TMZ.com

Kanye West has a radical new idea to address the homeless crisis in Los Angeles ... he wants the homeless to get some experience modeling clothes they make.

Here's the deal ... Kanye is working with streetwear brand Skid Row Fashion Week on a new collab and fashion show with the ultimate goal of helping the homeless.

David Sabastian, the founder of Skid Row Fashion Week, tells TMZ ... he met with Kanye earlier this month while Ye was recording 'Donda 2' at his studio in L.A.'s Arts District -- near Skid Row -- and they decided to create a Yeezy X Skid Row Fashion Week clothing collab.

David says his company donates a portion of all sales to helping those living on Skid Row and the factory that makes the clothes employs the homeless. In addition, the Yeezy collab will use 100% of the proceeds to help the homeless on Skid Row.

The fashion line drops Feb. 22 and we're told the money from sales will help hire more people struggling with homelessness to work at the Skid Row Fashion Week factory.

What's more, David says he and Kanye are in the early stages of planning a fashion show where they'd hire people from the SRFW factory to model the clothes.

We're told they also want items found on Skid Row to be integrated into the ensembles. One of the ideas being kicked around -- a trash bag puffer jacket.

Neil Young's catalog is no longer streaming on Spotify -- the rock legend told the platform it couldn't have him AND Joe Rogan, so Neil's gone ... but he's already found another home.

Young essentially gave Spotify an ultimatum earlier this week, claiming it's allowing Rogan to spread misinformation about COVID-19 on his immensely popular podcast. In a letter to his managers, he wrote, "They can have Rogan or Young. Not both."

Not shockingly, Spotify chose Rogan -- with whom it has a $100 million deal -- but it also responded to Neil's criticism about misinformation. Spotify says it's actually removed 20,000 clips containing false COVID-19 info since the start of the pandemic.

Meanwhile, SiriusXM is seizing on all the Neil buzz this week ... announcing it's relaunching Neil Young Radio -- a channel spinning his catalog 24/7 -- for the next month. BTW, you can still find his music on other streaming platforms too.

Cardi B shining light on the death of Lauren Smith-Fields helped spur a criminal investigation in Connecticut ... so says the girl's family, who is applauding the singer.

Smith-Fields' family attorney Darnell Crosland tells TMZ ... Cardi was instrumental in getting Lauren's tragic death to become a criminal case, because police launched their investigation only after Cardi spoke out.

As you know ... 23-year-old Lauren died while on a date, back in December, with a man she met on a dating app. The medical examiner announced Monday Lauren died from an accidental drug overdose, which the family questioned ... and as public pressure continued to mount, police finally said Tuesday they were opening a criminal probe.

The family's attorney says Cardi B's Sunday night tweet calling for "Justice for Lauren" -- and accusing Connecticut of failing her -- brought extra attention and made a big impact ... because there's been a ton of progress ever since.

Adele is out and Keith Urban is in ... and it didn't take Caesars Palace long to find a replacement after the singer postponed her Las Vegas residency.

The country music singer says he's just been booked for 5 shows at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in March and April ... and some of those dates were previously reserved for Adele's shows.

Keith says he's playing the weekends of March 25-26 and April 1-2 ... plus a weekday gig on March 30, and those weekend dates used to be part of Adele's 3-month residency, which is now on ice.

TMZ broke the story ... Adele's Vegas residency is postponed because she's displeased with the production, and not because of her initial claims of a massive COVID outbreak on her crew.

As we told you, our sources said Adele was unhappy with the sound system, choir and various set pieces ... plus other items associated with the show, and the folks at Caesars were "shocked" when she pulled the plug at the last minute.

Travis Scott's fans are pushing hard for him to headline next year's Coachella, and even have a petition going to get him on stage this year ... and they're getting a big wave of support.

Following the tragedy at Astroworld, Travis has pulled out of multiple festivals, including Coachella, and while he's opting for a break ... his fans still want him to return to live performances.

The petition that's circulating online is pushing for a Coachella make-good -- they want organizers to commit to Travis being a headliner next year ... OR guarantee Kanye West brings him out as a guest during his set this year.

After 3 days, the petition has almost 70,000 signatures.

Keep in mind, there's another petition out there ... this one started immediately after 10 people died at Astroworld in Houston, and demanded Coachella ban Travis, who, at the time, was rumored to be headlining in the desert. Right now that one has 63,000 signatures and counting.

