TMZ.com

Vic Mensa straight-up says that, in Donald Trump's world of extreme capitalism, everything's for sale ... including people's lives.

The rapper made a passionate plea for gun control, telling TMZ ... this country's long overdue, but says it'll never happen under a president that's in bed with the NRA -- a billion-dollar industry. Strong words from a gun owner himself who also has a concealed carry permit.

Vic blasts Trump for feigning interest in doing something about gun control following consecutive mass shootings in Texas and Ohio earlier this month ... only to pull a bait and switch, saying mental health reform -- not background checks -- is the answer.

The Cardi B and Nicki Minaj beef is back in full swing ... and their sidekicks are declaring an all-out war.

'Love & Hip Hop' star Rah Ali is throwing serious shade at Cardi and her bestie, Star Brim ... calling Star nothing more than a cheap bar dancer and wondering why CB is letting her BFF toil away while she rakes in the dough.

The bad blood started flowing again this week after Star said, if she was at New York Fashion Week, there's no way she would've let Rah hit Cardi in the head with a shoe.

Star says she would've SPANKED Rah during the NYFW fight -- which left a knot on Cardi's head -- and if she sees Nicki's friend in the streets, Star vows to follow through with her threat.

Star even says she'll go after Nicki ... but hedges by saying Nicki's got too much security.

Well, Rah Ali heard about Star's bragging ... and now she's firing back, and going low.

Sources close to Rah tell TMZ ... she feels it's just a poor attempt by Star to get her 15 minutes of fame and, instead of worrying about last year's fight, Star should be asking why she's still dancing for dollars while her friend, Cardi, lives lavishly.

SHOTS FIRED!!!

Tommy Lee wanted a bite at Emeril's, but all he got was the boot ... he says he got thrown outta the joint because he dropped an F-BOMB when staff asked him to take off his hat.

The Motley Crue drummer and his new wife, internet personality Brittany Furlan, were at LAX Tuesday when they broke down their dinner fiasco in New Orleans ... they say the people running Emeril's Delmonico lost their lids over some caps and a harmless curse.

Tommy and Brittany say they were both wearing hats when they entered the fancy establishment Tuesday night, but only he was asked to remove his ... and that's when all hell broke loose.

Ya gotta hear Tommy defend his use of the F-word with more "f**k yous" ... and stick around to watch him go digging for gold.

There's no beef with Emeril himself ... but sounds like Tommy and Brittany will be dining elsewhere next time they're in New Orleans. Can't blame 'em, plenty of good eats in that town!!!

Future, 21 Savage and fellow Atlanta rapper Big Bank Black gave back to their community in the funnest way possible ... AND helped everyone stay cool in the process.

The rappers rented out the entire water park at Six Flags White Water in the ATL Wednesday, and seemingly invited everyone from their Zone 6 neighborhood to get some relief from the summer heat at an epic "hood day."

We're told the 3 hip-hop stars dropped around $300k on this year's celebration for Zone 6, which included free food and drinks for everyone. Savage and Big Bank joined in on the good times on the lazy river too.

Other celebs who got wet and wild at the park included Tommie Lee from 'L&HH' and reality star Shekinah Anderson. There was also no shortage of chicken fights and surprise dunking ... 21 Savage even fell victim!!!

Tee Grizzley is mourning the loss of his manager after his car was riddled with bullets Tuesday night as he rode around Detroit.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... the deadly shooting went down Tuesday night, when a gunman opened fire on Tee Grizzley's Cadillac Escalade. We're told the rapper's manager, Jobina Brown, was sitting in the back seat.

Our sources say the SUV had stopped and Tee Grizzley was getting out of the front passenger seat as the shooter approached on foot and pulled the trigger ... hitting Jobina in her left side. The driver of the SUV told cops he heard Jobina scream right before 3 to 4 shots were fired.

We're told it's unclear if Tee Grizzley was targeted in the attack -- but neither he nor the driver were hit.

Aaliyah lives on in many forms, and now there's a new wax figure to celebrate her incredible life.

