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With a blasting set of pyrotechnics, Jay-Z and Kanye West exploded down the catwalk to perform "Otis" off their No. 1 album Watch The Throne at the 2011 VMAs.

The patriotic performance featured a giant American flag hanging in the background and Kanye dangling an American flag bandana from his back pocket. After Kanye's 2009 VMA Taylor Swift incident, the pair kept it straight tonight, turning in a straightforward performance of the track. The Throne kept it simple, with Jay-Z wearing a plain white t-shirt (a la Jo Calderone) and Kanye only rocking a slightly gawdy gold necklace (pretty tame compared to this).

Jay-Z now holds the record for Most People Bumrushing the Stage During His Performance. Two years ago, rapper Lil Mama got a bit overexcited and jumped on stage during his 2009 performance with Alicia Keys. Tonight, an anonymous person hopped on stage to get his five seconds of fame (followed presumably by five minutes of beatdown). Kanye and Jay-Z were undeterred, running through a fierce version of Watch The Throne's lead single.

As Jay-Z saluted the crowd at the end of the performance, Justin Bieber was spotted not clapping with the rest of Nokia Theatre. New beef? Distracted by Nicki Minaj's dress? Worrying if Kevin Hart will return to the stage to make fun of him? We're hoping to hear Jay-Z's Bieber diss track shortly. A boy can dream.

+ Watch Jay-Z and Kanye West perform "Otis" at the 2011 VMAs.

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Lady Gaga opened the 2011 VMAs dressed in full on Jo Calderone drag, her now infamous male alter ego, and incited a worldwide "WUTTT THE EFFFFF!!!!" VMA moment to remember with her performance of "Yoü And I." Gaga started her performance by walking out through the audience dressed in a plain white t-shirt and black men's slacks as she smoked a cigarette. Jo Calderone talked at length about getting in a fight with his (?) girlfriend, who we think is probably Lady Gaga. (But who knows?! I'm still breathing into a paper bag.)

Never breaking character or the fourth wall, Lady Gaga as Jo Calderone concluded her monologue by beginning "Yoü And I" on the piano in the middle of thes tage, and in no surprise to all the Little Monsters out there, she completely wailed on those keys in a super high-energy performance. As the song continued, Gaga... er, Jo picked up where the "Yoü And I" video left off by breaking out into a dance routine! Jo Calderone and about twenty "West Side Story"/Ralph-Macchio look-alikes danced through the middle of the song while Queen's famous "We Will Rock You" provided the beat.

Speaking of Queen (segues!), Brian May, Queen's legendary guitarist, joined Gaga on stage (!!!!!) as she made her way back to the piano. Brian rocked next to Gaga as she opened a beer (why not?), sprayed it on the audience, and climbed on top of the piano to finish out the song. Okay, now I'm gonna go rewind this performance 100 times.

+ Watch Lady Gaga's performance of "Yoü And I" at the 2011 VMAs.

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And we're off! Cobra Starship and Britney Spears' favorite rapper/singer Sabi kicked off the 2011 VMAs with an anthemic rendition of the band's "You Make Me Feel...," the lead single off the group's upcoming fourth album Night Shades.

The song began with lead cobra Saporta and Sabi walking through the crowd and performing the song's first half among fans and paparazzi. The pair serenaded each other, with Saporta whipping out his own camera to take shots of Sabi during her performance. The duo dressed for the occasion, with Sabi rocking tight silver pants and a pink halter top and Saporta donning his classiest suit. After eliciting the requisite audience screams, the pair joined their fellow bandmates on the main stage to deliver a rousing, energetic version of the dance floor-friendly track.

If Cobra Starship was feeling the pressure of opening up the show, they hid it well, bringing a newfound energy to "You Make Me Feel...". No extra theatrics or histrionics were needed, as the crowd was amped just to see the group kick off the show. If this is the harbinger of tonight's performances, we're in for a fun night.

+ Watch Cobra Starship featuring Sabi performing "You Make Me Feel..." at the 2011 VMAs Pre-Show.