According to the new petition, many of Trav's fans feel Coachella did him dirty -- it says, "After Coachella unfairly removed Travis Scott for Harry Styles, they need to do the right thing and rebook him immediately."

It also absolves Travis of any wrongdoing in Houston, saying ... "We all know Astroworld tragedy wasn't Travis's fault. Let him get back to performing on the biggest stages!"

As for the potential guest spot with Ye? We do know they have the Kardashian-Jenners in common, and Ye recently thanked Trav for helping him find Chicago's birthday party.

Right now it seems unlikely he'd be up for performing -- especially because he voluntarily bowed out -- but then again, the festival's not until April.

Snoop Dogg has a huge gig on Super Bowl Sunday -- sharing the stage with Dr. Dre and co. -- but he has a different collab floating around in his head ... doing a song with Sade!!!

Check out this video of Snoop chilling in his Inglewood studio with some friends, and when someone asks if there's anyone left in music he wants to work with ... he only hesitated to take a hit of his joint before wistfully announcing it's Sade.

When the topic came up earlier this month, Snoop's revelation got a huge reaction in the room -- everyone thought it was a great idea, and encouraged him to make it happen. What's really interesting here is ... the Doggfather and Sade have some history.

You gotta see his story about the first, and only, time he's seen the "Smooth Operator" singer in concert -- apparently she had some crazy effects and even disappeared at a point -- but, even better, is what almost happened backstage at the show!

Now, Snoop -- who's about to crush the Super Bowl Halftime Show with Dre, Eminem, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar -- makes it clear there's no plan for Sade and him to record ... at least not yet. He definitely hoping this video gets him a step closer to his dream duet.

In his words ... let's "put a bat signal in the air."

If you're wondering what kinda track Snoop would wanna do with her? Well, he's a big fan of her smoothed-out loved songs -- one in particular.

Adele says her Vegas residency was postponed because of a massive COVID outbreak on her crew, but multiple sources connected to Caesars Palace claim the real reason the show is on ice is because Adele's displeased with the production.

Our sources say Adele was unhappy with various set pieces, a choir, the sound system and other items associated with the show. Several sources say they could not satisfy her production demands ... they say she felt numerous elements "were not good enough."

That said, we're told the folks at Caesars were "shocked" when Adele canceled at the last minute. Mind you, crews have been hard at work on every aspect of the show since at least December. One source said this was not a matter of them trying to pull it together in the 11th hour -- we're told Adele wasn't ever satisfied with the results.

As for COVID, our Caesars sources say they can't speak to Adele's crew, but the Caesars' crew was ready, willing and able, and they say they can't understand why she waited until the last minute to pull the plug.

We've reached out to her camp for comment, but no word back yet.

The singer said she and her crew had been awake for 30 straight hours to right the ship, but at the last minute, it proved too much.

Taylor Swift has a zero-tolerance policy for folks saying she doesn't write her own music ... and, as a result, the lead singer of Blur and Gorillaz just caught her wrath.

Taylor responded to a Los Angeles Times article quoting Damon Albarn's thoughts about current top-charting artists. He said, "'Billie Eilish? "I think she’s exceptional" -- but his take on Taylor? "She doesn’t write her own songs."

Oh, no he didn't. 😤

Taylor fired right back at Damon -- "I was such a big fan of yours until I saw this. I write ALL of my own songs. Your hot take is completely false and SO damaging."

Taylor's producer, Jack Antonoff, also jumped to her defense, pointing out Albarn's never been in a studio to see Taylor do what she does. Jack told Damon, "if you were there ... cool ... go off. if not... maybe ... shut the f**k up?"

T-Swift's not hiding her disappointment and anger, she tagged Damon in her tweet, and added ... "You don’t have to like my songs but it’s really f**ked up to try and discredit my writing. WOW."

Ye and Scooter Braun, can take the back seat ... Taylor's got a new nemesis!!!

Kanye West's minivan may not come with little juice box holders -- but it's got swivel seats, custom speakers and TVs big enough for a living room -- all tools to get him in dad mode.

Kanye's been spotted whipping around L.A. lately in a 1-of-1 custom luxury Mercedes-Benz van ... less horsepower than the Lamborghinis we usually see him drive, but it still comes with a hefty price tag of more than $400,000!!!

