"Fruitvale Station" doesn't just give actor Michael B. Jordan ("Chronicle") his first major starring role in a motion picture, it tells the incredible true-life story of Oscar Grant, a young man who was shot on New Year's Eve 2009 during a chaotic altercation with the police.

Far from an indictment of either the troubled young man or the cops that killed him, writer-director Ryan Coogler's docudrama takes a sensitive look at Grant's life in the 12 hours prior to his death, and the circumstances that led up to that fateful confrontation. The weight of which Jordan acknowledged was both a privilege and a responsibility to explore.

"Actors, we wait around for the opportunity to show what you can do," Jordan told MTV News' Josh Horowitz. "Especially a movie piece that you really care about that you can put your heart into. And for this one, I remember when it happened. I remember watching it and feeling all types of emotions — upset, angry, frustrated, helpless. I felt like I wanted to do something to help.

"So four years later when Ryan Coogler wrote the script, and the opportunity came up for me to play this role, I just felt a certain responsibility to play it," he said.

'Fruitvale Station': The Reviews Are In!

Jordan's other credits include "Red Tails" as well as TV's "Friday Night Lights" and "The Wire." After working on projects with large ensembles, he was happy to get a chance to be at the top of a cast list. "Every actor wants to be No. 1 on the call ...

Karmin is taking it back to the old school. In their new music video for "Acapella," the duo channels some of their retro influences with a Hype Williams-inspired theme.

"There's some of that swagger. Hype Williams would be really great to work with but yeah, we definitely stole some of his ideas," Amy Heideman told MTV News. "He defined those videos I think in the '90s and 2000s."

The twosome, who list Missy Elliott and Brandy as some of their muses, wanted to bring a "throwback vibe" to the set using a monochromatic color palette — similar to retro favorites such as Destiny's Child "Say My Name" and Elliott's "The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)" — They brought in a fish-eyed lens and something they've never done before on camera: choreography.

"I actually enjoyed it," Nick Noonan said, regarding his fancy footwork. "To be honest I was a little hesitant in the beginning, I was like, 'I'm sorry, what?' But it wasn't even like someone else was saying it, it was us saying, 'Hey, we want to do this,' but I was still like, 'hey, I'm going to go for it and we're going to do everything and see.' If it looks terrible we've got to be straight up with ourselves though. You don't put a square into a round hole; you know what I'm saying? Is that the right analogy?"

Karmin would also like to add a retro touch to their upcoming LP. The pair is scheduled to drop their debut album sometime this September and for a blast from the ...

It's been almost four years since 50 Cent last dropped a solo LP, and the G-Unit juggernaut is in no rush to do it.

"I don't really need the money off of the record. I want the record to be right. I'm not doing it without a plan; I'm not putting it out like that," 50 told MTV News about his long-awaited fifth studio album.

The multiplatinum rap king points to his label Interscope and says he won't make a move until the record company is ready. "It's a lot of staff changes, a lot of different people moving in and moving out, so you got to kind of wait until everything's right; until it's settled in," he reasoned.

50 likens himself to a basketball player with dominant skills but less team support — someone akin to Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant maybe? "I've been on a team where I take the ball out and throw myself the alley-oop, and I take the ball out and shoot the three-pointer myself, and I take the ball out and I dunk the ball," he said, driving home the analogy.

That's not to suggest that 50 hasn't been releasing music the past few years — he's actually been quite active. After dropping Before I Self Destruct in November 2009, he's dropped two mixtapes (The Big 10, The Lost Tape and 5 (Murder by Numbers)) as well as a number of singles like with Eminem and Adam Levine, and his most recent, with Kendrick Lamar.

In the case of "We ...

It's been exactly 149 days since Lady Gaga canceled her Born This Way ball, underwent surgery, and disappeared from the public eye to rehab (and get fitted for a gold-plated wheelchair, naturally).

But doesn't it feel so much longer than that?

And not just because in the time Gaga's been gone, Justin Timberlake, Daft Punk, Lil Wayne, Kanye West and Jay-Z all released albums, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis topped the Hot 100 twice, DOMA was repealed, Miley Cyrus discovered twerking and Amanda Bynes went crazy.

No, the past five months have felt like an eternity because they have been entirely bereft of Gaga, who went from being one of the most visible, successful and controversial artists on the planet to a mere afterthought, almost overnight. Rarely — if ever — has a star of her magnitude vanished so quickly, or as completely. Gaga was pop music's perpetual-motion machine, always moving toward something (at the time of her injury, it was the much-discussed ARTPOP album), and when she went under the knife, it was as if someone pulled the plug. Everything stopped.

