You Might Want to Rethink

Fat Joe seems to think DJ Khaled is the "Quincy Jones of hip-hop" -- but a lot more people seem to think he's dead wrong ... and outright disrespecting the legendary record producer.

Joe made the inflammatory comment this week while chopping it up with N.O.R.E. on his 'Drink Champs' podcast ... talking about the new Jay-Z/Nas song "Sorry Not Sorry" that appears on Khaled's latest album, "Khaled Khaled."

They were gassing up the song -- rightfully so, it's solid -- but then FJ turned the focus back onto DJK ... saying the guy really doesn't get enough credit for what he does.

Joe said people believe all Khaled does is get the biggest names in hip-hop/pop and throw them together on catchy songs -- but he insists there's a lot more to it than that, as several other DJs/producers attempt to do the same time and again and don't get the same results.

Then came Joe's hot take ... saying Khaled's the Quincy of the rap game, and A LOT of people were NOT having it. Joe caught wind of the backlash, however, and tried clarifying a bit.

He writes, "All these back seat drivers Monday morning quarterbacks always got an opinion but can’t do it themselves shit crazy." Joe adds, "To me the term Quincy jones of this time was used in reference to the work khaled has put in years and years of hit obviously there’s only one Quincy but f*ck it tune in tonight EXPLOSIVE lol."

The reason folks are pissed for the comparison is because, well, DJ Khaled doesn't make his own beats ... which isn't a secret either, BTW. He mostly curates, collecting tracks he likes ... and ad-libbing his famous lines over them while getting his music industry pals to feature.

President Biden is just like us -- meaning, the guy sends quick cash to his friends and family on Venmo, which might sound like no big deal ... but it really might be, big picture.

Joe's private Venmo account was tracked down in a rather quick fashion Friday by BuzzFeed, which says it only took them about 10 minutes or so to find it after an NYT article went up earlier in the day saying he sends his grandkids money on the peer-to-peer money app.

The outlet reports all they used were in-app features to quickly find associates to Joe's -- and before they knew it, they landed on 46 ... plus a small network of his immediate family, like his wife and children (Jill and Hunter), extended family (grandchildren) and senior White House officials.

They weren't able to see his transaction history itself -- since it was set to private, which is NOT the default setting for Venmo -- but they say some in Biden's extended Venmo network weren't private ... and they could see what they'd been up to in recent days on there.

Here's the problem, as BFN points out ... a hacker/troll and/or a freakin' adversary spy could easily locate these people and harass them, or even attempt to infiltrate Biden's inner circle -- potentially posing as someone while gathering intel and activities and patterns.

Jake Paul is under investigation ... this time by officials in Puerto Rico for riding a motorized vehicle on a protected beach.

To use a bullfighting metaphor ... Jake waived the proverbial red flag in front of a bull by posting a video of him and some friends tooling around a beach in golf carts, smack in the middle of turtle-nesting season. That's illegal.

It looks like the driver is his brother, Logan, although we haven't been able to confirm.

Jake deleted the vid, but it's too late because the investigation has been launched by the territory's Dept. of Natural and Environmental Resources.

Logan said back in February he was moving some of his businesses, including Maverick Clothing, to Dorado, Puerto Rico ... which is near San Juan. Logan said on his podcast back then, “I thought it was more third-world than I suspected, so I went out there to scout it and I just fell in love with it.” Jake and Logan snagged a $10 million beachfront mansion.

They fell in love with Puerto Rico, but it doesn't sound like everyone there feels the same.

California's thankfully seeing a major dip in COVID cases and deaths, but roller coaster thrill-seekers are still required to follow serious safety guidelines ... rules some health care workers say are ridiculous.

Not only do Disneyland, Six Flags Magic Mountain and Legoland all require riders to keep their masks on through the duration of the ride, they're also leaving entire rows empty and splitting up party sizes to ensure social distancing ... guidelines put in place by the state.

Dr. Ashish Jha -- the Dean of Brown University's School of Public Health -- appeared on "TMZ Live" Thursday and scoffed at the requirement to have empty cars on roller coaster rides. He says it simply makes no sense.

Dr. Jha also has a couple pointers for those with children who are concerned about their well-being since they're still unvaccinated ... and hopefully, it provides some peace of mind.

Of course, when it comes to roaming the park, there's an argument to be made that safety precautions are necessary because of unvaccinated people, but Dr. Jha says a roller coaster is a whole different animal. BTW, the CDC just came out with new guidelines ... people who have been vaccinated don't have to wear masks indoors or outdoors.

Caleb Kennedy -- who was one of the final 5 contestants on this season of "American Idol" -- is no longer in the running to win after a video surfaced showing him sitting next to someone wearing a Klan-like hood.

