How does a 16-year-old girl from Ontario, Canada go from relative obscurity to producing a track on Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail? Well, luckily for Ebony Oshunrinde aka Wondagurl, she has a great ear for dancehall samples and a pretty cool relationship with G.O.O.D. Music and Grand Hustle signee Travis Scott.

It all started after Wondagurl caught some inspiration after hearing Pusha T, Travi$ Scott and Popcaan's dancehall-inspired "Blocka."

"I was at home one day and I was looking for reggae samples for a while and I finally found this one that was crazy, Sizzla 'Solid as a Rock,'" she told MTV News of the first steps she took to cook up the beat for Hov's "Crown" on Friday (July 5) during a Skype interview. "I took it and I cut it up and I put it in the software FL Studio and I started building around it, adding 808s."

Originally Wondagurl had intended for Pusha and Travis to perform on the track. She figured after hearing "Blocka" that the pair would be receptive to another reggae-laced tune, which is why she chose Sizzla's beloved 2002 single "Solid as A Rock." Her instincts were right, and while Scott dug the beat, he had different plans for the instrumental. "Travis Scott said he was going to add some stuff to it and then later on a few days afterwards he messaged me saying he's about to change my life and a few days later he told me that I was on Jay-Z's album," Wondagurl recalled. "At first I didn't ...

There's a certain amount of intrigue that comes with being Jay-Z. Beyond the sheer allure of his current celebrity, Hov has captivated his audience for years with detailed accounts of his drug-dealing past, former demons and braggadocio.

It all officially started on his classic 1996 debut Reasonable Doubt where the lavishly laced MC with no chart-topping singles or platinum plaques, but dark underworld ties boasted: "I'm still spendin' money from '88."

In the years that followed, we'd learn just as much about Jay from his lyrics as his interviews — maybe more. On 2000's The Dynasty: Roc La Familia, he opened up about the child that he lost with a former girlfriend ("This Can't Be Life") and his resentment toward his absentee dad ("Where Have You Been"). The next year, on The Blueprint, Hov explored his distrust for women on "Song Cry" and on 2006's Kingdom Come he shared the pain he felt from the 2005 death of his nephew. It isn't all pain, in 2012 just days after his the birth of his daughter Blue Ivy, Jay dropped a proud ode to his new love.

On his latest, Magna Carta Holy Grail, Jay-Z continues to open up in his lyrics, giving listeners perspective of his life and innermost thoughts. Here's what we learned.

Being a Dad Sometimes Scares The Hell Out of Jay
Hov is a proud papa, but on "Jay Z Blue (Daddy Dearest)," he confronts some pretty serious demons. Jay has rhymed before about growing up without his dad, who skipped out on his mom after his uncle ...

"It's Barbie, bitch!": With those immortal words — along with a pencil sketch of her face — Nicki Minaj made her entree into the world of selfies, food porn and filtered pets known as Instagram.

Frustrated with copycat Instagram accounts, Minaj took to Twitter on Friday (July 5) to announce that she's taking matters into her hands and creating her own photofeed, under the name @allpinkbarbiedreamhouse.

"I do NOT have Instagram. OnikaM is NOT me. Guess I have to make a real one to counter attack. I'm sure that's why Instagram won't delete it," Nicki wrote on Twitter. The handle Minaj mentions in the tweet is a private account.

Since joining, Minaj has posted four photos, one featuring the singer in the classic "my babe caught me sleeping pose" (a.k.a. a closed-eye selfie), one that appears to be a reblogged professional shot with Nelly and Pharrell and a few artistic renderings of the singer. Since joining, Minaj has amassed more than 60,000 followers and several thousand comments and likes.

With 31 million fans on Facebook and 16 million Twitter followers, it won't be long before Minaj's Barbz start flooding her feed full force.

Minaj has had a rather embattled relationship with her fans in the past when it comes to social media. She quit Twitter last year for a spell after a fan site leaked some of her tunes.

However, Minaj's fans have already hit up her since-reinstated Twitter in droves to show their unbridled enthusiasm for Minaj's new social stream, with one fan reminding the rapper of an old ...

It wouldn't be the Fourth of July without a little country flare. And that's exactly what went down at VH1's Philly 4th of July Jam on Thursday. Hunter Hayes set off fireworks with his live renditions of "I Want Crazy" and "Somebody's Heartbreak." Before his show ended, fans were treated to a cover of The Police's "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic."

Music lovers gathered all the way down Benjamin Franklin Parkway in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to watch artists like Ne-Yo, Grace Potter and J. Cole take control of Independence Day. The Roots served as the night's house band and backed up Hunter on a red, white and blue-glowing stage.

