Leave it to Drake to spread love the Brooklyn way with his first-ever live singing performance of at the 2013 MTV Music Video Awards Sunday night (August 25).

Introduced by T-Boz and Chilli of TLC, who performed at his OVO Fest earlier this month, Drizzy's set began on a toned-down note, with him sitting in the audience, sideways, with his gaze to the right, with a serene background dominated by a blue sky with white clouds. The pose was a live reenactment of the cover artwork by Kadir Nelson for his third solo album, Nothing Was the Same, which will arrive on September 24.

Dressed in a black leather tank top and pants accentuated with a simple gold chain, the man who calls himself Champagne Papi sang his "wedding song" with an impassioned falsetto, channeling his muse, Marvin Gaye, as he displayed an impressive range of never-before-seen musicality.

As the infectious beat from "Started From the Bottom" dropped, Drake toggled with ease from crooning to rapping and he made his way up to the stage with his signature braggadocious strut. Once there, Drake bounded from one side of the stage to the next, drawing the audience into his anthemic VMA-nominated hit with a call and response.

The OVO frontman showed up to the VMAs with his entourage in tow, all wearing custom jerseys emblazoned with NWTS's release date, but for the performance, it was just the man himself, closely interacting with the crowd in the dugout near the lip of the stage as if he were shunning his social ...

Macklemore & Ryan Lewis crowned a glorious night in Brooklyn with a VMA performance of their Best Video With a Social Message-winning "Same Love." The hip-hop duo were joined onstage by Mary Lambert, who holds down the song's chorus duties, and surprise guest Jennifer Hudson, who helped trill the track home. Before that, openly gay NBA basketball star Jason Collins and the Harlem rapper A$AP Rocky had joined up to give a spoken introduction to what's quickly become an equality anthem.

Macklemore has described "Same Love" as being socially relevant as "equality is at the forefront of what's going on in politics right now." The award-winning clip, which was co-directed by Ryan Lewis, strikes a poignant note, and it's a vibe that continued at the Barclays Center as giant American flags were raised to reveal a dusky and intimate stage setting. From there, Macklemore aired out a measured and sensitive rendering of his lyrics. Sporting a natty pastel blazer, the coiffed rapper seemed emotionally moved as he recited his rhymes.

In winning the Best Video With a Social Message category, "Same Love" fought off heavyweight VMA competition from Beyoncé, Miguel, Kelly Clarkson and Snoop and Drake, who collaborated on the anti-firearm ode "No Guns Allowed." It was part of a bonanza night for Mack & Ryan as they also overcame fierce challenges from Kendrick Lamar and their host A$AP Rocky to take home the Best Hip-Hop Video for "Can't Hold Us

is right. Katy Perry delivered an uproar-worthy rendition of her hit single "Roar" underneath the Brooklyn Bridge in an epic closing performance to this year's Video Music Awards.

"I like to have the last word," Perry told MTV News' Christina Garibaldi earlier Sunday of having the honor of closing out the show.

And it was one heck of a last word.

Perry rode into New York's Brooklyn Bridge Park in the back of a golden semitruck — yes, the one that takes up the better part of a city block and has her name, album title and release date painted on the side — wearing a maroon silk boxing robe with "LIONNESS" splashed across the back.

PHOTOS: Katy Perry Gets Some Selfie Action On The VMA Red Carpet!

Of course, the whole ensemble was topped off with cornrows and the gold-plated microphone — brass knuckles included— that Perry unveiled on Instagram this week. And, since we all know that no boxing workout is complete without a little rope-skipping, there was a jump-roping interlude. Never one to disappoint fans, Perry brought ring girls as well, clad in skimpy maroon bikinis and holding up "Game Over" signs to signal the end of another VMA year.

Before the show, Perry told MTV News that she wasn't shy about showing a more fierce side of herself now. Her fans, she said, had grown up as much as she had in the three years since the candy-coated "Teenage Dream" era.

"They're like, 'eww, Katy, cotton candy, gross.'" she said. "I can't do that anymore."

Of "Roar," ...

Bruno Mars brought some of his own sexual healing to Brooklyn's Barclays Center when he took the stage during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday (August 25), moments after winning his first-ever Moonman for Best Male Video for "Locked Out Of Heaven."

Selena Gomez welcomed him to the stage, telling the room he "brings the house down every time he performs."

The VMA-nominated singer performed his latest single, the super-sexified for the first time in front of the A-listers that filled up the Brooklyn venue. Taking the stage in a leopard top and his signature hat, Mars slowed it down with his R&B jam, and, well, brought some sexy back using his signature showman style.

As Mars belted out the tune, light and lasers filled the Barclays. Mars was joined by a full band, and a gorilla... on the screen behind him. The lights erupted with the chorus and given the song's NSFW content, Mars even threw in a few air humps.

Mars' performance left Will Smith bopping his head as smoke and fire filled the auditorium.

While he performed that Unorthodox Jukebox single during the VMAs, he was nominated four times for two other singles of his 2012 album release, "Locked Out Of Heaven" (Video of the Year, Best Male Video and Best Pop Video) and "Treasure" (Best Chorography). "Gorilla" is the fourth single off Jukebox, which dropped last December.

The singer spoke to MTV News during Saturday night's rehearsals, about his return to the VMA stage and promised that his performance would "capture the essence of the song." ...

Justin Timberlake rounded out his four Video Music Award wins Sunday (August 25) by taking home the award for Video of the Year for "Mirrors," dedicating the win to his grandmother.

Timberlake beat out nominees Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ("Thrift Shop"), Bruno Mars ("Locked Out of Heaven"), Robin Thicke ("Blurred Lines") and Taylor Swift ("I Knew You Were Trouble") for the show-capping award.