And when her activity stopped, so did the endless font of over-the-top proclamations, out-there fashions, and outspoken support of worthwhile causes. In short, she went silent, and whether you like her or not, you've got to admit that the entire music biz — and pop music in particular — has been pretty boring because of that.

Of course, on Friday, with one florid, fantastic Facebook post, that machine started humming again. Gaga is ...

"Pacific Rim" jazzed up the so-called "fanboy" crowd before it was even filmed. But as it rolls into theaters, will that enthusiasm propel the monsters vs. robots tale to "Man of Steel"-sized grosses, or is it the next "Scott Pilgrim"?

For box-office watchers, it's an exciting weekend, with no clear projected victor as of Friday (July 12) morning.

Early footage from filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro's "Pacific Rim" had one of the loudest reactions ever at least year's San Diego Comic-Con, where Del Toro unleashed some big action sequences on the Hall H crowd. Now, as this year's Comic-Com looms and critics have seen the finished film, genre-loving sites like Badass Digest and Hitfix have heaped praise upon it, while some more mainstream outlets like the Wall Street Journal and TheWrap.com were not as kind.

Nevertheless, by the time it opened, whereas "Pacific Rim" is opening with a 73 percent "fresh" score on Rotten Tomatoes. and with comic-book lovers online, but that early buzz did not translate into big box-office grosses for Universal. Del Toro has already spoken about a potential sequel with MTV News, Kanye West liked the movie and "Sons of Anarchy" showrunner Kurt Sutter tweeted out his (admittedly biased) approval of "Pacific Rim" star Charlie Hunnam (aka "Jax Teller).

"Despicable Me 2" broke records last weekend and there's also ensemble comedy "Grown Ups 2," which reunites Adam Sandler and his regular stable of comedian pals, to contend with. Both of them will offer stiff competition to "Pacific Rim," with the #1 spot ...

Sean Garrett has a whole lot to be proud of. The Atlanta singer, songwriter and producer has impressively penned big-time hits for Usher ("Yeah!"), Fergie ("London Bridge") and Beyoncé ("Upgrade U"). But his latest collaboration with Meek Mill is what has him most excited now.

"We're making the new Dreamchasers/ Bet I Penned It collaboration," Garrett told MTV News. "Me and Meek Mill are just forming a new company and forming a new movement. We're coming together and doing a new label deal together."

Ever since he released his debut album, Dreams and Nightmares, last year, Meek has been establishing his Dreamchasers label, signing new artists like Lee Mazin, Louie V Gutta and R&B singer Jordanne. He also signed 18-year-old rapper Lil Snupe, who was shot and killed last month.

"Me and Meek are just two people who really connected on a personal level, having the same mentality and coming from nothing," Garrett said. "We watched [Jay-Z] and watched people like Diddy create these dynasties with music and branding and breaking artists and building mega corporations."

Now the pair have linked up for one common goal and have already started to work on building the new artists in their collective stable. With Meek's raw street appeal and Garrett's hitmaking ability, the pairing makes for a most interesting combination.

"We're really, really excited about the new Dreamchasers/ Bet I Penned It situation. It's going to be huge," Garrett said.

Demi Lovato doesn't really need any help from her friends when it comes to her bustling music career, but she knows exactly who she'd call on if she did want to put together a girl-power supergroup.

"It would never happen, but I'd form a group featuring me, Miley [Cyrus], Selena [Gomez] and Taylor [Swift]," she told The Guardian. "That would be pretty epic."

That idea sounds rather intriguing to us here at MTV News, even if it may fall into the realm of the impossible. However, we'd pay a pretty penny to see that fierce foursome team up and take on the world together. So, we decided to indulge in the fantasy and imagine just what it might be like if they did all get together.

Shut Down Twitter
All four ladies have very varied Twitter philosophies, so should they combine their respective feeds into one account, the entire Internet just might melt in the best possible way. Between Swift's love of tweets about cats, Miley's frank confessions, Selena's candid behind-the-scenes moments and Demi's inspiring messages, we would be constantly refreshing the feed to read what's next.

Girls Run The World (Tour)
We'd imagine that every bit of ink shed about this prospective jaunt would include the word "spectacle." The over-the-top costumes, catchy tunes and bang-for-your-buck staging would amount to a non-stop feast for the eyes. And, we just hope someone is taking Vines and Instagrams of every one of their backstage hangout sessions, which we assume would be like attending the best sleepover of ...