The country singer just announced his departure from 'Idol' saying ... "Hey y'all, this is gonna be a bit of a surprise." He adds ... "There was a video that surfaced on the internet and it displayed actions that were not meant to be taken in that way."

Caleb claims the video is from when he was younger and he "did not think about the actions" ... but says that's no excuse. He's apologized to his fans and people he disappointed and says he's going to take time to better himself.

The singer closes by saying ... "I'm so sorry! I pray that I can one day regain your trust in who I am and have your respect."

Caleb recently wowed 'Idol' fans and the judges with his country-rock rendition of Coldplay's "Violet Hill" ... but that will be his last performance.

A couple of firefighters on the scene of the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash are getting their walking papers for snapping photos of crash victims ... so claims Vanessa Bryant's lawyers.

Vanessa's attorneys filed legal docs about scheduling the trial in her invasion of privacy lawsuit against L.A. County -- and, in the process, revealed the L.A. County Fire Department was mixed up in the photo taking and sharing.

In the docs, obtained by TMZ, VB's legal team says they received paperwork from the fire department's own internal investigation and found that they'd sent 2 firefighters "intention to discharge" letters because they'd taken pics at the scene.

One of the firefighters, according to the docs, was just a safety officer there to secure the scene that day, but he took graphic shots of the victims' remains. Both firefighters apparently shared the pics with an L.A. County Fire media relations officer ... who then proceeded to send it around to other firefighters.

The media relations officer was reportedly sent a suspension notice. It's unclear if the firefighters have been fired yet ... L.A. County Fire isn't commenting.

Chrissy Teigen is owning up to her past abusive behavior toward Courtney Stodden -- publicly apologizing for years of online bullying, and promising to be better.

Chrissy, who's back on Twitter again, issued a heartfelt mea culpa on the platform Wednesday ... this, after Courtney revealed Chrissy used to DM back in the day telling Courtney to kill themselves, and that was on top of her ugly public tweets.

Chrissy now says ... "Not a lot of people are lucky enough to be held accountable for all their past bulls**t in front of the entire world. I’m mortified and sad at who I used to be. I was an insecure, attention seeking troll. I am ashamed and completely embarrassed at my behavior."

She adds that as bad as she feels now, it's nothing compared to how she must've made Courtney feel all those years.

Chrissy goes on to explain that she's tried connecting with Courtney privately, but to no avail ... so she says, "I’m so sorry, Courtney. I hope you can heal now knowing how deeply sorry I am."

It's interesting, CT ends her apology by also saying sorry to her fans -- for letting them down -- so she's covering all bases here.

You'll recall, Courtney told us they considered Chrissy a hypocrite when she took a break from Twitter because of all the negativity ... saying that didn't seem to bother her all those years ago when she was jumping down Courtney's digital throat.

Chrissy didn't respond back then, but it looks like Courtney's latest reminder of the abuse was one too many to ignore.

A white comedian used the cloak of comedy to spew incredibly racist rhetoric against another comedian -- the guy who introduced him on stage -- without batting an eyelash.

Tony Hinchcliffe -- famous for writing for the 'Comedy Central Roast' series and working on Joe Rogan's podcast -- did a set last week in Austin, where fellow comic Peng Dang (who is of Chinese descent) introduced him at Big Laugh Comedy.

Dang was more than courteous in the intro, telling the crowd to "give it up for the one and only, Tony Hinchcliffe" ... but as soon as Tony grabbed the mic, he went right into excoriating Dang -- calling him a "filthy little f***ing c****" and going on to mock his accent.

The racism wasn't lost on Dang. He posted the clip and wrote, "Last week in Austin, I got to bring up Tony Hinchcliffe. This is what he said. Happy Asian (AAPI) Heritage Month!"

Now, one could argue Hinchcliffe is famously known as an insult comic -- he is -- and that this is right up his alley ... and he didn't mean anything by it. Even if true, times have changed -- so these types of jokes aren't gonna fly anymore, especially right now when violence against Asians is spiking nationwide. Frankly, these jokes are cheap and mean.

Tony hasn't responded to this yet -- but the guy's got shows coming up in Madison, WI this week ... and he runs a weekly podcast, so maybe he'll address it some time then.

Sarah Palin has emerged from the Alaskan shadows to do something very on-brand -- mocking mask-wearing inside an airport ... treating it like a giant joke.

The former Alaskan Governor, and one-time running mate to John McCain, posted a video to her social media ... telling her followers she was at LAX, and that she was "going rogue" by having her mask down while talking to the camera.

