Category: News

The official Hip-Hop 50 celebration may have wrapped up last year, but LL kept the hip-hop history lesson going at the 2024 MTV VMAs. His medley performance not only included songs from his newly released fourteenth studio album, The FORCE, but also encompassed many of his signature hits going back to his glory days in hip-hop’s Golden Age. Opening with “Headsprung” (remixed with the now-familiar Mohawks sample, “The Champ,” rather than its original Timbaland-produced beat) then transforming into Public Enemy’s “Bring The Noise” (with a surprise appearance from Chuck D himself), the veteran performer also went through “Rock The Bells” before hitting newer songs like “Passion” and “Proclivities” before returning to another classic: “Doin’ It.” You can watch the full performance above.

Ironically, LL’s performance was nearly upstaged during a shot of the audience featuring a woman standing motionless, staring at the stage, and grinning in such an eerie way, that it seems almost certain that she was an actor planted to promote the upcoming horror thriller Smile 2. Unfortunately, though, LL didn’t perform “Murdergram Deux,” his collaboration with Eminem, who also performed tonight to open the VMAs, but probably did leave before LL’s performance.

You can still check out a full list of VMA winners here.

RuPaul’s Drag Race icon and drag performer Sasha Colby introduced Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” performance at the 2024 MTV VMAs on Wednesday night, September 11, and Roan repaid the favor later in the show.

Roan won Best New Artist and read her acceptance speech straight from her diary. After thanking MTV, Island Records, family, and friends, Roan said, “I dedicate this to all the drag artists who inspire me, and I dedicate this to queer and trans people who fuel pop. To the gays who dedicate my songs to someone they love or hate, and thank you to the people who are fans who listen to me — who hear me when I share my joy and my fears. Thank you for listening to me.”

Roan continued, “And for all the queer kids in the Midwest watching right now, I see you, I understand you, because I’m one of you. And don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t be exactly who you wanna be, b*tch.”

Roan was also nominated for Best Trending Video (“Hot To Go!”), Song Of The Summer (“Good Luck, Babe!”), and Performance Of The Year (“Red Wine Supernova”).

Watch Roan’s acceptance speech here, and watch her “Good Luck, Babe!” performance above.

Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis recently wrapped filming Freakier Friday, the long-awaited sequel to 2003’s Freaky Friday. But is it too late to cast Halsey as a member of Pink Slip, millennials’ favorite fictional punk band? A retroactive cameo? Please? I’m even open to CGI.

At Wednesday night’s (September 11) 2024 MTV VMAs, Halsey sang “Ego” from The Great Impersonator, their fifth LP due out on October 25. She might or might not have been impersonating Anna Coleman, Lohan’s Freaky Friday character.

Whether Halsey intended to or not, people on X (formerly Twitter) immediately drew the comparison — and delighted in the serendipitous nostalgia.

“Halsey giving Simple Plan meets Freaky Friday,” someone named Cait posted. Someone else wrote, “Halsey LIVE from the Freaky Friday garage.”

For anyone who has robbed themselves of watching Freaky Friday, Lohan’s Anna and her best friends (played by Christina Vidal and Haley Hudson) have an objectively awesome band named Pink Slip.

Freaky Friday parallels aside, Halsey’s “Ego” performance ruled.

The Great Impersonator will be Halsey’s first LP release since the 2021 Grammy-nominated If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power. “I made this record in the space between life and death,” Halsey wrote on Instagram when announcing the album. “And it feels like I’ve waited an eternity for you to have it. I’ll wait a bit longer. I’ve waited a decade, already.”

The crowd at the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards was left yelling, “Yeah, Glo!” after GloRilla’s performance of that song, decked out in a black-and-white suit, which turned into a skimpy bikini as she performed “TGIF” atop a conference table, replete with the flames that seemed like a prerequisite for pretty much every other performance of the night.

The Memphis native is fresh off the release of her second mixtape, Ehhthang Ehhthang, which produced “Wanna Be” with Megan Thee Stallion, its remix with Cardi B, and “All Dere” with Moneybagg Yo. She also joined Megan Thee Stallion on her Hot Girl Summer Tour, realized that Cardi B is her cousin, and had a slew of various wardrobe malfunctions. She was also presented with the key to the city of Memphis, making her very much a hometown hero and a burgeoning superstar.