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Nicki Minaj and Rihanna haven't exactly been coy about their collaborative video for Minaj's "Fly," with Rihanna tweeting a picture from the set as far back as January. But the teasing is over, as we now have the duo's finished work and eighth (?!) single from Minaj's Pink Friday album.

Directed by Sanaa Hamri (Prince, Jay-Z, Christina Aguilera), "Fly" uses a post-apocalyptic barren wasteland as the backdrop for Minaj and Rihanna to don outlandish costumes -- is that leopard-patterned hair? -- and pout around burnt-out cars and planes. Minaj's car, naturally, survived the wreckage without a scratch, but like Will Smith in "I Am Legend," the rapper appears to be the last person on Earth... until Rihanna, her R&B counterpart, shows up to sing the hook.

From the looks of "Fly," war has ravaged the entire city, with only wardrobe designers and specialty hair stylists surviving the destruction. RiRi and Nicki spend most of their time on the wing of a charred airplane, overlooking the massive wreckage and, presumably, wondering why they got so dressed up if it only the two of them survived.

Then ninjas come. For some reason. The end.

+ Watch Nicki Minaj featuring Rihanna, "Fly."

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This is it! It's here! The 2011 VMAs have taken over MTV! (And Los Angeles! And Twitter! And the entire Internet!) The votes have all been counted (except for Best New Artist -- you can STILL vote for that, people!), the black carpet's prepped and ready for VMA pre-show host Selena Gomez, and celebrities all over L.A. are perfecting their makeup/ red carpet poses/ surprised faces/ acceptance speeches. You are READY for the Britney Spears tribute! You are MORE than ready for Lady Gaga to open the VMAs before a night full of live performances -- Young The Giant, Lil Wayne, Beyonce, Adele, Bruno Mars, Ne-Yo and Pitbull, Chris Brown, and VMA house artist Jessie J. We've taken you behind-the-scenes at rehearsals for the 2011 MTV VMAs. And tonight Tamar Anitai, Mary H.K. Choi, Matt Elias, Jocelyn Vena, Gil Kaufman, Kara Warner, Rob Markman and James Montgomery will be live blogging the MTV Video Music Awards and bringing you behind-the-scenes coverage from the VMAs. Did Britney run into Gaga in the bathroom? Is Kreayshawn hanging out with Beyonce? Did Adele and Bruno Mars fist pump Snooki? If it happens, you'll hear about it. Our Blackberries are charged and ready, we've memorized the Nokia Theater seat charts, and we've promised not to leap into Britney's lap and hug her when we see her. (Okay, we might break that promise.) So stay here all night for non-stop MTV Video Music Awards live blogging and reports on the 2011 VMA live blog!

And for top-down coverage of celebrity fashion from the 2011 VMAs, our best-dressed best friends at MTV Style will be bringing you red carpet fashion reports, so follow their VMA red carpet live blog.

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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!

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The 2011 MTV VMAs are now less than just a day away -- GET PUMPED! But before we hand out some Moonmen, there's some pre-partying to do at the mtvU VMA Concert To Benefit Lifebeat -- Music Fights HIV -- the VMAs' yearly kick-off concert for a good cause.

Tonight's show is live at the House Of Blues LA and features Cobra Starship, Joe Jonas and Miguel, and proceeds benefit Lifebeat, a nonprofit that uses the power of music and the music industry to help educate young people about HIV and AIDS prevention.

Couldn't make it to the show? Fortunately for you, we're streaming it live. Watch it now, and find out more about Lifebeat.

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Young The Giant has the distinct honor of being the only rock act to perform at the 2011 MTV VMAs, where they'll make the jump from relative unknown -- yes, they're aware that they may elicit a "who is Young The Giant?" reaction -- to your new favorite rock band. They're the lone rockers in a performance lineup that includes the club-ready sounds of Pitbull and Ne-Yo, the theatrics of Lady Gaga, Beyonce's A-list glitz, Adele's sullen swan song, Bruno Mars' piano anthem and other more mainstream acts.

