Month: August 2025

Damon Dash addressed his viral dental disaster and laid out his upcoming surgery plans during a new interview aired Wednesday (August 6) on Art of Dialogue, revealing the painful truth behind the moment that had social media in stitches last year.

The Hip-Hop mogul explained the backstory behind the now-infamous Instagram Live clip where his grill unexpectedly dropped mid-sentence while responding to 50 Cent, sparking a wave of memes and online jokes. But according to Dash, the situation was far from cosmetic—it was medical.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Watch Live Bitez (@livebitez)

“So 20 years ago, I got titanium implants,” Dash explained. “It cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars. I was in my 20s. They’re not supposed to break. Five of them broke. Snapped. So now they have to break bone in — pause — my mouth, take the implants out, put new bone in there, and put five f###### implants in.”

The 54-year-old entrepreneur said he delayed the procedure due to his workload and health concerns.

“I’mma do it in September,” he added. “But I just had a lot of work to do, and I didn’t want to be that f##### up. I didn’t know how I was going to heal cuz I’m diabetic. But I’m going to get it fixed now.”

The viral moment, which happened earlier in 2024, led to widespread speculation and ridicule.

Still, Dash issued a warning to those who laughed a little too hard. “When I get my teeth right, then I’mma really get at everybody.”

Damon Dash Laughs Off Viral Mishap

Dash clarified at the time that the teeth weren’t dentures but part of a long-term dental implant system that requires replacement every two decades. He was simply caught between procedures.

Despite the online mockery, Dash maintained a sense of humor about the ordeal.

He even joked that the incident helped draw attention to the more serious topics he was discussing during the livestream. “I was praying my teeth would fall out so people would talk about the important points I was making,” he said.

​AllHipHop

Diddy’s legal team is tripping over their own words—one lawyer says they never hollered at Donald Trump for a pardon, while another one swears they did.

Marc Agnifilo, Diddy’s main legal mouthpiece, told CBS News flat-out, “I have nothing to do with a possible pardon. I have had conversations with nobody. I have not spoken to the president. I have not spoken to anybody who speaks to the president about Sean Combs. I have not.”

But hold up—Attorney Nicole Westmoreland, who’s also on Diddy’s team, told CNN something totally different. “It’s my understanding that we’ve reached out and had conversations in reference to a pardon,” she said.

So either someone’s confused, or this team isn’t on the same page. Meanwhile, Trump’s been flippin’ back and forth too.

Earlir this year, Donald Trump said he’d “certainly look at the facts” and revealed he would consider a pardon for Diddy.

But last week, he cooled off on the idea during a Newsmax interview, saying, “I was very friendly with him, I got along with him great, and he seemed like a nice guy. I didn’t know him well, but when I ran for office, he was very hostile.”

So at this point, nobody knows if a pardon’s even on the table—or if Diddy’s people are even asking for one.

For now, Diddy’s looking at a possible 20-year bid after getting hit with two convictions tied to prostitution.

The jury cleared him of the worst charges like sex trafficking and racketeering, but two of the transportation of prostitutes across state lines in violation of the Mann Act counts stuck.

Diddy heads back to court on October 3 for sentencing. Prosecutors are only asking for about 4.5 years, although the judge has the discretion to send the disgraced mogul to prison for as many as twenty years.

​AllHipHop

Teyana Taylor revealed she’s undergoing emergency surgery in Los Angeles to remove a benign growth from her vocal cords, forcing her to step away from public appearances as she focuses on recovery.

She broke the news through her Instagram Story, telling followers, “I’ve been quietly dealing with some vocal challenges for a while now,” and that doctors “found a noncancerous growth on one of my chords that’s been messing with my voice and causing real discomfort.”

Although the diagnosis is not life-threatening, the 34-year-old said it requires immediate attention and rest.

“Thankfully, we caught it and it’s treatable, but it does mean I need to pause and give myself time to fully heal,” she wrote. As a result, Taylor has pulled out of her scheduled appearance on Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson’s IMO podcast.

However, she confirmed that the release date for her upcoming album, Escape Room, remains unchanged. The project is still set to drop on August 22.

