Lil Wayne's having a very busy week. His intensely raw, chillingly acute "How To Love" video dropped. He went skateboarding, sustained an injury, and recovered, don't forget. And his ninth studio album, Tha Carter IV, will see its official release immediately after the VMAs, where he's not only nominated for Best Hip-Hop Video, but he'll also be performing live. Wayne does more in one summer than a lot of artists do during their most prolific years.
So it's not surprising that during his VMA rehearsal today, Wayne ran the stage with the kind of boundless, almost otherworldly energy that only someone capable of running a record label, dropping a video, dropping an album and dropping a game-changing MTV performance all at the same time could.
Despite backing by a roaring freight train of a live band, Wayne's presence felt paradoxically both enormous and intensely intimate at once. The prolific, baby-faced Southerner, part alien, all ageless, was pure electric enigma, bounding and bouncing around the Nokia Theatre stage where he'll land his death star of a performance in less than 24 hours at the 2011 MTV VMAs.
And believe it or not, there'll be even more to Wayne's VMA performance beyond a spectacular display of a one-man psychedelic power plant. But I can't say what. You'll just have to watch.
+ Watch a sneak peek of Lil Wayne's 2011 MTV VMA performance:
Watch the 2011 MTV VMAs live from Nokia Theatre L.A. in Los Angeles on Sunday, Aug. 28, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on MTV and MTV.com. Catch the live pre-show at 8 p.m. ET/PT and cast your votes for Best New Artist up until the show airs!