Knowing that Young The Giant skews less Bieber, more Brooklyn and that lead singer, Sameer Gadhia, has a Stanford education under his belt (plus, the entire band looks like the type of guys who'd have dusty paperbacks stuffed in the back pocket of their jeans, and I mean that int he best possible way because those guys are never not hot), I decided to challenge Young The Giant to a game that involves both the canons of poetry and pop culture. It's called "VMA Nominee, Actor Or Dead Poet," and it's basically what it sounds like. I name a person, and Young The Giant has to tell me whether that person is a VMA nominee, actor or dead poet.

Did Young The Giant know that Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta is not Angelina Jolie's birth name, but it's VMA opener and three-time nominee Lady Gaga? That Cameron Jibril Thomaz is not the name of a Lebanese poet but is instead the name of a very-much-alive rapper named Wiz Khalifa, who's nominated for Best New Artist? Well... no, they didn't. But they did get Cubbie Fink right! He's the bassist for another Best New Artist VMA nominee, Foster The People.

Overall, Young The Giant got three out of six questions correct. Normally that'd be a failing grade, but I'll grade on a curve since they're such nice dudes and since they're playing the VMAs. Though I'm confident they'll do a far better job performing at the VMAs than they did taking the VMA quiz.

Watch Young The Giant play "VMA Nominee, Actor Or Dead Poet," see how they feel about being the only rock act at the VMAs, and get a behind-the-scenes look at their VMA rehearsal. Plus, watch Best New Artist and 2011 VMA MTV.com Red Carpet Report host Kreayshawn take the VMA quiz!

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!

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Even the first time I met Lady Gaga when she came to MTV in 2008, she didn't even seem like a human. Since then, she's made meat a fashion statement, hatched herself out of an egg, created a monster army, invented the first half woman/ half motorcycle hybrid and NEVER. STOPPED. WORKING. So it's hard to imagine Lady Gaga doing something as "just-like-us" regular people as sitting in a seat. But until we can arrange for every celebrity at the VMAs to have their own private hut made of diamonds and equipped with a concierge and, like a private sushi chef (actually, I feel like Kanye could pull that off), VMA stars, like mere mortals, are gonna have to settle for seats. And here's Lady Gaga's.

Of course, she won't be sitting in her VMA seat when the show starts as she'll be opening the 2011 MTV VMAs with a performance that told MTV News will be inspired by the archetypes of psychology. (By the way, here's what else we know about Lady Gaga's VMA performance.) But when she's done performing, she'll be taking her VMA seat which will pretty much serve as a platform for her one-woman fashion show. And while I don't want to say that all VMA seats aren't created equally, if VMA history serves as any indicator, Lady Gaga's VMA seat is the best seat in the house.

Check out behind-the-scenes photos from the 2011 MTV VMAs and watch Lady Gaga discuss her 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!

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You'll have to forgive Jessie J if she has to sit down once or twice during her VMA performance as house artist: she's been nursing a broken foot after sustaining an injury in June. But after watching her absolutely annihilate her VMA rehearsal today (if there were a VMA for Best Voice, I'd lobby for Jessie J to win like six of them), it's apparent that she'll have asses out of seats, even if she's sitting in hers.

But if you're like me, and Jessie J had you at "Do It Like A Dude" when you first heard it last year or when her Who You Are album finally came out, you already knew that not only can she write a perfect party jam (perhaps you've heard of a little under-the-radar B-side called "Party In The U.S.A."), but she's a born belter. And as any die-hard Jessie J fan -- also known as Heartbeats -- can attest, Jessie J isn't just about subverting sex roles with a sneer and an unsubtle crotch grab. She's got a sweet side too, as evidenced by her shimmering new single, "Domino," which she'll perform at the VMAs on Sunday in a move that's about to take her from "who's that girl?" status to it-girl status.

"People have heard 'Domino' and said 'it's nothing like you.' But I'm like well the album's really eclectic anyway, and I never go into the studio and say 'I wanna do another song that's like "Price Tag" or another song like "Do It Like A Dude",' she said. "I listened to a lot of Whitney and Prince... and we kinda just wanted to write a song that's timeless, that's fun and uplifting."

+ Watch Jessie J discuss "Domino," her Heartbeat fan base and more after the jump.

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