You Might Want to Rethink

DMX is the spitting image of a wanted man in South Carolina -- even though he isn't one -- but he says there's a simple explanation ... the sketch artist must've traced an old photo.

We talked to The Dog himself after a police sketch of an attempted murder suspect in Columbia, SC -- who, apparently, looks EXACTLY like X -- went viral. The similarity is SO eerie, he thinks the sketch artist straight-up drew him.

He has some theories as to how it got commissioned, but says he has no idea why.

For the record, Columbia PD's deputy chief, Melron Kelly, has come out publicly and said DMX is absolutely NOT a suspect in their investigation -- he lives in NYC for God's sake -- and has suggested the resemblance to the rapper is merely a coincidence.

Not to go down a rabbit hole of conspiracies here, but a side-by-side comparison of any number of DMX pics from the 2000s shows he's a dead ringer for the guy's profile ... minus the hair and whatnot. X might not be too far off in thinking this is a bit ... well, sketch.

Luckily for him, he's not getting hauled down to the South anytime soon to answer for any crimes. As he notes, he's already got his plate full up north, and ain't lookin' for trouble.

Karlous Miller -- an OG cast member on Nick Cannon's "Wild 'N Out" -- says his triumphant return to the show came as a result of a heart-to-heart with its host. 

The comedian -- who got fired from the show last year after a reported falling-out with Nick -- told us his guest appearance on Sunday's episode happened after he and Nick hashed out some lingering issues. The tension between them was obvious during an October interview on "The Breakfast Club." 

ICYMI ... Karlous and his 85 South Show pals aired out some dirty laundry on how he got canned -- and suggested it was because he made a crack about going on a date with his ex, Mariah Carey, and her new beau. 

Karlous (half-jokingly?) implied Nick didn't like that, and things were never quite the same in their relationship. Eventually, he says the "white people" gave him the boot, but appeared to believe it was Nick's doing. In that same interview, Nick flat-out denied it.

Fast-forward to this weekend, when Nick brought out a masked MC known as Ski Mask the Bird God ... only to reveal it was actually Karlous, shocking the audience and the cast.

They battle-rapped and even made light of the situation ... with Nick joking about Karlous getting fired on his day off. In the end, though, it was clearly all love between 'em. 

Nicki Minaj says she can't in her right conscience perform in Saudi Arabia later this month, so she's dropping out of the event ... due to personal concerns about human rights violations there.

The rapper made the announcement Tuesday, saying ... "After careful reflection I have decided to no longer move forward with my scheduled concert at Jeddah World Fest."

She added, "While I want nothing more than to bring my show to fans in Saudi Arabia, after better educating myself on the issues, I believe it is important for me to make clear my support for the rights of women, the LGBTQ community and freedom of expression."

Nicki was set to hit the stage there on July 18, but groups like the the Human Rights Foundation and others lobbied her to pull out in protest of the country's restrictive laws.

Women were only recently allowed to drive and attend sporting events in stadiums, but gender segregation is still a thing in Saudi Arabia. Same sex relations are also outlawed there.

Meghan Markle has no time for commoners snapping pics of her at Wimbledon -- her security demanded people to turn their lenses away while she watched Serena Williams.   

British media consultant and former BBC reporter Sally Jones tell TMZ ... she was sitting in the members box, taking pics of Serena Williams when one of Meghan's bodyguards came up and said, "Would you not take photographs of the Duchess? She's here in a private capacity." 

Shocked at the request, Jones says she told the security guard she had no intention of photographing Meghan ... and wasn't even aware she was there before that moment. She says she was simply trying to take a shot of Serena. Jones tells us, she didn't take a single pic of Meghan, before or after she was approached by security.

Jones says it's apparent to her some people at the palace suffer from a feeling of "entitlement." She says the whole thing was ridiculous.

BTW, Jones wasn't the only one shooed away. Several other spectators with phones out were told to beat it. Although, it's certainly worth noting ... her security seemed fine with fans taking photos when Megan was signing an autograph for a little boy. Guess a photo op's still a photo op.  

Nike's stocks going up ever so slightly -- which just so happened on the heels of the Betsy Ross controversy -- has absolutely nothing to do with Colin Kaepernick ... so says Ted Cruz.

The Texas senator shut down any notion that Kap sent Nike's market value soaring in the wake of the footwear company yanking its planned Betsy Ross shoe at the ex-QB's behest, because he says there's a much simpler explanation ... a booming economy. 

