The King of the South played The King of Rock during VMA rehearsals this afternoon. During a break in practice, T.I killed time by playing a little air guitar on set. Keeping things light, the rapper sorted out some sound problems while waiting for Rihanna to rehearse their VMA performance of "Live Your Life."

But before the rapper could really get things started, Rihanna strolled in with Chris Brown. After getting a hug from his collaborator, T.I. asked Chris if he's ready for Monday: the morning after the VMAs, the two begin production on the heist caper film, Bone Deep.

With T.I. and Rihanna's rehearsals underway, Chris took a seat to watch... but not for long. "Chris Brown, don't you wanna be in the mosh pit?" the stage director called out over the microphone.

She needed some stand-ins for the audience, so Chris waved his arms in the air, pretending to be a frantic fan. It didn't take much to get Chris Brown to make some moves -- a little while later, he made his way to the front of the stage and started dancing.

We can't reveal much more of what happened at Ri's top-secret rehearsal, but check out photos of Rihanna's dancers getting into their supernatural hair and make-up.

Stay up-to-date on everything about the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards at vma.mtv.com, and don't miss the big show Sunday (September 7) at 9 p.m. ET/PT or the pre-show red carpet coverage that starts at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

VMA party weekend officially kicked started Friday night with Jermaine Dupri's party at the Avalon in Hollywood. JD -- ever the consummate mogul and multitasker -- celebrated the launch of Tag Records, and, of course, the VMAs.

With D-Nice spinning -- "Put On," by Young Jeezy and Kanye West, T-Pain and Lil' Wayne's "Can't Believe It," and Game and 50 Cent's "This is How We Do," all were huge for the dance floor -- D stood at the booth hyping up the party. Nice played the remix to Dru Hill's "Sleeping in My Bed," while Dupri shouted, "Brat I love you!"

"Yes Janet Jackson is here," JD told some ladies on the dance floor. "Y'all can stop asking me now."

Back in the crowd, you could spot Paul Wall mingling while the likes of Jazze Pha and Polow Da Don chilled in the V.I.P. section.

Later, Tag Records lead artist Q performed, as did Fabolous. Loso hit the crowd with "Breathe" and "You Make Me Better."

+ Watch Jermaine dispense some VMA advice for Britney's big appearance, (which is barely 24 hours from now!)

Stay up-to-date on everything about the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards at vma.mtv.com, and don’t miss the big show Sunday (September 7) at 9 p.m. ET/PT or the pre-show red carpet coverage that starts at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

Regular girls kick guys to the curb. Pink kicks them underground. Underground as in going towards the train platform.

The singer was part action heroine today during preliminary rehearsals for her VMA performance.

"Rock and roll," she yelled from a fire escape on the back lot of Paramount studio. Standing next to a stunt woman, Pink was getting direction on how to slide down a large piece of silk.

Basically, you wrap your right leg around it, hold on tight and work your way down. The fearless performer had originally told MTV she wanted to straight up jump down to the street below, but the plan's been switched to a graceful slide-down maneuver.

"Fu-- it," she said with a grin before lowering herself to the ground, wearing a tank top, sweat pants, platform heels and shades. She would repeat the process several times.

"How was it?" She asked on the ground.

On Sunday, when she's doing the real thing, getting down to the ground is only going to be the start of the chaos. During "So What (I'm Still a Rock Star)," when she sings, "I wanna start a fight," you'll actually see it. Just ask the poor stunt man who keeps getting a boot to the chest and falling down steps leading to the subway. Don't worry about him though... he's taken that same tumble a couple of times on "CSI."

"Am I gonna have this?" Pink asks with a grin when handed a flame thrower.

"She's itching to try it!" one of the many people surrounding her said.

Later, it was back up the fire escape where Pink would have a heavy laugh with her female stunt coordinator. The singer said something that frightened the woman.

"I think I owe you two a drink after this," Pink screamed to a man below while pointing to the stunt woman. Although, for the singer, "It's not fun unless you're scared."

Right before the end of rehearsal, Pink tried to give her stunt a go in reverse. She did a handstand, then with bare feet tried to climb up to the fire escape. She made it about 80 percent up before doing a backflip--hands still gripping the silk--and going back down.

Stay up-to-date on everything about the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards at vma.mtv.com, and don't miss the big show Sunday (September 7) at 9 p.m. ET/PT or the pre-show red carpet coverage that starts at 8 p.m. ET/PT.

No one on the corner has swagger like him! Uh, yeah. T-Pain has a style of his own, no arguing with that. He's made a promise to MTV to arrive at the 2008 VMA red carpet in a splendor that we've never seen before. It will be difficult to top the yachts, dunk cars and other balla Vs from years past. Not to mention my all-time favorite arrival, Diddy's performance on a flatbed truck with the Bad Boy family.

However, for a man with over 300 top hats (I thought I had a lot of New Era fitted caps), making an eye-catching appearance is no probleeeeemo!

So where did Pain take the MTV News crew on his quest to find the perfect mode of transportation down the red carpet? Spalding Mortuary in the Baldwin Hills section of LA. Pain was thinking a hearse! He actually owns one, but his tricked out undertaker's car (he has a coffin with speakers in it) is in Atlanta. Pain also looked at a cherry red Smart Car (he loved that one!) and a pimped out Low Rider bicycle. Which one did he choose? You have to watch the VMAs this Sunday to find out.

Stay up-to-date on everything about the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards at vma.mtv.com, and don’t miss the big show Sunday (September 7) at 9 p.m. ET/PT or the pre-show red carpet coverage that starts at 8 p.m. ET/PT.