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YNW Melly is begging a judge to let him out of prison ... because he says he's on the verge of dying from COVID-19.

The rapper's lawyer, Bradford Cohen, filed legal docs, obtained by TMZ, claiming the rapper -- in prison awaiting his murder trial -- is suffering from severe chills, heavy labored breathing, headaches and body aches since he tested positive for the coronavirus.

Cohen says Melly weighs 114 pounds and has NOT been monitored by medical personnel every hour like they're supposed to. And, there's this ... Cohen claims Melly's been holed up in a cell with another inmate who also has COVID-19 ... and there's fear "if the virus can be mutated or passed reoccurring between individuals."

Cohen claims the there's a lack of preparedness by the jail for this type of epidemic ... as "they have not given them masks, or cleaning supplies that would be beneficial regarding his recovery. This is against all recommendations of the Surgeon General and CDC."

Tekashi 6ix9ine is vowing to be on his best social media behavior now that he's outta prison ... his lawyers say the rapper won't start beefs or troll other artists, because the feds are watching!!!

Tekashi's attorney, Lance Lazzaro, tells TMZ ... 6ix9ine has no restrictions regarding his use of social media, despite being on federally supervised probation for the next 5 years.

While 69's probation officer will be monitoring everything Tekashi posts on social media, we're told 6ix9ine will not post anything inflammatory and will use his discretion and common sense when he uses social media.

As we first reported ... Tekashi was sprung from prison early after a judge signed off on a request to get out to avoid infection from the coronavirus. 6ix9ine is now on supervised release in-home incarceration, which isn't that much different from the way we're all living.

Tekashi was notorious for being an online troll before he got locked up, but his other attorney, Dawn Florio, tells TMZ ... 69 will not be trolling or starting beefs online, and he won't be promoting gang affiliation on social media either.

He made his return to Instagram Sunday, commenting on a story about snitching by saying, "Coming to the rescue." A clear jab at himself, but it likely wasn't received too well by those locked up because of Telashi's snitching.

Instead, we're told Tekashi will be using his social media platforms to promote his new music.

Sounds like social is not a top priority for Tekashi, at least for now ... we're told he just wants to spend quality time with his fam after a lengthy prison stint.

Playboi Carti's been arrested in Georgia on drug and gun-related charges ... TMZ has learned.

According to law enforcement ... the "wokeuplikethis*" rapper got pulled over in his Lambo Thursday for having an expired tag, and Clayton County officers claim they discovered the drugs and weapons in his vehicle during the traffic stop.

Our sources say Carti's ride was loaded with 12 bags of marijuana, xanax, oxycodone and codeine ... along with 3 firearms.

The rapper was arrested with another man and they were taken to the county jail.

Photos of the items seized during the stop were posted by the Clayton County Sheriff's Office.

Carti posted bond and was released Friday morning.

Ellen Barkin may have been in the mood to flip off a photographer but she had ZERO right to tweet the image ... so claims the photographer now suing her.

Steven Hirsch is suing the actress claiming she posted his copyrighted photograph of her flipping the bird on her Twitter account. In docs, obtained by TMZ, Hirsch says he's a professional photog who is in the business of licensing his photographs to online and print media for a fee.

The photo in question is from January when Ellen attended the second day of Harvey Weinstein's criminal trial in NYC. She was there to support her friend and Weinstein accuser, actress Annabella Sciorra.

Hirsch says he licensed the pic to a NY outlet but never gave Ellen permission to use the photo. Ellen then tweeted the photo on January 23 -- it hasn't been taken down -- with the caption "mood" ... and it racked up more than 1,000 retweets and 15,000 likes.

The photographer is now suing her for damages. We've reached out to Ellen for comment, so far no word back.

"Tanked" star Heather King fears her life is in danger if her ex is allowed anywhere near her ... so she wants a judge to order him to stay away.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Heather beelined it to court and requested a protective order against her estranged husband, Wayde. She claims he's been physically abusive to her for YEARS ... from allegedly slamming her against the wall to damn near knocking her unconscious.