There's no way of knowing for sure what effect, if any, Kap's involvement might've had -- but we do know anytime his name gets brought up next to the Swoosh ... they do well. 

As far as what Ted makes of the whole situation, he elaborates on what he tweeted this weekend ... when he said he wouldn't buy anymore of the only tennis shoe he's ever owned.

Check it out ... doesn't sound like Teddy's ready to start burning his Nikes quite yet, but he does bemoan the fact the great American company has become politicized .... and in a direction opposite his own views.

Justin Bieber is stoking the battle flames again by nominating Tom Cruise after doing the bottle cap challenge and saying the cap could be Tom's dome, if he wants to join the party.

JB threw up a video Sunday, showing himself doing the now-famous viral challenge that tons of celebs have taken part in. He tells the cameraman, "This could be Tom Cruise's head," and then does a spinning kick to fully unscrew the cap and send it flying.

In his caption, Bieber wrote ... "I nominate Tom cruise and Hailey Bieber." Besides the fact that we're likely to see Hailey's version of the challenge, it's obvious that the Biebs actually DOES want to fight ol' Tommy ... despite telling paps that he was just messing around when he sent out that bizarre tweet. 

Bieber even said at the time that TC would probably whoop his ass in a real fight, but based on what we're seeing here ... we're not so sure. Bieber's got some karate moves in the shed, it seems.

There's one person we know who would be happy to make it happen ... Dana White. He's already told us it would be the biggest purse in UFC history and could possibly go down. There's even been rumblings that Tom might actually be interested in getting in the Octagon. 

Fact is though, he hasn't uttered a peep about it ... so who the hell knows. In the meantime, put this bottle cap challenge up there with the best of 'em.  

Sherri Shepherd's ex-husband says she's preventing him from getting work by constantly bashing him -- but Sherri says if she did have that kinda power ... she'd put it in reverse.

The ex-'View' co-host was at LAX this weekend, where a pap asked her how she felt about Lamar Sally firing back after her scathing interview with D.L. Hughley -- in which she labeled him as a "sorry-ass dude" that she only married out of loneliness. 

Lamar told us that's BS, accusing her of being vindictive and bitter ... adding that they brought a child into the world out of a loving relationship. Sherri has disavowed their kid.

As for his claim that she's effectively blackballed him from getting any writing gigs, Sherri's got a rebuttal -- she says she doesn't have the ability to make that happen, but if she did ... Sherri would flip it in Lamar's favor, so he can stop mooching off of her. 

She must be talking about that $4,100 a month she pays Lamar in child support -- something she believes he was angling for all along, even before they opted to hire a surrogate. 

Sherri drops another nugget about Lamar's work history here, alleging that he'd been out of work when she first got with him ... despite the fact he's a talented writer, as she puts it.

Michelle Obama says she had to fight past a barrage of criticism on her way to the White House, which she attributes to the mountain black women must climb to become beloved.

The former First Lady was talking to Gayle King Saturday night at the Essence Festival, and opened up about how she dealt with being labeled an "angry black woman" in the early days of Barack's first presidential campaign ... as well as flak she caught while in office.

Michelle says folks love her and her hubby now that they're civilians, but for a while there ... she says folks from both sides of the aisle were trying to take her out by the knees, politically speaking, because she was seen as an asset for Barack ... and a threat to rivals.

She puts it like this, "The best way to do it (attack me) was to focus on the one thing they knew people were afraid of, (which) was the strength of a black woman." 

Michelle certainly received her fair share of scrutiny right from the jump. During a speech she gave at a gala in Atlanta back in '08, a Clinton supporter said, "Her speech was very long and inappropriate for that occasion." 

Here's a piece of that speech, which was later described by a journalist as leaving some feeling that she had been "condescending, preaching to a group of achievers about the need to achieve." 

Michelle was also lambasted at times for bucking White House tradition, or for being too flashy ... sometimes even upstaging the President -- like in '09 when she wore a sleeveless Narciso Rodriguez dress during Barack's State of the Union address. 

She talks about that too with Gayle, saying people would say she was "emasculating" Barack. In short, the list of examples goes on and on ... and Michelle hasn't forgotten. 

Vanilla Ice walked into Zak Bagans' famed Haunted Museum a total skeptic ... and he walked out a believer after a bone-chilling encounter with a ghost!!!

The "Ghost Adventures" star tells TMZ ... Vanilla Ice hit up his Haunted Museum in Las Vegas last month, and FREAKED OUT when something blew on his neck! The spooky sensation went down inside a room containing 2 real human skeletons.

