If Mack Wilds' goal was to capture a distinct Big Apple vibe on his debut album, New York: A Love Story, then the actor-turned-hip-hop-singer has pole-vaulted over the bar he set for himself. Mack — who's better known as Tristan Wilds — has natural talent, but watching others go from the screen to the studio helped him in his transition.

"I think with Drake, it definitely made me know, 'OK, there is nothing that could stop me,' " Mack said when he visited "RapFix Live" on Wednesday. "But I think honestly, the person that inspired me the most — and a lot of people don't remember this — who was an actress and then became a singer/rapper was Lauryn Hill."

Lauryn landed a breakout role alongside Whoopi Goldberg in 1993's "Sister Act 2." By the following year though, she and the Fugees were releasing Blunted on Reality, their debut album. Hill, who was released from federal prison on Friday (October 4) after serving three months on tax charges, went on to have an illustrious career before moving away from the spotlight.

But like Hill did with the Fugees and her 1998 classic solo debut, Mack lays smooth melodies over hard-core hip-hop tracks. And like L-Boogie, when the mood strikes, Mack spits some choice raps. "Watching her do it was immaculate, and then her singing and rapping was so effortless," he told "RapFix Live" host Sway.

Love Story opens with "Wild Things," a proud boast that samples Wu-Tang Clan and features new vocals from the group's Method Man. The album's lead ...

If Billboard's Hot 100 is any indication, you all have been listening to Lorde's "Royals" a lot lately. But did you know, friends, that there's a full 10 tracks on her debut album Pure Heroine that are just as catchy— if not more so — than Ella Yelich-O'Connor's anti-consumerism jam?

This week, Lorde became the youngest artist in a quarter century to have the #1 song on Billboard's Hot 100, a feat she celebrated by going to see Phoenix play in Brooklyn — and then going to bed.

Obviously, the song has struck a chord in even the most jaded corners of our calcified hearts, propelling the unlikely — and somewhat reluctant — pop star into a firmament of fame often occupied by the likes of Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus.

And — what's more — Lorde isn't some one-hit wonder; her debut album is a veritable boxing ring of hits, replete with jams that will knock you out with one listen.

Below, MTV News breaks down four tracks you need to listen to now:

1). Tennis Court

The suburbs of our youth are full of hangout spots — bonfires in the woods, strip malls, corner stores. They're places kids too young to drink and too old to stay at home go to talk sh--, sneak cigarettes and feel, at least for a moment or two, as if they have some kind of autonomy. For Lorde, that place is the tennis court, a location she immortalizes in a song that takes all the angst, boredom and frustration of youth and turns it ...

Cassadee Pope has been preparing for this moment her entire life.

Since winning "The Voice" last year, she's signed with the Big Machine Label Group (home to Taylor Swift, Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts, to name just a few) and began working on her solo debut, Frame By Frame, a decidedly country affair that finds her returning to her roots. The album hits stores on October 8, and she's documenting the entire process in a brand-newCMT series that premieres Friday at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

And while conquering country music may be a new challenge, Pope has been in the game for most of her life. She wrote her first songs when she was seven years old, sang throughout high school and in 2008, formed Hey Monday, a pop-punk act that caught the attention of Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz, who brokered a deal between Columbia Records and his own Decaydance label.

That high-profile signing earned them no shortage of hype — in 2009, MTV News picked them as one of the year's Rock Rookies — and they'd release one full-length (2008's Hold Tight) and tour with the likes of Panic! at the Disco, All Time Low and The Academy Is ... before a series of lineup changes beset them. Their 2010 album Beneath It All was paired down from a full-length to an EP, and the Hey Monday announced in 2011 that they were on indefinite hiatus.

Undeterred, Pope would set out on a solo acoustic tour, and in 2012, she released a self-titled EP that featured all ...

Yes, there are some critics who wish Miley Cyrus would quit all the twerking and the foam finger play, but Nelly isn't one of them. Actually, the veteran hitmaker is rooting for the controversial pop star.

"I'm excited to see somebody throw some stuff right back in a lot of people's face," Nelly said when he sat with MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway on "RapFix Live" on Wednesday. "I think she's very smart because I think she's doin' it on purpose. Everybody's in an uproar and I'm like go 'head, play right into her hands."

Nelly compares Miley's current trajectory to pop queen Madonna, who ruffled some feathers during her ascent, too.

"She's young, why shouldn't she do it? Somebody else did it their way and wound up being one of the biggest stars on the planet, possibly one of the biggest females of all time in Madonna," he reasoned. "Don't nobody say nothin'. Now everybody wanna hold Madonna holidays."

On Tuesday the "Country Grammar" spitter released his seventh solo LP M.O., and next week, he will play a role when Miley releases her highly anticipated Bangerz LP. The two worked on "4x4," a country-tinged track produced by Pharrell Williams.

It's all about self-expression — something Nelly knows all about. Aside from his penchant for making pop hits, the St. Louis rapper has experimented with a variety of different sounds — most notably when he worked with country crooner Tim McGraw on 2004's "Over and Over." It's all comparable to Miley's newfound rap affiliations.