In docs, Heather points to an incident earlier this month when she says Wayde came home and "told me to get the f*** out" before allegedly pushing and hitting her. Heather claims things got so bad their daughter had to yell at Wayde to get him to stop assaulting her.

Heather claims this is just one example of a pattern of abuse ... and she claims to have photos of her alleged injuries to back. Some of the photos show bruises and scratches allegedly suffered at the hands of Wayde, who she is in the middle of divorcing.

She alleges Wayde physically assaulted her on several occasions last year ... like when he allegedly strangled her in November and broke her finger in July. She claims Wayde "threw me against a wall so hard that he almost knocked me out." She says she was scared he was going to kill her.

The bus driver in Lil Wayne's 2015 bus shooting thinks Birdman and Young Thug struck secret deals with prosecutors ... and now he's demanding to know why they've never been indicted.

In docs, obtained by TMZ, Alvin Lewis says he finds it unusual Cobb County, Georgia prosecutors would describe Birdman and YT as co-conspirators in the alleged shooter's indictment, but not bring any charges against them.

Lewis claims there's overwhelming evidence of complicity between Jimmy Winfrey, the alleged shooter, and Birdman and Young Thug -- from phone call records and recorded confessions, to promises of payment.

The driver claims he suffered spinal cord, rotator cuff and psychological injuries in April 2015 when Weezy's bus was shot up in Atlanta. According to the docs, Lewis says prosecutors have kept him informed about Winfrey's case, but he's rebuffed whenever he asked about Birdman and Young Thug.

Winfrey is currently being retried, because the Georgia Supreme Court overturned his 2015 conviction.

Lewis is asking the judge to force the Cobb County D.A.'s Office to turn over any information related to deals that might have been struck between prosecutors and Birdman or Young Thug.

Yung Berg allegedly pistol-whipped a woman after having sex with her, and now she's been granted court-ordered protection from him ... TMZ has learned.

According to new legal docs ... Talia Tilley claims Yung Berg pistol-whipped her face, pointed the gun at her mouth and threatened to kill her ... after they had sex earlier this month at his place.

Tilley filed for a temporary restraining order against Berg and on Friday morning, a judge signed off on it.

Talia also submitted gruesome images she says show her injuries suffered in the alleged beatdown. She says she broke her nose, suffered 2 black eyes and cuts to her face.

In the docs, Talia says Yung Berg invited her to his crib around 3 AM March 14 and they had sex before things turned violent. She says they went to sleep after intercourse, but then he woke her up a few hours later because her phone kept ringing. She says YB accused her of trying to rob him and then got physical, slapping her and then breaking her nose with the bottom of what appeared to be a pistol.

She alleges Yung Berg beat her with the butt of the gun until she gave up her phone and passcode. She claims she was held hostage in the home for hours, and says when YB and his security guard finally let her leave ... they kept her ID and social security card.

Rob Kardashian's pushing back on Blac Chyna's insinuation he's a bad parent because Dream got burned in his care ... he says she's the bad parent.

Here's the deal ... Blac Chyna got the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services to investigate Rob after Dream suffered multiple burns at his home, and she claims Rob initially denied the second burn happened under his watch.

Now, Rob is firing back and blaming his former nanny while also chiding BC for trying to smear his name.

Rob's attorney, Marty Singer, tells TMZ ... Dream's health and well-being is Rob's top priority, and even though Dream did in fact get burned in two incidents with the nanny at Rob's home last month, Rob's confident DCFS won't find any safety issues at the home.

RK's legal team tells us the nanny is leaving his employment, and they say Rob treated Dream's incidents appropriately and told BC what happened.

Rob's attorney tells us it's "unfortunate that Chyna feels the need to publicly miscommunicate the situation and has once again wasted valuable public resources by calling first responders in a desperate attempt to smear Rob’s name in response to his ongoing lawsuit against her for full custody of their daughter."