Madame Tussauds in Las Vegas just unveiled its very first wax sculpture of the late R&B singer, immortalizing Aaliyah in one of her iconic looks.

The spot-on wax statue is being rolled out Wednesday night in the heart of the Vegas strip, with a special unveiling for Aaliyah's family and a bunch of celebs.

Honchos at Madame Tussauds tell TMZ ... Aaliyah's wax figure was inspired by the music video for her smash hit, "Try Again," and the details are down to a T ... with the exact same outfit, hair style, makeup and lower-back tattoo.

We're told the designer worked closely with Aaliyah's fam, especially her brother Rashad Haughton, to ensure the sculpture brought her character back to life.

As you know ... Aaliyah died in a plane crash way back in 2001, but she's still got a huge following ... and fans will be able to check out her wax statue this summer in the same exhibit as other stars from the 1990s.

Taylor Swift's cooked up a plan to get back at Scooter Braun for buying the rights to her early music -- so SHE will own the new masters -- but she's got some legal hurdles to overcome first.

The singer told "CBS News Sunday Morning" -- in an interview airing this weekend -- she will rerecord her past songs she'd originally done while signed to Big Machine ... the label Scooter bought a few months back.

As you know ... Taylor was PISSED and went on a rant against Scooter for snapping up her early catalog -- but her plan to cover her own songs won't exactly hurt Scooter the way she thinks it will. Industry experts tell TMZ ... every label, including Big Machine, has a rerecord clause in its contracts with artists. The clause prevents the artist from rerecording on another label, or on their own, and marketing those rerecordings.

Now, we're told that clause usually has an expiration date. We don't know when Big Machine's clause expires, but even when it does ... there's another roadblock. Experts tell us it's called an original production clause -- and it prevents the artist from copying the OG version. So, when and if Taylor remakes her Big Machine tunes ... she will have to deviate from the first versions.

Taylor's revenge scheme has been pulled off before ... most notably by Prince during his battles with Warner Bros. Records. However, in his case, the rerecordings ended up making the originals more valuable. In other words ... Taylor could unwittingly end up putting more cash in Scooter's pockets.

From what music industry experts are telling us, though, Scooter can't be too concerned with Taylor's plan because his $300 million investment in Big Machine has already been a boon. We're told the company's full catalog -- not only Taylor's songs -- is now valued at close to $1 BILLION!!

So, Taylor WILL get something -- she'll own her new master recordings -- but if she's just doing it for revenge ... it might not be a great play.

Lil Nas X just topped his Billy Ray Cyrus collab by pairing with Jeff Bezos for a huge Amazon office party ... in a freakin' football stadium!! So, yeah ... you could say it was a Prime pairing.

Proving how awesome it is to be the richest man in the world ... Bezos hired Lil Nas AND Katy Perry to perform Tuesday night at Amazon's post-Prime Day concert. No biggie, just a a small get together for more than 45,000 employees at Seattle's CenturyLink Stadium -- and you can tell the boss man was turning up.

Bezos ended up rocking X's graffiti-tagged leather coat, and he posed with Katy and her little dog, Nugget. Lil Nas posted a pic with the caption, "I am now the new owner of amazon and i stole katy perry's dog."

Katy also treated the crowd with her first-ever live performance of "Never Really Over."

Throwing extravagant parties is now Bezos' MO -- just last month he had Taylor Swift headline an Amazon Prime Day concert in NYC. Some critics have bashed him for the lavish events ... saying he should pay employees better instead of staging concerts for them.

Young Thug's got a fascinating obsession with slithery creatures ... especially if they're shiny, 2-headed and cost more than your average house in the heartland.

The 'Slime' rapper is flossin' some new bling worth a whopping $250,000!!! It's a 2-headed snake chain made of 18k rose gold and features over 90cts of diamonds. The whole piece weighs more than 2 pounds!!!

Thugger better hit the weights.

Celebrity jeweler Eliantte is the artist who created the masterpiece and the detail is pretty incredible. It's got lifelike scales and both heads look ready to strike any haters.