"She has no reason to be ...

Lady Gaga isn't just ready to make her big-screen debut in ; she's ready to give fans new music along with the new trailer. The Mother Monster's new track, "Aura," just made its debut in the brand-new clip for Robert Rodriguez's new movie.

Gaga plays a glamorous, gun-toting bad girl, Lady Chameleon, in the campy flick, out October 11. We see even more Gaga than before in the latest trailer, which premiered Friday (October 4).

The singer played "Aura" live during her iTunes Festival gig last month, ahead of her November 11 album release, ARTPOP. The dance track is full of gangly guitar, a house beat, synths and aggressive vocals.

On the track, she wonders, "Do you want to see the girl that lives behind the aura?" as the action of the flick plays out in the background. Not enough "Aura" for you? Well, a special "Machete Kills" lyric video, featuring the entire song, will premiere on Tuesday, October 8.

"Machete Kills," the sequel to 2010's "Machete," also stars Danny Trejo, Michelle Rodriguez, Sofia Vergara, Amber Heard, Carlos Estevez (a.k.a. Charlie Sheen), Antonio Banderas, Jessica Alba, Alexa Vega, Vanessa Hudgens, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Mel Gibson.

The Rodriguez/Gaga love affair is hardly over. Next up, she will team up with Rodriguez again when she makes a cameo in the upcoming which will hit theaters on August 22, 2014.

It seems that Kendrick Lamar left one more name out of his controversial verse from Big Sean's "Control," in which he took on a cadre of other rappers he'd go toe-to-toe with. That name? The barely pronounceable Haim, who recently revealed to MTV News their West Coast hip-hop influences.

Haim's debut LP, Days Are Gone, dropped on September 30, and there among all the indie rock goodness is borderline rap track, "My Song 5."

"It's not a secret that we're huge fans of West Coast hip-hop," Este said of the track when asked what influenced its hard-driving sound.

"I think that's what we actually end up listening to the most when we're back in L.A.," Danielle added, shouting out K-Dot as a rapper they particularly admire. "He reps the West Coast and L.A. pretty hard," she said.

Alana also cited some more old-school influences: "We've always been Dr. Dre fans — like the biggest Dr. Dre fans, Snoop Dogg, Tupac — that's what we grew up with," she said. "We grew up loving West Coast hip-hop."

For the trio, though, their love of those tunes was a clandestine affair. "We couldn't listen to it with our parents around," Alana said, with Este adding, "We had to save our money and buy Discmans and headphones so that we could listen to it without our parents knowing."

Although their parents, whom they used to play in a cover band with still attend their shows — cue the massive awwws — we think it's safe to say Haim no longer has to hide their love of ...

By now, you are probably aware of the government shutdown, which, thanks to the decisive leadership of our elected officials, has forced nearly 800,000 federal employees off their jobs, closed national parks and museums, and slashed the staffs of "non-essential" government agencies like the Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.

Chances are, you may have even been affected by it already ... or if you haven't, you probably will at some point in the near future, as the shutdown drags endlessly and needlessly on (can't wait until we default on our foreign debt!)

Then again, you might be star Adam DeVine. He's blissfully unaware of just about everything, especially the shutdown ... though once we told him about it, he seemed strangely fine with the idea of our government taking a break. So long as they don't take away his access to porn, that is.

"I literally just heard about the government shutting down, and I, quite frankly, do not give a f-- either way. For 200-something years, we've had a government; time to chill, relax, take a break. You deserve it," he joked. "Shut it down, or don't shut it down, let's just keep internet access available. National Parks and museums are going to close, and I think they should probably watch internet porn, because that's still available. Not a lot of my friends go to National Parks and museums, but I know a lot of them check out Brazzers.com on the weekends."

DeVine and his fellow "Workaholics" castmembers — currently filming the show's fourth season, ...

Pusha T was proud to bring Kendrick Lamar into his world of dark and seedy drug-dealing raps on an early favorite from the Clipse MC's upcoming solo debut, My Name is My Name. For the song's video, though, King Push jumped into the good kid's world, opting to shoot in K-Dot's hometown, Compton, California.

On Thursday night, Push gave NPR.com the go-ahead to premiere the black-and-white visual. In the clip, the G.O.O.D. Music MC walks by himself down a dark block as the camera swings around from his back to his front profile, just in time to catch his opening rhymes: "Twenty-plus years of selling Johnson & Johnson/ I started out as a baby-faced monster/ No wonder it's diaper rash on my conscience/ My teething ring was numbed by that nonsense."

"Just the parallels man, that's the only way I know how to," Pusha told MTV News about comparing his rise in the drug game to a baby's growth. "If it doesn't make sense, then I really can't rap it. I'm just trying to show people the chronological of the verse and what I'm saying in the verse."

The street that Pusha walks down in the video is eerily empty, that is, until Kendrick appears to start his rhyme. "You wanna see a dead body," he begins, echoing the famous line from John Singleton's 1991 classic film, "Boyz n the Hood."

The video has already gotten applause from fans and rappers alike. The visually minded Tyler, the Creator tweeted, "Wow that nosestalgia video wow that ...