Describing the album as deeply personal, Teyana Taylor shared, “It’s the most personal body of work I’ve ever created. Just as I was getting ready to finally share this with you, life handed me my own unexpected ‘escape room,’ one I didn’t ask for, but one I now have to find my way out of with patience, rest, and faith.”

Despite the setback, Taylor remains optimistic about her comeback.

“I can’t wait to be on the other side of this – stronger, softer, and singing again,” she wrote. “I’ll be back with even more fire, more purpose, and the best version of me.”

Escape Room will be Taylor’s fourth studio album and her first major release since retiring from music in 2020.

​AllHipHop

Kodak Black is now the only defendant left in a $10.6 million civil lawsuit filed by two men injured during a 2022 shooting outside a Los Angeles afterparty hosted by Justin Bieber, with the plaintiffs claiming the rapper instigated the violence that left them and Black wounded.

During a hearing Wednesday in Los Angeles, attorneys for Adam Rahman and Mark Schaefer asked the court to declare Black in default, alleging he never responded to the suit.

“Kodak has never been served with any lawsuit from California,” Black’s attorney Bradford Cohen told Rolling Stone. “I find it unusual that they’re attempting to sue the very person who was the most injured out of the individuals who got shot.”

The civil trial was initially scheduled to begin this month, but the judge has vacated the date.

The plaintiffs argue Kodak Black was the catalyst for the altercation that escalated into gunfire outside The Nice Guy, a West Hollywood restaurant, following a Bieber-hosted Super Bowl weekend event in February 2022.

The lawsuit initially named Bieber and the venue’s owners as co-defendants, but both were later removed.

In June 2024, a judge ruled the shooting was not “foreseeable” by the restaurant, leading to the dismissal of the corporate defendants. Bieber was voluntarily dropped from the case shortly after.

Rahman and Schaefer first sought a $62 million default judgment against Black in November 2023, but the court denied the request due to insufficient evidence of damages.

A revised claim for $10.6 million was also rejected last month after the judge said the plaintiffs had not provided adequate proof of their medical expenses.

The court has not yet ruled on the latest default request.

​AllHipHop

Al B. Sure was ready to tell all about Diddy and drop some heavy claims in his upcoming memoir, but now the whole thing’s been iced by his publisher and his lawyer’s screaming possible sabotage.

The book, titled Do You Believe Me Now?, was supposed to be Al’s no-holds-barred story—loaded with wild accusations about Diddy, questions surrounding Kim Porter’s death and even claims that someone tried to take him out.

But according to his lawyer Robert J. Hantman, Simon & Schuster wanted more dirt on Diddy than Al was comfortable dishing.

“Simon & Schuster wanted him to include more stuff about P. Diddy, but he didn’t really want to go there,” Hantman told Page Six.

The publisher hit pause on the release after creative differences over how deep Al was willing to go in talking about Diddy. That’s when things started getting weird.

Earlier this year, Al claimed his life was in danger over what he knew.

“If you actually knew what they did to me, there was a bounty on my head,” he said.

He also hinted that his health scare wasn’t by chance and might’ve been linked to Diddy’s circle. “I believe this to be the case. Yes. Absolutely. My first time saying it,” Al said. “Remember, I’m the only one who spoke up and I’m the only one left alive.”

Al B. Sure also alleged that Diddy paid off media outlets to kill stories about Kim Porter’s passing and has been trying to silence him for years. He even questioned the legitimacy of Porter’s posthumous memoir and called for a deeper investigation into her death.

Now Al’s legal team is digging into whether someone behind the scenes tried to tank his book deal on purpose.

“If someone interfered we’re going to investigate. We’ll speak to Bo Dietl. We’re thinking of getting Bo Dietl to investigate,” Hantman said.

For those who don’t know, Bo Dietl is a former NYPD detective turned private investigator/actor/podcaster.

He’s worked on everything from high-profile criminal cases to corporate investigations, and he’s been linked to multiple celebrity and political scandals over the years, in addition to having roles in movies like Goodfellas, The Wolf of Wall Street and The Irishman.