We're told YT had the chain delivered to him last week while he celebrated 2 huge milestones ... his 28th birthday and the release of his new album, "So Much Fun."

BTW ... Thug's snake fascination goes back a minute.

In 2017, the rapper used a snake crawling out of a skull for his and Future's "Super Slimey" mixtape cover art. The following year, he sent live snakes in glass tanks to media outlets as a promotion for his "Slime Language" record -- and don't forget he has a snake eating a live mouse in the opening scene of his "Scoliosis" music vid.

Offset got pulled over by a cop who had trouble spelling his name, and it was all downhill from there ... except for a very small bone thrown his way at the end.

The traffic stop went down in late March in Sandy Springs, GA outside Atlanta, and according to the cop's body cam footage -- obtained by TMZ -- the rapper very much sounds like a guy who knows he's about to rack up a few tickets.

Things start off on the wrong foot when Offset asks the cop to turn his flashlight off and gets a stern "no" ... and Offset responds in kind when he's asked for his name.

It gets a bit more contentious when Offset asks why he got pulled over and isn't satisfied with the answer. Both parties then make it known they're recording each other -- pretty standard 2019 stuff.

When the cop finally reveals he's writing Offset THREE citations, Cardi B's hubby accuses him of being mad he's in a nice car ... and suggests the officers kids would be disappointed in him.

Offset also vows to beat the tickets in court, but turns out he wasn't up for the challenge. According to legal docs ... he paid the $470 in fines for speeding and failure to maintain his lane, along with $100 for missing a hearing in the case.

The good news -- Offset's citation for not having a license was dismissed, and of course ... he only got a warning from the cop to avoid a 4th ticket.

Kanye West's dome-like housing prototypes have drawn the ire of his neighbors for a while, and they just called the cops on him.

Some of Ye's Calabasas neighbors tell TMZ ... there's been a crazy amount of construction work going on at the site. They say construction crews were working for more than 12 hours Saturday -- the city allows construction from 8 AM - 5 PM -- and Sunday as well. The city does not allow Sunday construction.

We're told at least one neighbor called the cops Sunday complaining of noise, and L.A. County Sheriff's deputies responded at 7:30 PM and found a construction crew hard at work on one of the domes.

We're told the deputies told the crew to stop ... and they did.

Kanye's neighbors have been complaining for a while about the prototypes, which he constructed as models for his vision of an egalitarian community.

Turns out Kanye's crew didn't get permits and he was cited for violating the building code. He was given the option to either get the proper permits or tear the 4 structures down by Sept. 15. He's chosen the latter ... thus the continued noise.

It's unclear if Kanye's going back to the drawing board or jettisoning the project.

French Montana was the man of the hour at the grand opening of a restaurant Sunday night, and along with his pals, Drake and Fat Joe ... he was definitely living his best life.

The 3 amigos yukked it up while throwing back expensive shots of liquor at Papi Steak in Miami, and not that they need a special occasion to rage ... they were there celebrating French as Haute Living's latest cover man.

Montana's luxury lifestyle mag issue coincides with the upcoming release of his new album, and fittingly ... it touches on some of his famous friendships.

The event in his honor was part of the Hublot Collectors Dinner, which was also attended by Hublot President Jean-Francois Sberro, Haute Living CEO Kamal Hotchandani and author Deyvanshi Masrani. Tres bougie! The crew partied it up afterwards at David Grutman's club LIV.

French is in very good company, btw -- last month's cover man was NFL star and Super Bowl champ Julian Edelman.

Imagine Dragons bassist Ben McKee is wearing his intuition on his sleeve ... literally.

The pop rocker recently hooked up with famed Los Angeles tattoo artist Dillon Forte for a super sick work of art stretching from Ben's left shoulder all the way down to his fingertips!!!

The sleeve's one cosmic creation -- it's inspired by a higher consciousness. What the hell does that mean? Well, smoke something if ya got it, and bear with us.