She seemed pretty giddy about it ... and was clearly being sarcastic as she joked about being "outside," meaning down here in the States outside her of Alaskan utopia -- where she might be able to get away with not wearing a mask in public these days.

Sarah has demonstrated she does NOT like face coverings ... and now that we're finally turning a corner in the pandemic, she seems to think it's cool to poke fun at it when in reality -- they're still necessary, especially at a place like LAX.

Airports are the key to unlocking the ability to go places, like vacations and business travel. They're also a little dicey because people are in such close proximity to each other, both in the terminal and on the plane. So in many ways, it's where mask-wearing makes the most sense.

The home that sits on the lot where John Wayne Gacy murdered 33 boys and young men back in '70s has sold ... after quite a slash in the original asking price.

As we told you ... the property hit the market in late 2019 for $459,000, but there were no takers for more than a year ... alas, it finally has a new owner.

According to property records, obtained by TMZ ... the buyer purchased the home for $395,000.

Now, to be clear, the actual house that sits on the lot is NOT Gacy's former residence. In 1979, a year after police made the grisly discovery of 29 rotting bodies at Gacy's home, it was demolished.

Seven years later, a new house was built on the lot ... and that's the one that just sold.

Still, the macabre history of the property -- a 3-bed, 2-bath "beautiful brick home" with an updated kitchen overlooking a huge backyard -- might be too creepy for most people ... but apparently not the new homeowner.

Lil Pump is fuming after his luxury whips were broken into on Mother's Day, but the only good news is ... we've learned the 4 suspects were caught on camera committing the crime.

According to a Miami Beach PD report, obtained by TMZ, 4 unknown suspects hopped the wall of a house around 6 AM and found the 3 pricey whips -- a Range Rover, Rolls-Royce Cullinan and Rolls-Royce Wraith -- parked there.

Cops say surveillance video shows the suspects looking inside the cars before one of them smashed the left rear panel of the Range Rover and swiped a cosmetic nail kit worth $600.

Cops say another suspect is seen getting into the Wraith through an unlocked passenger door, though that person apparently didn’t take anything. Cops say another suspect smashed the rear windshield of the Cullinan ... triggering an alarm that prompted the headlights and taillights to flash.

According to the report ... the alarm startled the suspects who then hopped back over the fence and fled the scene.

Lil Pump is NOT named in the police report but his mother is listed as a victim of the alleged crimes. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... this is the incident the "Gucci Gang" rapper described while going off on Instagram Live.

Pump was visibly outraged saying, "That’s how y’all wanna play? I’mma be up for the next 3, 4 days. Come back to my f***ing house. I’mma blow your fucking head off."

Courtney Stodden says Chrissy Teigen did more than just publicly tweet mean things to them ... Courtney claims Chrissy told them "to kill myself," and Courtney almost did.

Courtney, who identifies as non-binary, claims Chrissy all but salivated at the thought of Courtney dying ... and they claim to have private DMs saying as much. They told The Daily Beast ... Chrissy "would privately DM me and tell me to kill myself."

Courtney further claims Chrissy said "Things like, 'I can’t wait for you to die.'"

Courtney says the cruelty back then -- roughly 10 years ago -- didn't just come from Chrissy. For instance, they say "Joy Behar had a field day with calling me a 'slut.' Courtney Love told me I was a 'whore.' People came out of the woodwork to beat up on a kid because she was in a situation that she shouldn’t have been in."

Courtney, of course, is referring to their marriage at 16 to then-50-year-old actor Doug Hutchison, prompting mockery and ridicule. Courtney's mom signed off on the marriage.

This appears to be the backdrop for Chrissy's former animosity toward Courtney, who called Chrissy a hypocrite back in March for ditching Twitter ... citing the nonstop negativity as the reason for her departure.

Courtney told us that was rich ... considering they thought it was not long ago when Chrissy spearheaded her own negativity campaign, and never apologized for it.

Courtney says the bullying got so bad, "there have probably been five times that I've felt like I wanted to kill myself -- and made the actions to go ahead and do it."

Chicago Blackhawks announcer Pat Foley was forced to issue a mea culpa on-air Monday night ... just minutes after he made a crass remark about suicide.

The scene all went down during the broadcast of Chicago's game against the Dallas Stars ... when Foley was trying to make a joke about the Blackhawks' grueling travel schedule amid the NHL's COVID-19 restrictions and regulations.

“Had I been traveling with the team this year," Foley said mid-broadcast, "I might have put a bullet in my head."

Yeah, not great.

The backlash to the comments was swift ... viewers weighed in all over social media, trashing Foley for the comments -- and it didn't take long for the play-by-play man to issue an apology.