Check out the video of Vanilla's first experience with paranormal activity ... you see him sitting on a chair in the Odd Fellows room when he suddenly jumps out of his seat! Vanilla is clearly alarmed, so it's no wonder he told Zak he's never going back in that room.

The Odd Fellows room houses 2 skeletons in their original coffins, which were once used in very old, very bizarre Odd Fellows rituals. Their identities are unknown, but Zak says the remains were part of initiation rituals bringing recruits face-to-face with their own mortality. Scary stuff, for sure.

The earthquakes that have rocked Southern California over the past few days have left one apocalyptically-inclined actor thinkin' the end is near ... so here are his ground rules.

We got 'Walking Dead' star Lawrence Gilliard Jr. out Saturday in L.A. -- just a day after Friday's scary 7.1 magnitude quake -- and asked him if he saw any similarities between the panicked vibes of the city and what he and others experienced on the show.

Unfortunately (for all of us, perhaps), he suggests ... uh, hell yeah. The fact folks are stocking up on supplies and planning for the worst ain't a good sign, but like he says ... "You gotta be prepared." BTW, Lawrence believes that all the preparation in the world won't do any good if/when the big one hits ... 'cause Cali would be well underwater. 

Not to worry though, LGJ's got a short-term plan to deal, for himself anyway. 

ICYMI ... California, and even parts of Nevada, felt the rumblings of the initial earthquakes and their aftershocks throughout Fourth of July weekend, and in some areas ... it caused some serious damage and freaky imagery ... like this here, where the ground starts to split.

Ridgecrest -- about 100 miles east of Bakersfield -- was reportedly hit the hardest, and it sent people scrambling for cover. Here's the scene from inside a restaurant around that area.

"Floribama Shore" won't have any shortage of drama for its upcoming third season, 'cause one of their stars was arrested this weekend for some truly wild s*** down in the Panhandle.

Nilsa Prowant -- who's been a regular on the "Jersey Shore" MTV spin-off for the past couple seasons -- got taken in by cops early Saturday morning in St. Petersburg after allegedly flashing onlookers in public ... and then kicking in a car window. Quite the night!

According to the arrest report, obtained by TMZ, Nilsa was observed by officers -- and a large crowd -- revealing her breasts from a balcony, telling folks down below to sneak a peek. 

The report says that Nilsa was told she had to beat it after that, but cops say she became belligerent and erratic. They also say that once she got into a car for a ride home, she started to lose it ... allegedly kicking the rear driver side window, until it shattered. That was the last straw, it seems -- witnesses say one cop said, "You got to go." 

She was arrested and booked for disorderly conduct and exposure of sexual organs -- both misdemeanors. Funny enough, it sounds like the cops were gonna let her slide for the alleged peep show ... but couldn't ignore the busted window. Go figure. 

Officers note in their report that there was an indication she was under the influence. 

Luckily for her, Nilsa's bail amount was set at just $400 ... and she walked free around 6:30 AM ET. Unclear if cameras were rolling for this incident, but something tells us they might've been ... the show is reportedly in the middle of filming right now, and airs in the fall.

Jimmy Butler did a lot to put the Philadelphia 76ers in contention for a title last year -- and as a parting gift ... the team thanked him by misspelling his name.

Someone in the graphics department screwed up big time in the 'Thank You' tweet sent out Saturday by the team's official page -- spelling Butler as Buter. Weirdly enough, they tagged him correctly by writing, "Thank you @JimmyButler!" 

Hey, at least they got the "Jimmy" right. Props?

The erroneous tweet was up for about 40 minutes before somebody noticed and took it down. Jimmy doesn't appear to have responded to it either.

We'd like to give Philly the benefit of the doubt and assume this is just a classic mistake -- BUT, it could also be seen as a slight ... if you're into that narrative. 

Jimmy, of course, is no longer with the 76ers ... having signed a new contract with the Miami Heat in a 4-team, sign-and-trade deal. He was a free agent, and could've re-upped for another run with the Process, but opted to take his talents to Miami Beach instead.

Taylor Swift losing out on the rights to her old tunes is a learning lesson for up-and-coming artists, so say two people who know that game all too well ... Ricky Bell and Sheila E. 

The musicians were asked about Taylor's feud with Scooter Braun Saturday at LAX, and they each had interesting insights on the biz. Short story long ... don't hate the player. 