We're told the repeating pattern represents "the interconnectedness of all life and the unified field of vibrations resonating cosmic intelligence." Ummm ... puff, puff, pass?

Ben started his sleeve last year, and then decided he wanted the ink to run down to his fingertips. Remember, the universe is ever expanding -- so the musician sat down for a 4-hour sesh at Dillon's Sri Yantra Tattoo Studio in Venice.

Dillon's inked up tons of celebs with his super intricate artwork ... including Kat Von D, Chris Hemsworth and a head tattoo for Usher!

Ben's tat will definitely add another wrinkle to Imagine Dragons' already killer live shows. Just don't get lost in the cosmicness, dude.

Kanye West is coming down from the mountain top and taking church goers back to school -- literally he was on a campus this weekend doing his Sunday Service.

That's right ... Ye switched things up Sunday for his weekly spiritual concert -- opting to bring his talents to the people in North Hollywood, where he put on one hell heck of a show for a local congregation that meets up at a middle school in the San Fernando Valley.

We're told Kanye joined forces with the California Worship Center this week, walking in around 11 AM PT and hosting a musical church service 'til about 2 PM. It was quite a spectacle -- but perhaps a bit less so than what his usual services turn out like.

Remember his Coachella gig? This wasn't quite that -- a heavily advertised set at a major music fest with thousands of people -- but the excitement here was just as palpable.

Regardless of the hype, lots o' famous folks stopped by. Eyewitnesses tell us stars like Blac Chyna, Tori Kelly, Gwen Stefani and even manager-to-the-stars Scooter Braun showed up -- not to mention everyone Kanye brought along with him ... which was a ton of heads.

As for how the service itself went, just take a looksy for yourself. Seems it came close to matching what we've come to expect from Sunday Services, only in a bit of a tighter space ... but with just as much energy. That'll happen when you get two churches together.

Music-wise, we're told KW weaved in a number of samples into the live production -- which was supplemented by a choir and a marching band on hand. Some of the songs he used ... Fred Hammond's "This Is the Day," Jay-Z's "Lift Off," Snoop's "Drop It Like It's Hot," and Tye Tribbett's rendition of "Lift Him Up." Clearly, those in attendance were moved by the spirit -- it was lit.

Now, when it comes to how or why this came together the way it did, we're not entirely sure. But, like the good book says ... ask and Ye shall come through!!!

Lance Bass is giving personal shout-outs for $150 a pop ... but he's not looking to make a quick buck. He's trying help struggling teachers across America.

With back-to-school just around the corner, Lance is dedicating the entire month of August to help fulfill wish lists for teachers who desperately need supplies. It's shocking ... thousands of teachers take money out of their own pockets to pay for basic classroom essentials ... and remember, they're underpaid to begin with.

So, here's how it works -- if you go to Cameo.com/lancebass and pay the $150, Lance will deliver a 30-second shout-out. 100% of his take goes to teachers.

The videos are individualized ... like the shout out he gave to Laura.

Lance has raised more than $4,000 in the first 16 days of August. It's all earmarked for "Clear Teacher's Wish List" on Amazon.

By the way ... Lance has a dog in the fight, because his mom's a teacher.

He hopes others will get on board and help with the donations.

Joe Jonas will take his 30th birthday celebration shaken, not stirred -- please and thanks.

The middle Jonas Bro rang in the big 3-0 in style this week by embracing the James Bond aesthetic with his wife, Sophie Turner, right there by his side to bring it to fruition. Joe walked out of their NYC apartment Friday night -- a day after his actual birthday -- wearing a very Bond-esq white tux, and hit the point home by hopping into an Aston Martin.

Yep, 007 would absolutely approve -- the Aston Martin is the character's signature car, and Bond has donned the white suit many times over the course of his movie spy career.

Joe and Sophie rolled up to Cipriani, where they were met with the James Bond theme song ... seems like everyone was in on the Bond shtick for the night. BTW, Nick and Kevin were there too with their respective wives ... so it was a Jonas family affair.