She and Meg also apparently have plans to drop a joint album in the near future, with Meg saying, “I ain’t gon’ say too much, but it feels like it’s going to get done.” Not bad for a pair of rappers who say they weren’t sure about each other when they first met.

You can check out GloRilla’s performance video here, and keep up with the full list of VMAs winners here.

Shannon Sharpe made headlines on Wednesday afternoon, and it had nothing to do with a debate on First Take. While the details were murky, it sure sounded like Sharpe went live on Instagram Live while he was having sex with someone — nothing got caught on camera while IG broadcasted it to Sharpe’s followers.

After a statement was posted to Sharpe’s Story claiming he was hacked was taken down, the Hall of Fame tight end tweeted that he’d go onto his YouTube show, Nightcap, to discuss the incident with his co-host, Chad Johnson. While Sharpe made clear that he was not going to share any details about the person he was with, he was candid that this incident did occur, his going on IG Live was a total accident, and that his heart sank when he figured out what was going on.

“I’m someone that is extremely, extremely private, and to have one of your most intimate details be heard for the entire world to hear,” Sharpe said. “I’m embarrassed for a number of reasons … even when I’m behind closed doors, I still try to remain a level of professional, although I’m in the privacy of my own home. And I’m very disappointed in myself — not for the act, I think there are millions, billions of people of consenting age that engage in activities. But to have your most intimate detail, for the audio to be heard, I’m disappointed in myself.

“This was not staged,” Sharpe continued. “Came in, threw my phone on the bed, engaged in an activity. I did not know IG Live — I’ve never been on IG Live, I’ve never turned IG Live on, so I don’t know how it works. And so, all of a sudden, my other phone is going off, and people are calling me, FaceTime, that I’ve never talked to a day in my life on FaceTime. And I’m like, why are y’all calling me FaceTime?”

Sharpe explained that someone finally got through to him, and when he was finally told that people heard him having sex, “man, my heart sank, it dropped.”

You can watch the entire episode of Nightcap — which featured Sharpe and Johnson speaking openly about the incident while also cracking jokes about the whole thing — right here.

Chappell Roan was fiery before the 2024 MTV VMAs even started on Wednesday night, September 11. The Midwest Princess was caught on video appearing to advise an off-camera photographer to “shut the f*ck up.” Roan brought that energy to the UBS Arena stage in New York. You can watch the performance here.

RuPaul’s Drag Race winner Sasha Colby introduced Roan by saying, in part, “Pop music in inclusive. No matter what you look like, who you love, it’s meant for everyone. And no one has revitalized that spirit more than this next artist.”

Roan’s set design was a medieval castle. She strutted through the gates while carrying a fiery bow, then shot it up toward the castle to set everything on fire. She launched intto “Good Luck, Babe!” and delivered pristine vocals while dancing with a bunch of armored people yielding swords. Roan belted out “I told you so” while her armored dancers fought behind her, and by the end, Roan was the last one standing.

“Good Luck, Babe!” and “Hot To Go” have catapulted Roan into the zeitgeist this summer. “Good Luck, Babe!” peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in August.

In addition to being a 2024 MTV VMAs performer, Roan was nominated for Best New Artist and MTV Push Performance Of The Year.

In addition to hosting the 2024 MTV VMAs, Megan Thee Stallion was also booked as a performer. She absolutely killed both roles, pulling out some iconic looks from the show’s past during her hosting duties, and then burning the house down with her performance, which included hits “Boa,” “B.A.S.,” “Hiss,” and “Mamushi,” for which she was joined by guest rapper Yuki Chiba in his first US performance. The Houston hottie is also nominated for five awards, with Best Hip-Hop, Best Direction, and Best Visual Effects among them.