Ricky -- who started with New Edition, and then went on to form Bell Biv DeVoe -- kicks things off by actually defending Scooter, saying he isn't really the bad guy here ... just a business man making a smart business move by snatching up Taylor's catalog. 

When presented with the idea of selling the songs back to Taylor, Ricky scoffs ... but offers up a compromise if she's truly interested in getting them back. 

You'll recall ... Scooter's purchase -- through his company, Ithaca Holdings -- caused quite a stir last week, invoking Taylor herself to lash out and call him a bully. The beef has somewhat divided the music industry ... some siding with Taylor, and others with SB.

Ricky and Sheila don't necessarily take sides here -- but they do both seem to acknowledge that signing away your music tends to be the nature of the beast for young artists. 

While Ricky says he doesn't know who owns NE or BBD's music, Sheila reveals she actually holds the rights to most of her catalog -- which is pretty amazing, prolific as it is.

It's interesting too ... Ricky and some of the other OG New Edition guys were in a trademark beef over the band name just a year ago, and Sheila famously collab'd with Prince ... who fought with Warner Bros. over ownership of his own music while he was alive.

Eddie Money won't be back onstage anytime soon -- TMZ has learned the legendary rocker took a turn for the worse after surgery ... which has put him out of commission for the rest of 2019.

The heart procedure Eddie underwent toward the end of May went off without a hitch -- but his rep tells us he became ill during recovery. We're told Eddie has developed pneumonia, and as a result ... he's canceling the rest of his national tour. 

We broke the story ... Eddie was powering through his Memorial Day concerts, despite dealing with shortness of breath, and eventually got the doctor's orders ... he was told to hit pause on the shows, and undergo a heart valve procedure. 

At first, we were told he was set to hit the road again around mid-June ... but now, Eddie's taking the rest of the year off to fully recover. Can't blame him ... back-to-back ailments aren't easy on the body.

Not to worry ... we're told Eddie is on the mend and looking forward to getting back to work in 2020 to promote his new album, "Brand New Day," and the second half of his reality show, "Real Money," which airs on AXS TV. 

50 Cent tried shaming his former label mate, Young Buck, for once posing with Lil Nas X, but Buck's not falling for 50's homophobic antics.

Sources close to the former G-Unit MC tell TMZ ... Buck's photo with LNX -- which was posted back in June, well before Nas X came out -- wasn't meant to be anything more than fan appreciation. We're told Buck wanted to give the young rapper props for his newfound success. It wasn't a tease for a collab or anything. 

However, Fiddy decided to use Lil Nas' coming out as a chance to attack Buck. He reposted Buck's pic with the caption ... "New young Buck (Fresh Out the Barn) ft Little Nas X 🔥Coming July 4."

We're told Buck is unfazed by 50 Cent's attempt to diss and troll. Fact is, it's kinda old at this point, and Buck feels he's simply trying to drag him over a bogus contract from years ago.

Donald Trump's grand plan for a show of force in D.C. on the 4th may be costing taxpayers a fortune, and not just because the tanks are expensive, but because of his grandiose and possibly unrealistic vision of a record-breaking crowd.

TMZ's got the receipts, and although no one will give us a straight answer as to why certain costs have swelled from prior years, it appears the cost jump is related to Trump's hopes for a massive crowd. 

For instance, according to federal procurement docs ... 2 separate payments of $31,764.24 and  $9,534 were made to a Maryland company for portable toilet rentals. This is roughly 4 times as much as what was spent last year for the Independence Day celebration's sanitation services.

Why so expensive? No one from The White House is talking, but it seems there will be more toilets to accommodate the estimated crowd. If the estimate turns out to be unrealistic, there will be a lot of empty toilets ... except for the taxpayer money that will be flushed down the hole.

We've also uncovered purchase orders of $19,282 to rent golf carts. There weren't any golf carts last year. 

As for the main attraction -- the fireworks -- the USA's forking over $320,549.26 to Garden State Fireworks. That figure swelled from last year's cost -- $270k. 

These amounts are relative peanuts in the world of government, but it's a sign this ain't gonna be a cheap celebration. 

The Prez has promised to showcase "the strongest and most advanced Military anywhere in the World" with "Incredible Flyovers" and has poo-pooed the cost ... suggesting fuel is the only expense.

However, this doesn't take into account the cost to operate the planes and military weapons used throughout the event, and it's been reported the National Park Service is diverting $2.5 MILLION in funds to pay for the July 4 extravaganza.