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City Girls member JT is one step closer to freedom ... we've learned the rapper is out of prison, and finishing out her sentence in a halfway house.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... JT was just transferred from FCI Tallahassee to a halfway house in the Atlanta area as she awaits her March 7 release.

It's a huge change of scenery for JT after more than a year behind bars ... inmates in halfway houses get tons of extra benefits, like being able to leave the house during the day to work, and visit family and friends.

The 2019 BET Hip Hop Awards are proof "Hot Girl Summer" is far from over ... because some of the sexiest celebs in the industry showed up to rub elbows with rising star Megan Thee Stallion.

Check out the pics from behind the scenes ... Lil Kim turned heads with her pink hair and huge fur coat, and Megan naturally drew a crowd.

The awards show returned to Atlanta -- after a brief hiatus in Miami -- for last weekend's taping ... and Quavo made sure to show out in his hometown, dripping with ice and hanging with Rick Ross. Talk about some BAWSES!!!

The musical performances were fire too ... MTS opened the show with her smash hit, "Hot Girl Summer," twerking on the top deck of the S.S. Hot Girl before being joined on stage by DaBaby.

Lil' Kim wasn't about to let an anti-fur protester tell her what animals she can and can't wear ... nearly trading blows with the woman before security stepped in.

Kim was outside Verizon Media Studios in New York City Tuesday when multiple anti-fur protesters started shouting "Stop wearing fur!" at Kim. One woman got just a little too close for LK's liking ... and that's when she started walking toward the woman telling her to "back up" several times.

Lucky for the protester, Kim's security stepped in between the two and diffused the situation, 'cause it looked like the rapper was ready to throw down.

Lil Peep's mother says his management team and the company behind his final tour supplied the rapper with drugs, an unstable environment and pushed him to the point of exhaustion ... all factors that led to his tragic death.

Peep's mom, Liza Womack, filed a lawsuit Monday against First Access Entertainment and people associated with the company. Womack claims, starting in early 2017 during Peep's The Peep Show tour, the use of controlled drugs and illegal substances were allowed, normalized and even encouraged by management.

Womack says during a stop in London, her son was gifted a bottle of pills by one of his managers during a group dinner.

The docs claim the rampant drug use continued later in 2017 -- during Peep's final Come Over When You're Sober tour. Womack says Peep was regularly supplied with Xanax, Ketamine and other drugs while on the road.

During one tour stop on May 10, 2017, in Los Angeles, Peep's mom claims he was "barely able to communicate, let alone perform, due to his use of drugs." In the suit, she adds, despite being in a "comatose-like state" ... his managers allowed him to perform.

Justin Bieber's firing off a new jab in his feud with Taylor Swift, mimicking that post-surgical banana video of her that went viral -- and while it is kinda funny, we're sure Taylor ain't laughing.

Justin and the missus, Hailey Bieber, were live on IG from their kitchen Sunday when the Biebs decided to poke fun at Taylor, loudly whining ... "It's not the banana that I wanted!!!"

Hailey laughed out loud, and we're guessing most of Hailey's 22 million followers also chuckled -- but it's odd he made any reference to the Taylor vid, considering Taylor publicly accused Bieber and his manager, Scooter Braun, of bullying her.

Howard Stern's feeling the loss of Cream drummer Ginger Baker, but says he hopes it will lead to a tribute performance from the last surviving member of the British rock supergroup.

As we reported ... Baker died peacefully in a hospital in England Sunday, and Howard shared some of his memories of the drumming sensation as he was leaving Spago in Beverly Hills.

Stern tells us he was in high school when Cream released their final album -- fittingly titled "Goodbye" -- before breaking up ... and it was apparently worse than any breakup he personally went through.

Cardi B is a master multitasker -- flying down to the Dominican Republic for some Merengue dancing with her fam ... all before a big show she's got in Texas a few hours from now.

The rapper was down in the D.R. Saturday -- Cardi's part Dominican herself, BTW -- with her sister, Hennessy, and some pals while they visited family and stuck around for a big get-together later in the night ... her grandmother's 80th birthday party, no less.

We got this video of Cardi doing her thing on the dance floor ... where she was cutting it up with the help of a DR legend -- accordionist and singer Fefita la Grande, who was handling stage duty for the night as Cardi and co. Merengue danced the night away.

Chance the Rapper was down to party with Megan Thee Stallion after the BET Awards ... within reason, of course.

The Chicago MC and his wife, Kirsten, paid Meg a visit late Saturday night at her private booth inside The Mansion Elan in Atlanta -- shortly after both of them took the stage at the award show for the pre-taped telecast ... which will air on TV Tuesday.

Chance -- who collab'd with MTS for his song, "Handsome" -- and Kirsten took shots with the "Hot Girl Summer" rapper ... but it looks like they weren't trying to get too loaded.

Taylor Swift and her BF are busting out of their usual shells ... and it already has fans buzzing there could've been a secret marriage -- but we think those fans are blind.

Tay Tay celebrated her 'SNL' performance Saturday night in NYC by attending the cast after-party at Zuma, and she brought actor Joe Alwyn with her too. The couple -- who've been dating since 2017 -- rarely do public appearances together, but they were all PDA'd up as they entered the party.