In his Southern charisma, Hayes spewed his true-love wisdom to the crowd. "There's all kinds of rules for love; I say let it do what it does," he sings in "I Want Crazy." "There's no such thing as wild enough. Baby, we just think too much." Hayniacs took the advice to heart, letting loose and dancing in the summer heat.

Hunter, with his hair slicked back instead of spiked up, launched into "Somebody's Heartbreak." As he switched guitars, he prepared for the song he "just loves to jam to." So, with ?uestlove and the crew behind him, he whipped out some intricate guitar riffs in a John Mayer-style. (Maybe Mayer taught him a thing or two backstage, as he also played the Philly Jam.)

One of Hayes' favorite songs, "like, ever," is "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic," originally done by The Police in ...

It's hard for giant monsters and machines to get noticed in a summer packed with an Avenger, a Man of Steel and the crew of the Starship Enterprise.

But perhaps a glowing review from none other than Yeezus himself will put the Jaegers and Kaiju of firmly on moviegoers' maps.

On Independence Day, Kanye West tweeted to the world about his new favorite movie: "Pacific Rim," the upcoming action blockbuster from filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. The Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures co-production takes place in a world where mankind has been ravaged by a plague of skyscraper-sized monsters called "Kaiju." To defend against the threat, man built an equally-sized weapon: massive mecha-suits called "Jaegers," which require two human pilots to operate.

"Pacific Rim" is an all-original concept from the minds of del Toro and co-writer Travis Beachem. It's lacking in star-power, with its most famous faces hailing from the FX biker show "Sons of Anarchy" and fellow FX comedy "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." And according to some box-office prognosticators, it's tracking to land softly on its release in just one week.

But none of that stopped West from loving it.

"I saw a pre-screening of Pacific Rim yesterday," he wrote on July 4, "and it's easily one of my most favorite movies of all time."

West continued, "This is not another 'Robot' movie. Guillermo del Toro is a master."

West's reference to "Pacific Rim" being anything but "another 'Robot' movie" is a timely one. Recently, "Transformers" director Michael Bay struck out against other "rip-off" robot ...

Not even megastar Johnny Depp will be able to stop the onslaught of minions this holiday weekend.

got off to a gigantic start on Wednesday, the biggest ever for Universal. the big-budget Disney Western starring Armie Hammer in the title role and Depp as his partner Tonto, couldn't compete whatsoever. "Despicable Me 2" collected an estimated $34.3 million on Wednesday, putting it on track to make as much as $140 million through Sunday. Despite playing in roughly just as many locations, "The Lone Ranger" made just $9.7 million on Wednesday.

The Steve Carrell-led sequel to the 2010 animated blockbuster headed into the holiday with mostly positive reviews (and great deal of enthusiasm from the MTV Movies team, as evidenced by a series of minion-loving gifs). The movie made $4.7 million during Tuesday-night showings. "Despicable Me" eventually grossed more than $543 million around the world and "Despicable Me 2" will easily beat the other big animated movies of 2013 so far, "The Croods" and "Monsters University." The audiences who've seen it already are behind it, giving it an "A-" CinemaScore.

Disney spent a reported $225 million to make "The Lone Ranger," which reunited both the studio and Depp with "Pirates of the Caribbean" director Gore Verbinski. The $45 to $50 million five day total predicted by industry experts will be a major disappointment. Critics have not been kind to "The Lone Ranger," either. More than 75 percent of film critics panned the latest take on the heroic character who first appeared in 1930s radio programs, followed by a ...

From Edward Scissorhands to Captain Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp has crafted a cadre of iconic characters over the course of his 30-year career. And with this week's release of Gore Verbinski's he'll add another in the form of stoic sidekick Tonto.

As producer Jerry Bruckheimer told MTV News, Depp had strong ideas about how best to portray the Lone Ranger's trusted friend — long before he was even cast in the role.

"Well, we were filming 'Pirates,' and I told him we had the rights to 'The Long Ranger.' And he went off and did 'Alice,' and while he was doing 'Alice,' he called me and said, 'I want to come see you,' " Bruckheimer recalled. "He handed me this picture, and it was a picture of a Native American. He had a white face on, and he had these black lines drawn on his face, and he had a bird on his head. I said, 'Who's this?' And he said, 'That's Tonto.' And I said, 'Who's going to play — who's the photograph of?' And he said, 'It's me.' He created this character unbeknownst to us, and then came to us. I sent this picture to Disney, and they got really excited about it. And that started the road to production."

And, as Bruckheimer explained it, the character has remained largely unchained from Depp's original vision.

"He had a real good beat on it from the very beginning," Bruckheimer said. "He was always feeding the bird. He knew how the character was. Of course you embellish it during ...