.

Ditto for bags ... tons of people online, who presumably were there, claim nobody was taking a look at anyone's personal belongings.

There's some video evidence that appears to support that, at least on the surface. As you can see -- a steady stream of fans are trickling in past security checkpoints ... and there doesn't seem to be much stop-and-go movement, it's all just go.

Of course, this drew some criticism and concern -- as SoFi's policy for entry is that you either present proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test taken within recent days. Naturally, the Omicron variant is at the forefront of everyone's minds too.

On their end, SoFi tells TMZ ... "The safety of our guests, staff and the artist are always our number one priority, and we coordinated with law enforcement to temporarily streamline guest entry at last night's show. Tonight, we will have increased security and guest entry points and will begin vaccination verification even earlier in the entry process."

Ben and Jen aren't married -- they're not even engaged, yet -- but they are sure acting like a couple that already tied the knot.

B&J walked hand-in-hand to a music studio Saturday ... presumably JLo's recording new tunes. This follows spending Thanksgiving together, along with JLo's twins, Max and Emme.

Ben did double duty, also chowing down with his kids, Violet, Seraphina and Samuel.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... Ben and Jen have been looking for a house together in the L.A. area, but so far they haven't sealed the deal. Nonetheless, they are not only spending time together, but they are also traveling all over the world together.

What's going to be interesting ... whether Ben and Jen get all the kids together over the holiday weekend. Since they're looking for a house together, that's probably already happened.

Bebe Rexha might not be your regular Grammy darling -- but she doesn't need any of the trophies to confirm the most important thing in this biz ... namely, people love her music.

Here's the deal ... BR has three songs that have now broken a billion streams each -- including her hit with G-Eazy, "Me, Myself & I" -- which clearly means fans dig the content and then some -- but as Bebe herself noted, she doesn't have the hardware to prove it.

That's what we talked to her about this week at LAX ... where we asked why she thought the numbers don't necessarily translate to awards, even when the consensus among listeners is overwhelming.

Watch what she had to say ... in Bebe's eyes, there's a lot more at play behind the scenes when it comes to collecting accolades -- including politics and money, and it sounds like she thinks her music, for whatever reason, doesn't sway the powers that be.

No matter, though ... 'cause Bebe tells us she's got everything she needs to be happy -- including enough dough to take care of her family, and the love and support of her label/team ... not to mention her adoring fans, which is all that matters to her.

Great perspective here, and it might actually be a trickling down philosophy courtesy of Champagne Papi ... who's been snubbed many a time at award shows.

The reporter who botched an interview with Adele for not listening to her new album just made a mea culpa over his own airwaves ... and even described what we'll never see.

Aussie journo Matt Doran, of Channel 7's "Weekend Sunrise," ended one of his segments this week with a full-blown apology to both Adele, her Australian fans and his viewers at large ... over what he called a blown opportunity, all because he didn't properly peruse his inbox.

Doran reiterated what he'd already said this past week ... namely, that the reason he hadn't heard "30" prior to the sit-down is because he didn't check out a link Sony had emailed him in the 11th hour, which ended up being a preview of the album in full.

While they were chatting in early November -- well before it dropped -- Doran says he admitted to Adele he hadn't heard the full thing yet ... but clarified what happened after.

Unlike some reports that claim she abruptly left the interview upon hearing this -- apparently insulted by his lack of knowledge -- Doran insists the opposite happened ... according to him, they finished the interview, which he says ran over time, and that Adele was delightful.

He also recapped what exactly they'd discussed -- seeing how the interview will never see the light of the day, reportedly thanks to her label, which put the kibosh on it.

Sounds like they got into some heavy stuff, so it's a shame we'll never see it. Anyway ... here's hoping Adele can forgive him -- like he asks for here -- 'cause it seems MD has gotten well into the weeds of the album and then some since his blunder.

Karol G took one of the hardest falls onstage we've seen in a while -- but she also bounced back just as quickly.

The singer was performing in Miami Friday, playing to a packed FTX Arena ... when, at one point, she slipped and fell down a flight of stairs on the stage.

Check out the video ... it's pretty brutal, as the fall was quite long -- and sent her whole body twirling all the way down. Eventually, she landed on all fours facing the ground ... almost in a fetal position.

One of her dancers raced down to attend to her, but before ya knew it ... she was back on her feet and carried on with the show. Unclear if she ended up finishing her entire set, because afterward she told a local outlet her nails were broken and her knee was busted.

Kanye West is clearly upset over his impending divorce with Kim Kardashian, but Friday night he had a ton of fans offering him comfort.

Kanye was swarmed at the Lakers game as he entered the Staples Center. He signed autographs and posed for selfies and seemed like he was in a great mood as fans mobbed him.

Ye sat courtside with a friend as he watched the Lakers fall to the Kings in a nail-biter. Kanye wore a black leather jacket with a matching hoodie and a cap. He chowed down on chicken strips and fries.

His mood seemed to change pretty dramatically ... hours before, he posted a photo of him and Kim kissing, in yet another effort to resuscitate their marriage.

Ye stopped by the L.A. Mission Wednesday and grabbed a mic ... telling the folks he was keeping faith that God would repair things between Kim and himself.

Kanye has pulled out all the stops to try and save his marriage ... even admitting to failures as a husband.

On Thanksgiving, Kanye posted a prayer, confessing to drinking too much, letting his ego and temper get the best of him and even to being a "self-righteous Christian," saying, "I was arrogant with my Jesus. Like I had just got me some Jesus at the Gucci store with a stimulus check."

He went on ...  "Good Lord, my wife did not like me wearing the red [MAGA] hat. Being a good wife, she just wanted to protect me and our family. I made me and our family a target by not aligning with Hollywood's political stance, and that was hard for our marriage."

Broadway legend Stephen Sondheim, famous for his song writing and music compositions, has died.

Stephen died Friday at his home in Roxbury, CT ... according to a New York Times report citing his lawyer, F. Richard Pappas.

The cause of death is currently unclear ... but it sounds sudden, because Stephen's lawyer says he had celebrated Thanksgiving dinner with his friends in the area.

Simply put, Stephen is the godfather of the American musical ... writing lyrics for famous plays like "West Side Story" plus "Follies," "Into The Woods," "Pacific Overtures," "Sweeney Todd," "Company," "A Little Night Music," "Merrily We Roll Along," "Sunday in the Park With George," "Passion," "Assassins" and "Gypsy."

Stephen's decorated Broadway career includes three Tony awards, a lifetime achievement award from the Kennedy Center and a Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama.

In addition, his name now adorns the famous Broadway house in New York City formerly known as Henry Miller's Theater.

Stephen celebrated his 90th birthday in March 2020, but the pandemic postponed a Broadway revival of his famous "Company" ... though he was later honored by Broadway performers singing his famous songs.

SS recently got some movie love ... he's portrayed in the new Lin-Manuel Miranda movie "Tick, Tick...Boom!" which just dropped this week on Netflix ... with Bradley Whitford playing the role.

Stephen was 91.