"I wish I didn’t say that," said Foley, who's been broadcasting Blackhawks games since the early 1980s. "I'm sorry if I offended some folks. Apparently I did, so I apologize."

This is not the first time Foley's had to walk back some insensitive comments ... back in 2019 during a Blackhawks exhibition game, he famously tried to make a joke about a player with an ethnic last name.

"Ortega, who sounds like he ought to be a shortstop," said Foley, who issued an apology after those remarks as well.

Now here's a surprise ... Village People founder, Victor Willis, is ripping The Weeknd -- even though they both have beef with the Grammys, Victor thinks Abel's being a total hypocrite.

The legendary disco singer penned a brutally harsh letter to The Weeknd Monday ... calling out the fact that he seems to be choosy as to when he's outraged about the Recording Academy's secret voting committees -- from which he once benefitted for gold statuettes.

Victor writes, in part ... "Psst, 'The weeknd,' lighten up on the Grammys already why don't cha!?" He goes on to say that as someone who knows a thing or two about protesting the Grammy Awards, Victor thinks TW's now taking things too far with his prolonged gripes.

ICYMI ... The Weeknd tripled down in his refusal to participate in any future Grammy shows -- despite them announcing they're scrapping the secret committee process moving forward -- and once again called them "corrupt."

Welp, in response ... Victor says this, "I don't recall you complaining about the secret committees when you were benefitting from those secret committees." He adds, "But on the one occasion the secret committees didn't benefit you, the Grammys are suddenly corrupt, and it's off with their heads?"

He went on to say that Abel's way too talented and important to music to keep "pouting" ... while also noting that he seems more "out for blood" than anything else at this point.

Victor ends by mentioning the new chief of the Academy -- a Black man named Harvey Mason Jr., who's been getting a lot of credit for putting reforms in motion, despite only having been on the job for a short time now. VW pleads, "Cut the brotha some slack!"

Bob Baffert says he will NOT let Medina Spirit's positive drug test get in the way of his Triple Crown bid ... claiming he plans to run the horse in the Preakness this weekend.

Of course, Baffert was suspended indefinitely by Churchill Downs on Sunday after Medina Spirit was popped for a banned substance following his victory at the Kentucky Derby.

68-year-old Baffert -- by far the most famous and successful trainer in horseracing history -- has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing ... but it's the 5th time one of Bob's horses has tested positive for an illegal substance in the past 13 months and many are skeptical.

But, Baffert appeared on Fox News Channel's "America's Newsroom" on Monday to defend himself and said matter of factly, "We did not cheat to win the Kentucky Derby."

Baffert claims he has no idea how the substance (betamethasone) got into the horse's system -- but says he's hired his own team of investigators to look into the matter.

"We hired investigators but sometimes you never find out. It’s just a tragedy what happened in this race."

Bob also claims the amount of betamethasone in Medina Spirit's system  was so low, it "wouldn’t have any effect on the horse anyway."

Despite his suspension from Churchill Downs in Kentucky, Baffert made it clear he plans to run Medina at the Preakness on Saturday, set to take place at the famous Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore.

"With all the noise ... We live in a different world now. This America is different. It was like a cancel culture kind of a thing so they’re reviewing it. I haven’t been told anything. We’re prepared to run."

Baffert's attorney, Craig Robertson, also told Fox News ... if Medina Spirit is blocked from the Preakness, they are prepared to file for a temporary restraining order against race officials in the hopes a judge will overrule the ban and clear the way for the horse to run.

Whoever let their tiger out and about on the streets of a Houston neighborhood this weekend is certainly no Joe Exotic, but they were trying to be ... and almost got the thing killed.

Check out this wild scene that unfolded Sunday in the burb of Memorial, where a neighbor -- who is allegedly an off-duty sheriff's deputy -- came face-to-face with the striped beast. The guy had his gun drawn as he tried yelling at it to stop, but it continued creeping toward him.

The supposed owner tells the cop not to shoot it and that he'll get the animal, which he successfully did in the end without any bullets flying. You can even see the tiger has a collar on, and seems pretty comfortable when the human wrangles it in on their front yard.

At this point, there's really not a whole lot of context other than this tiger appears to have been somebody's pet in one of the surrounding houses ... and it escaped somehow.

Of course, 911 was called over this ... but word is once they arrived, the tiger had already been stashed into a vehicle and driven away. It's unclear if anybody was charged yet -- but the police are certainly aware of it.

It's illegal to own exotic pets like this in the City of Houston, but you can, apparently, have a tiger in the surrounding unincorporated Harris County, assuming you have all the right paperwork and a boatload of insurance.

Considering this one was nowhere to be found when cops showed up, something tells us it wasn't meant to be there in the first place.