"This is a really special video for me because it's a tribute to my grandparents, " Timberlake said after accepting the award from Don Jon star Joseph Gordon-Levitt. "My grandfather actually passed away in December. I hope my grandmother is watching right now. This is for you, granny."

He also shouted out Kanye West's "Blood On The Leaves" performance, proclaiming, "Can you guys make some noise tonight for Kanye?"

The video for "Mirrors" — which is off of Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience (part one) — was directed by Floria Sigismondi and is the singer's most personal work yet. The video was dedicated to his grandparents William and Sadie Bomar — William passed away last year — and tells the story of their 63-year relationship.

The 20/20 Experience — JT's first record since 2006's FutureSex/LoveSounds — is the best-selling album of his solo career, debuting at number one on the Billboard charts when it dropped back in March. The 20/20 Experience -- 2 of 2 drops on September 30.

It happened. And it was more awesome than we could have even imagined.

In the middle of a hit-packed performance that had everyone from Taylor Swift to Lady Gaga and One Direction on their feet andlosing their minds, Justin Timberlake shut down the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards with a set of solo smashes and, yes, an 'NSYNC reunion that had the audience at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn dancing in the aisles.

If there's any modern male artist who has carried on the legacy of the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard Award namesake, it's Timberlake and he proved why on Sunday. That's probably why pal Jimmy Fallon saw fit to crown Timberlake with a new moniker while introducing his "History of Rap" cohort, "The President of Pop."

The set opened with a montage of Justin's most iconic solo videos, from "Rock Your Body" to "Mirrors," then segued into Timberlake dancing his way through the Barclays while singing his new single, "Take Back the Night." After swinging the camera out of his face, JT materialized on the main stage as the first strains of "SexyBack" got the crowd on their feet, which is where they stayed for the next 10 minutes.

It was the beginning of a trip through a catalog of massive songs that would be the envy of any artist. Justin proved why he's the commander in chief of the Billboard Hot 100 with the still-unbelievably funk "Like I Love You," which, like all the night's songs, was accompanied by JT's fleet-footed dancing and effortless ability to ride the groove ...

Kanye West spares nothing when it comes to properly sharing his art, but for his Sunday night (August 25) performance at the 2013 Video Music Awards, Mr. West was all about making a big statement while keeping it very minimal for the first live rendition of

In contrast to his jolting performances of the Yeezus single which came complete with threatening hooded figures and ferocious barking dogs, the controversial rapper, producer and self-proclaimed — which Jared Leto so graciously pointed out during his introduction — turned down both the intensity and the lights for "Blood on the Leaves."

The song began with a very dim light illuminating only 'Ye's face, with the rest of the set shrouded in black, as the haunting refrain of the "Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees" came through the speakers in Brooklyn's Barclays Center.

Not until the beat of the song dropped were viewers finally able to see that Steve McQueen's "Lynching Tree" was the only thing that Kanye had commissioned as his backdrop for the night. The painting depicts a tree outside of New Orleans where slaves were once hung, with their graves littered across the ground under the leaves.

"Blood on the Leaves" samples Nina Simone's 1965 jazz cover of Billie Holiday's 1939 recording "Strange Fruit," which was heavy with commentary on racism, slavery and the rise in the number of lynchings in the United States.

As the eerie line "bodies swinging in the Southern breeze" (in other words the "strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees") ...

The elusive Daft Punk stepped out at the 2013 Video Music Awards, strutting across Barclays Center to help award the Moonman for Best Female Video to Taylor Swift. Collaborators Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers also joined the duo on stage.

Following a brand-new, Soul Train-esque clip featuring Daft Punk and Co. performing "Lose Yourself To Dance," the French electronic duo emerged from a giant version of the Kaws Moonman's head decked out in sparkling gold and silver blazers. Predictably, Pharrell and Rodgers did all the talking when presenting Swift with her Moonman, as Daft Punk stood silently by presumably watching all the action from behind their gleaming helmets.

From action figures to bootleg condoms, Daft Punk's iconic helmets have become damn near ubiquitous since the chart-topping release of Random Access Memories in May and the massive success of their Pharrell Williams-featuring single, "Get Lucky." That song scored the masked men a VMA nomination for

Random Access Memories is Daft Punk's first album in eight years — since Human After All — and, as MTV News' James Montgomery wrote back when the album came out, "the only possible response to dance music in 2013." An epic album that took $1 million and five years to produce, Random Access Memories taps into the history of dance music in answer to the modern crop of dance musicians currently flooding the airwaves.

Shady's back. Late last year, Eminem hinted that he would drop his eighth solo album in 2013, and an official announcement finally came in a commercial tonight during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.

Before the show officially kicked off from Brooklyn's Barclays Center, Em Instagrammed a photo of the show's logo with the caption, "Guess who's REALLY back? #VMAs." It's still unclear whether he also has a surprise performance in store tonight — fingers crossed — but one thing's for sure: His new album is coming.

During a brief, no frills Beats by Dre commercial, Shady announced that his new album, Marshall Mathers LP 2 — a sequel to 2000's Marshall Mathers LP — will arrive November 5 and the project has been executive produced by Dr. Dre and Rick Rubin. A new track from the Detroit rapper scored the ad, which finds him spitting, "Let's take it back to straight hip-hop and start it from scratch/ I'm about to bloody this track up, everybody get back/ That's why my pen needs a pad because my rhymes' on the rag."

During a recent visit to Em's longtime collaborator and producer Alchemist explained that the "8 Mile" rapper has been pushing himself to experiment on the new album. "That's my boss. I DJ for him, and I'm not at liberty to speak on much, but you know his caliber and what he does," he explained. "[He's] clearly going to further territories. I think what you would expect, especially after the last go-round."