We're told the vans are sold exclusively by RD Whittington, owner of Wires Only in L.A. and Miami.

Ye's version is called Executive Style, seats 7 and features multiple TV screens, fully reclining and swiveling chairs ... as well as a sound system to rival a recording studio.

We've obtained some photos from inside different versions of the van, Kanye's is almost exactly like the one with red leather seats -- but you can see the insane light and interior options that come with these suped-up minivans.

RD will show off more crazy rides on the Jamie Foxx-produced "Million Dollar Wheels" ... which premieres February 21 on Discovery Plus.

When you think about it, Ye's vehicle makes a lot of sense ... he's got 4 kids to drive around AND a new album on the way. So, the available seating and impressive audio setup are a perfect fit for his needs.

We saw Kanye out to grab some ice cream Thursday in the van -- he had a massive smile on his face when a fan told him he was an "awesome dad."

Kanye West might be able to swap out the boots he's been wearing for weeks on end for something more comfortable and caj -- and it's all thanks to DJ Khaled hooking him up!

DJK gifted Ye a sweet pair of Jordans Saturday during what appears to have been a hangout/collab session at Khaled's pad down in Miami ... where KW was with his crew, and his new boo too -- Julia Fox.

Anyway, check out the sneakers Khaled had all lined up ... and how Kanye reacts upon receiving 'em. It's a super nice gesture, especially considering how rare they apparently are. As Khaled notes, there's only 100 pairs made ... and lucky enough he had some in Kanye's size.

Khaled says he can use the shoes for an upcoming Fashion Week event that Ye's supposed to be attending ... and Kanye seems appreciative of the present.

Of course, they didn't just talk kicks during their time together ... indeed, it looks like Ye and Khaled got to work on some actual music -- much of which was teased on his social media.

No word on what their collab might sound like just yet, but it sure seems Ye and Khaled were feeling it ... dancing around the studio like two little kids having the time of their lives. This is far from their first time making music with one another -- but it's been a while, no doubt.

Justin Bieber needs to vacate the Prince of Pop throne immediately, because his replacement's ready to take a seat -- and that person would be ... The Weeknd.

Abel just hit a new milestone that places him a notch above JB -- at least as far as Spotify numbers are concerned. The Weeknd has become the #1 artist with the most monthly listeners on the music app ... clocking in at about 85.6 million.

That's a healthy amount more than where the Biebs was last year, when he claimed the top spot at 83.3 mil ... and having held the record since for a consecutive 190 days.

Of course, if you've been following along ... you know Abel's been hot on Justin's tail for a minute -- even when the latter hit that benchmark, The Weeknd was #2 at the time ... and with the release of his new hit album, "Dawn FM," it seems to have put him over the top.

The record is getting rave reviews, and is soaring on the charts too -- this not too long after 2020's wildly successful run with "After Hours" ... which is still helping Abel to this day, we're sure.

Now, while The Weeknd is technically deserving of the Prince of Pop title with the achievement ... some say he's still got some work to do, because Justin's got a little leverage on him with an all-time high Spotify record that no one seems to have matched just yet.

While TW has surpassed Justin's average monthly listeners ... it looks like Bieber might hold the ultimate honor, after hitting a peak of 94.6M listeners at one point during his reign.

Adele is super upset over pulling the plug on her Vegas shows, and she offered some of her fans a drink as a token of her gratitude for sticking with her ... but then she quickly took it back. We can explain.

Adele FaceTimed a group of fans who flew to Vegas to watch her kick off her residency Friday night at Caesars Palace. As we reported, Adele put the show on ice for now, because she says half her crew has COVID and certain set pieces haven't arrived ... presumably a supply chain issue.

Well, somehow Adele ended up FaceTiming with a bunch of young fans and offered them a drink token as a token of her appreciation. But, then she realized most were underage so she quickly took it back!

She pivoted and offered them a free gift back at her pop-up store ... which had Adele-emblazoned clothes and other items inside. BTW ... the sweatshirts are priced between $90 and $110 a pop. And, hilariously, she was selling "Cry Your Heart Out" packages of Kleenex.

There's been mixed reaction to Adele postponing her shows. Lots of fans say they understand, but some say Adele should have gone on with the show, even if it was just sitting on a stool and singing, because her voice is why people come.

Lots of people ended up spending a fortune to see the show ... some of the seats cost $12k and even more. There are also hotel and airline expenses.