Al’s book was meant to be a complete look into his life—from music to medical battles—but it sounds like the publisher was way more focused on the Diddy drama than Al’s actual story.

​AllHipHop

Fat Joe is calling out Paramount Global for scrapping the Hip-Hop Awards while still throwing cash at other shows, and he’s not sugarcoating a thing.

During a convo on his “Joe And Jada” show, the Bronx legend sounded off about the network pulling the plug on the BET Hip-Hop Awards and Soul Train Awards, blaming it on corporate greed and what he flat-out called “gentrification.”

“This is a form of gentrification. BET came up as a community station for black people, right? In urban culture. And our man, Bob Johnson, took the check. He sold it. First black billionaire. He sold it, he sold it to Viacom and Paramount, MTV and them, VH1 and them,” Fat Joe explained.

To give that some context, BET got sold to Viacom back in 2001 for about $3 billion. Bob Johnson made history as the first Black billionaire, but that deal shifted BET from a Black-owned platform to a corporate product under Viacom, which later merged with CBS to form Paramount Global.

Now fast-forward to 2025 and BET CEO Scott Mills confirmed the network’s Soul Train and Hip-Hop Awards are on pause, supposedly to “reimagine” the shows for new platforms as cable TV keeps losing steam.

Fat Joe wasn’t buying that. He’s been hosting the BET Hip-Hop Awards for three years running and says he’s seen the budget cuts firsthand.

“Little by little over the years, quietly, they’ve been firing a lot of people behind the scenes in BET and everybody who has something to say, they’ve been firing them. And I know because I’ve been working on the BET Hip-Hop Awards for three years. The budget, not for me, but the budget just kept getting chopped and chopped and chopped,” Fat Joe said.

He pointed out how the VMAs are still getting real money thrown at them, and used Katy Perry’s aerial performance as proof.

“Last year, I debuted my single with Khaled at the VMAs and Katy Perry’s still flying through the air in the VMAs,” Fat Joe said.

Joe says it’s not about him getting paid—it’s about the show not having enough money to actually be creative.

“They [the VMAs] still got the budgets, they got the s###, you know. And so, I think, in the entertainment world, they kept underfunding them and you ain’t got no money to be creative. That’s why you was watching the Ratchet Awards. They ain’t had no bread,” Fat Joe said.

Meanwhile, the real reason behind the cost-cutting was most likely to trim the fat since Paramount just merged with Skydance on Thursday (August 7) in a massive $8.4 billion deal, forming a new company called “Paramount, A Skydance Corporation.”

As part of the shake-up, Paramount was in talks to sell off BET to a group led by Scott Mills for around $1.6 to $1.7 billion. No word yet if BET was sold as part of the merger.

​AllHipHop

Florida politician Cory Mills is being accused of some seriously shady behavior by his ex-girlfriend, Lindsey Langston, who also happens to be a reigning Miss United States.

According to a police report Langston filed in July, the Florida congressman allegedly threatened to leak intimate photos and videos of her after their breakup.

Langston pulled up to the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office in Florida on July 14 with receipts—texts and Instagram messages—saying Mills threatened not only to post explicit content but also warned her that any guy she dates next could get hurt.

The two were apparently a thing from late 2021 until early 2025. Things ended after Langston saw headlines linking Mills to some alleged sketchy incident in Washington, D.C.—something he says never happened.

Mills is calling the whole situation bogus and says it’s all politics, claiming it’s “an attack from a former primary opponent.”

The case has now been kicked up to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. So far, no charges have been filed, no arrests have been made, and no restraining orders have been issued.

Langston’s accusations are loud, though.

She said Mills made repeated threats through texts and social media, and even went as far as warning her that any future boyfriend could be in danger. She gave all the messages to the cops.

Mills says none of it’s true. He’s brushing it off like it’s all part of some political takedown.

The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office confirmed they passed the case to state investigators, but Mills has not been charged with anything yet.

Langston hasn’t posted much publicly about it since filing the report, but the police docs speak for themselves. She says she felt threatened, violated and scared.

If any of those messages check out, this could get real ugly, real fast.

​AllHipHop