Meg’s had a busy 2024, dropping her new album Megan while completing her Hot Girl Summer Tour with GloRilla, during which she became one of the WNBA’s biggest supporters by bringing players like Natasha Cloud and Angel Reese on stage with her. Then, she joined Kamala Harris’ campaign, declaring that the Vice President is “for the Hotties” during a performance at one of the Presidential hopeful’s rallies.

And just when it seemed like she’d delivered all the new music she had to offer this year, she teamed up once again with BTS’s RM for another cross-cultural collaboration, “Neva Play.” Oh, and she seemingly hard-launched her relationship with NBA player Torrey Craig, so it looks like she’s having her fair share of play along with all that work.

You can watch Megan Thee Stallion’s medley performance here, and check out all of the night’s winners here.

Katy Perry became the latest Video Vanguard Award honoree at the 2024 MTV VMAs on Wednesday night, September 11. Perry’s medley performance was introduced by Orlando Bloom, Perry’s fiancé recently in the news for NFSW reasons, and she also shared the stage with Doechii.

Perry and Doechii debuted “I’m His, He’s Mine,” their collaborative single from Perry’s forthcoming 143 album due out on September 20. “I’m His, He’s Mine” will be released this Friday, September 13. During their performance, Doechii twerked while Perry climbed atop her. At one point, their lips got as close as possible without kissing.

The rest of Perry’s medley performance featured her classics “Dark Horse,” “E.T.,” “California Gurls,” “Teenage Dream,” “I Kissed A Girl,” and “Firework.” The grand finale was “Lifetimes” from 143.

Perry kissed Bloom while accepting her Video Vanguard Award. To start her speech, she decided to disclose “I did that all on the first day of my period, too, can you believe it?” Perry thanked MTV “for believing in my weirdness from day one” and proclaimed “there are no decade-long accidents.”

Billboard previously relayed that Perry would become the first person to have served as a VMAs host (2017) and receive both marquee VMAs awards. She claimed Video Of The Year for “Firework” in 2011.

Perry’s 143 is sixth LP and will be her first LP release since Smile in August 2020.

Sabrina Carpenter has owned the summer, so why not get a head start on fall by lighting the 2024 MTV VMAs stage on fire?

Carpenter began her performance seated in a suspended bench in front of a gigantic VMAs Moon Person while singing “Please Please Please,” her first-career Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 from her newly released LP Short N’ Sweet. She seamlessly transitioned into “Taste,” her latest single, and was joined by a real-life Moon Person and a blue alien. The alien and Moon Person were in the middle of a heated make-out session when Carpenter tossed the Moon Person aside to make out with the alien. It was a very VMAs spin on Carpenter’s “Taste” video co-starring Jenna Ortega.

Then, “Espresso.” Carpenter’s current hot streak started when she released “Espresso” in April, which has since peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100. At the VMAs, she flawlessly executed choreography with a large group of Moon People. She ended by lying in their arms.

Perhaps this was a preview for what to expect when Carpenter’s Short N’ Sweet Tour kicks off at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio on September 23. See all of Carpenter’s upcoming tour dates here.

Watch Carpenter’s 2024 MTV VMAs medley performance above.

There’s beating a dead horse, and then there’s whatever the heck Kendrick Lamar is doing. The man is clearly on a mission to make Drake dig a hole, jump in, and pull it in after himself. Just when you thought five performances of “Not Like Us” back-to-back was overkill, Dot follows up with yet another Drake diss song — this one untitled and shared via his Instagram with a photo of black Nike Air Force Ones, the universal symbol of true goon-like activity.

In the song, Dot wonders what Lecrae would do (not this, Kenny! although here’s what he said) and shouts out a number of notable fellow Angelenos, including jazz musician Terrace Martin and NBA trainer Jay Estrada. He also shuts down any possibility of reconciliation with Drake, acknowledging just how acrimonious the battle became after the release of “Meet The Grahams,” while essentially shrugging that there’s no going back after all that. Would anyone even respect Drake if he did want to reconcile with that man after all this?

The song arrives just days after Kendrick was announced as the headliner of the 2025 Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show to a great degree of controversy, but as he said in his new song… so be it.

You can listen to the new track on Kendrick’s Instagram.