Meat Loaf would stick to the old adage of the show must go on, and Caleb Johnson -- who sings in the late rocker's band -- says that's exactly what the Neverland Express plans to do.

The season 13 'American Idol' champ is doing his best to fill Meat's shoes on the BAT tour, and he tells TMZ ... he's confident the boss wouldn't want them to quit just because he's no longer here.

Instead, Caleb says Meat Loaf's band will keep plugging along with their Music of Meat Loaf shows ... and they're planning some tributes to the man behind the music.

Caleb got Meat Loaf's blessing a few years back to become the lead singer for Neverland Express ... and they've been touring since 2018, with Meat Loaf even joining them on stage last year during a show in Nashville.

As you know ... Meat Loaf died Thursday night after falling critically ill with COVID.

It's a sad moment for the rock world, but Caleb says the band plans to take the stage for its next scheduled show Feb. 4 in Uncasville, CT ... because that's what Meat Loaf would have wanted.

Still, Caleb admits he will be feeling the pressure to keep Meat's legacy alive ... explaining why it's so hard to sing the man's famous rock tunes.

Meat Loaf -- the singer with some monstrous hits -- has died at the age of 74.

The singer's manager, Michael Greene, confirmed Meat Loaf died Thursday night. Sources with knowledge tell TMZ ... he was supposed to attend a business dinner earlier this week for a show he's working on -- "I'd Do Anything for Love" -- but the dinner was canceled because he became seriously ill with COVID. Sources tell us that his condition quickly became critical.

Our sources say Meat Loaf has been outspoken about COVID, railing with folks in Australia recently about vaccine mandates. We do not know if he was vaccinated.

Greene added that Meat Loaf's wife and 2 daughters were by his side when he passed away.

Meat Loaf was one of the greatest rock singers of all time. His 1977 "Bat Out of Hell" album sold an astounding 65 million copies. That album produced several hits, including "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad," which charted at #11 on Billboard.

Meat Loaf followed up with a sequel years later -- "Bat Out of Hell II: Back Into Hell" - which produced a number 1 hit, "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)." He won a Grammy for Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance.

Meat Loaf also appeared in a ton of movies and TV shows, including "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," "Spice World: The Movie" and "Fight Club" He also performed in the musical "Hair," both on and off-Broadway.

His real name was Marvin Lee Aday. As for how he acquired the name of a delicious meal ... his football coach named him Meat Loaf because of his weight. His first band was called Meat Loaf Soul.

Now get this ... his first album was a duet with a singer named Stoney and it was released on Motown.

Meat Loaf appeared on "TMZ Live" back in 2014, promoting his new show in Vegas.

We last got Meat Loaf in NYC back in 2019, where he told us why his stage name should appeal to vegetarians and vegans alike.

Kanye West will give you a fist bump if you call him an "amazing father" ... as one fan found out while Yeezy was grabbing some ice cream.

The bizarre interaction went down Thursday in Calabasas, where Ye hit up an ice cream shop after a doctor's visit.

Kanye's licking his ice cream cone and answering a paparazzi's question about the death of fashion icon Andre Leon Talley ... when suddenly someone comes up and praises Kanye's father skills.

Ye perks up and gives the dude a fist bump, telling him he loves the praise and appreciates the recognition.

Kanye then gets behind the wheel of his whip ... which turns out to be a minivan!!!

Seems he's got plenty of room for North, Psalm, Saint and Chicago to ride in the back.

Adele says she's tried everything possible, but the show will NOT go on, as they say -- COVID has forced her to cancel her upcoming Vegas residency.

Adele apologized to fans Thursday for having to cancel at the last minute. She says she tried hard to make sure her show was ready in time, but she says it's been nearly impossible with delivery delays, and half of her team being down due to COVID-19.

Adele was set to have her opening show this weekend as a part of her “Weekends with Adele” residency. She planned to do 24 shows starting this month and running through April.

But, now fans who traveled to Sin City will have to find something else to do, because they won't be hearing from the Grammy-award winning singer ... not this weekend, anyway.

Adele obviously appeared very remorseful, and distraught about the decision -- she says she intends to reschedule, and she's "gonna get [the show] to where it's supposed to be."

No word yet on when those new dates will be, but ya gotta feel for Adele when you see how upset she is about the delay.