And, get this ... Rob's attorneys say he has grave concerns about Dream's safety in Blac Chyna's care, and they say third parties have sent DCFS to BC's home for her treatment of Dream.

Dream's come back from her mother's house with many unexplained injuries -- rashes, cuts, bruises and a dislocated arm -- at least according to Rob.

Rob's also blasting BC for claiming to be concerned about Dream's safety when she was busy posting a video showing Dream on her older's back while they were bouncing on a trampoline.

As you know ... Rob and Chyna have joint legal and physical custody of Dream, but their both gunning for primary custody.

Lori Loughlin and other defendants in the college admissions case want a judge to throw out the cases and send prosecutors packing ... because Lori and the others say the U.S. Attorney's Office is guilty ... guilty of gross and shocking misconduct.

Lori, and others who have not copped a plea, laid out why it would be unfair to continue on the with the case. For starters, defense lawyers say authorities browbeat the ringleader in the case -- Rick Singer. Singer initially told prosecutors the money he received from Lori and others were donations made payable to the university, but FBI agents wanted him to call the money bribes. Singer said they were not bribes -- rather donations -- and that's when he says an agent started screaming at him ... ordering him to lie and say they were bribes.

And, Singer says, FBI agents told him to lie on recorded calls to obtain incriminating evidence against the parents.

There's a lot more. Prosecutors withheld this evidence for more than a year, this according to the legal docs, even though they were ordered to produce it.

Singer told agents his clients "typically do not know that [former USC official Donna] Heinel is involved until the time of their first payment." In other words, the clients thought it was legit.

And, the defense says the government recorded various conversations between Singer and various parents, but they claim this "was a sham carefully engineered by government agents in an effort to entrap defendants and "nail" them "at all costs."

In Loughlin's case, according to the docs, she made it clear she did not know the payments were bribes. In a recorded conversation, she says, "Yeah, no, no I -- I had questions about USC. I was like, 'Well, maybe the way they got in you're not supposed to get in like that. I don't know, like can you,' but Moss [her husband] was like, 'No you can make a donation.  It's ok,' like I don't know. Uh, yeah, I don't know. But it's all on the up-and-up."

Short story ... the defense says the government has lied, fabricated incriminating evidence and intentionally withheld evidence it was supposed to turn over that tended to show these were not bribes.

Joe Exotic -- the eccentric, wild and captivating convict tiger breeder featured in the wildly popular Netflix docuseries 'Tiger King' -- is suing from prison ... claiming a huge conspiracy behind him being locked up, and it led to the death of his mom.

If you've seen the show, you know Joe -- real name Joseph Maldonado-Passage -- is one of the biggest names in the big cat business. If you haven't seen it ... SPOILERS AHEAD.

Anyway, Exotic ran a popular zoo in Oklahoma until he was found guilty of a murder-for-hire plot in 2019, but according to new legal docs obtained by TMZ ... he claims he was falsely arrested and imprisoned, and the victim of malicious prosecution and discrimination.

But, let's back up, because firstly ... Joe's suing the U.S. Department of Interior and the U.S. Federal Wildlife Service for placing the "generic tiger" on the endangered species list. Exotic claims this was done for the sole purpose of targeting businesses like his, and essentially ... putting him out of business.

As he puts it, this equates to "stealing my property and promoting an animal rights agenda."

Joe also alleges he was "discriminated against because he is the only person charged with this statute because [he] is an openly gay male with the largest collection of generic tigers and crossbreeds."

According to the suit, he wants $78,840,000 for the loss of his personal property and 18 years' worth of his work with tigers for this.

As for his criminal conviction, he's going after a handful of people involved in the case -- including his former business partner, Jeff Lowe, for allegedly lying to the feds and planting evidence against him.

He accuses another former colleague of being an informant and claims the sum of all this contributed to the passing of his mother, Shirley.

Joe's seeking an additional $15 million for this.