Joe and Taylor were hand-in-hand, but fans noticed a new diamond ring on Taylor's free hand. Cue the Internet speculation from Swifties that their hero is engaged or even ... already married!!!

Only problem with that theory is the ring is on Taylor's right hand, NOT her left. It's possible Joe and Taylor are changing all the rules, we guess. But, let's keep it real ... Taylor strikes us as more of a traditional.

Sorry, Swifties. But, uhhh ... she was good on 'SNL.' How 'bout seeing "False God" live for the first time? That counts for something, right?

Kanye West's album was a no-show, but the guy himself is keeping the good word going -- now, he's in Utah preaching ... and possibly raining on some Mormons' parade.

Ye was in Salt Lake City, UT Saturday, where he held his weekly Sunday Service -- which is starting to become a multi-day event now -- and funny enough ... it also happened to be a huge weekend for followers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

This weekend served as one of two annual get-togethers Mormons put on called "general conferences," and Kanye set up camp across the street from one at the Gateway center.

Looks like some folks attending the conference -- or who might have otherwise -- flocked to catch a bit of Ye as well. And, by flock ... we actually mean swarm, as seen here.

Drake took some money out the grave and shoveled it in to his new place in the 6, sparing no expense for a serenade on the John ... as you can see in this tour through the interior.

Champagne Papi's monster estate in his home country appears to be just about completed, based on these photos and video TMZ obtained ... which give a nice little tour through the interior and shed some light on what exactly Drizzy and his guests can expect.

Spoiler alert ... the highlight here might very well be a musical toilet that starts playing soothing ambient sounds once it opens (automatically). Unclear if there's an off button for those who wanna crap in silence though ... one can only hope, right???

There's also a sweet lounge/living room area that appears to come fully equipped with a bar, as well as a towering personal closet with rows and rows of drawers and dressers ... not to mention the full-size, custom OVO basketball court we've been waiting to see in full.

Emily Zamourka -- aka the homeless opera singer -- has no problem with the title that's brought her viral Internet fame, because it's also why she's now considering multiple offers that could get her off the streets.

We got Emily Friday night outside NBC's L.A. studio, and she revealed she hasn't signed on the dotted line yet to record with anyone.

TMZ broke the story ... she got an offer for studio time with producer Joel Diamond -- but watch the video. Sounds like Joel might have to get in line.

EZ became a sensation after an LAPD officer recorded her singing Puccini in a subway station. She told us she's not offended by people referring to her as the homeless opera singer because it's true ... and she's not trying to hide her current circumstance. She also made it clear, she's ready for that to change.

Miley Cyrus and Cody Simpson have been friends for years, but from the looks of it ... they're kicking their relationship up a notch.

Miley and the Australian musician/heartthrob were spotted at a Backyard Bowls eatery in L.A. Thursday being very lovey-dovey, and in a video obtained by TMZ ... they're seen gettin' in some lip-to-lip action.

We're told the two appeared to be having a pretty serious conversation before Miley moved over to sit on his lap, and before long their PDA escalated to a make-out session.

What's interesting here -- it's not the first time these two singers have been linked. Miley and Cody were rumored to be dating in late 2014 and spent a lot of time together in 2015 ... but Simpson said they were "just mates." There's more though.

Tyga's idea of a cozy date? Don't ask Kylie Jenner, ask the mystery brunette he was hanging with Thursday night as they most likely got the crap scared outta them.

The "Rack City" rapper hit up Universal Studio's Halloween Horror Nights -- arriving Thursday night with bodyguards and his lady friend. They got there around 9 PM and stayed through midnight. Tyga and the woman were pretty tight throughout the night.

Hey, ya gotta grab someone when the ghouls and monsters pop up outta nowhere.

We're told Tyga and his date went through ALL the mazes -- pretty impressive in a 3-hour span. Despite the scary setting, he kept her laughing plenty too.

By the look of things ... Tyga's paying no attention to reports he and Kylie were rekindling an old flame on the heels of her split with Travis Scott. She immediately tried to squash that rumor. He doubled down on that by posting a blue cap, insinuating media outlets were lying about Kylie and him.

Justin Bieber's not playing with PETA -- he's firing back hard at the animal rights org after it slammed him for dropping $35k on 2 exotic cats ... telling them to suck it.

JB adopted a pair of Savannah kittens a little more than a month ago -- which he named Sushi and Tuna -- and revealed the brother and sister felines on Instagram as "my children" ... much to the dismay of PETA.

It released a statement chastising his exotic pets purchase, grousing he should have adopted cats from a local shelter. Justin caught wind of the criticism ... and went off.

In a series of IG Stories, Bieber first posted a screenshot of an article about the backlash but added his own caption -- "PETA can suck it."

Good news for the Knowles family -- Beyonce and her sister, Solange, have both tested negative for the mutated BRCA2 gene linked to a higher risk of breast, ovarian and other types of cancer.

The sisters' dad, Mathew Knowles, tells TMZ ... they went and got tested following his breast cancer diagnosis to see if they carry the same gene he does, and the results are in -- he says they're in the clear.