Sky Blu didn't realize when he announced his Rebel Music release date he'd have to share it with the one and only Jay-Z.

But with Hova dropping Magna Carta Holy Grail the same day as Sky's first album since going on the , the Party Rocker isn't mad about sharing the joint Fourth of July release date.

"How crazy is that! It's pretty crazy that Jay-Z was coming out with an album on the same day. And out of nowhere too, you know? I only heard like a few weeks ago. I think everybody did," he told MTV News on Monday. He added, "It's a long time coming, but I can't wait for the world to hear [Rebel Music]. I've got a story."

As it turns out, Jay and Sky have something else in common. They are also taking the rapper's philosophy of "new rules" to heart. Sky is giving away Rebel Music for free, and Jay's Samsung deal allows 1 million fans to download his album for free, offering it early to Samsung subscribers who download a special app. Sky thinks unconventional releases from chart-topping artists is "very necessary," even for "extreme legends" like Jay.

"I'm really learning a lot about business and a lot about how the record industry and the business of how things work," he said. "And I'm the kind of person that believes that you can rewrite the rules, just like Jay-Z said. But, for me, it's a little different cause I'm giving my music for free. And I think that the real ...

LOS ANGELES — Mike Will Made It works hard crafting hit records for the likes of Future, Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz and Miley Cyrus. But when it came time to produce for Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail, he just took it easy.

"[Jay] was like, 'Man, let's do something so effortless,' and that just stuck with me when he said 'effortless,' " Mike Will told MTV News in Los Angeles. "When I went up there, I just cooked up a beat real fast and he just went in on it."

On the Saturday before BET Awards, the star producer walked into Chalice Recording studio where he was surprised to find Cash Money Records CEO Birdman on hand to present Future and Ace Hood with a gold-selling plaque for "Bugatti," a single that Mike Will produced. After opening up to us about how he came up with the beat for the infectious hit, MTV News took the opportunity to ask about "Beach Is Better," the Hov track Mike contributed to MCHG.

Jay has been promoting the album in a series of Samsung ads featuring Pharrell Williams, Swizz Beatz, Timbaland and Rick Rubin. Jay and the super producers appear in the studio theorizing about the "new rules" Hov hopes to establish with the release of his album. And because the four producers all appear in the commercials, many assumed that they all worked on the July 4 album. But while Rubin confirmed to XXL magazine that he did not in fact contribute to the LP, Mike WiLL told us that ...

Main Pick

Headliner: Jon Connor

Representing: Flint, Michigan

Mixtape: Unconscious State

Real Spit: When it comes to lyrics, Jon Connor is as skilled as any rapper in the game, but there is a stigma that comes it. The assumption is that many lyricists fall short at songwriting, but not the Flint Michigan, MC; he proves it on his latest project, Unconscious State.

"The sound on this tape is crazy because I don't think that you can compare it to any of the rest of my joints that I ever did," Connor told Mixtape Daily, referencing his underground discography which includes the Eminem-inspired The People's Rapper LP and the Jay-Z-influenced The Blue Album.

The 22-track album dropped on Tuesday (July 2) on iTunes and features contributions from Danny Brown ("Vodka & Weed"), Talib Kweli ("Rise Up") and Royce da 5'9 ("Michigan $#!*"). On "The Sarah Song," Connor tells a story of life on tour and the different women he meets along the way. On "Michigan $#!*," he and Shady Records veteran Royce da 5'9" create a prideful hometown ode. "When I Was Young" is a soulful and painful trip down memory lane alongside Chris Webby and Smoke DZA.

"I guess I built up a reputation for being a spitter, but what most people don't know about me is that I consider myself a music dude first. Spitting and being a spitter kind of came later," he said. "I think I laid a pretty decent foundation for myself in the game as far as what I can do lyrically, so what I focused on more sonically with this ...

Ask repeatedly for your favorite sketch comedy show to return to TV, and it just might happen. Nick Cannon's "Wild 'N Out" will be back by popular demand this month, premiering July 9 on MTV2 after a six-year hiatus. This season, the cast makes their way to New York City, where Cannon admits things will get a lot grimier than ever before.

Cannon told MTV News that the show was green lit for a new season after overwhelming demand from fans across social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, thought he was initially a bit skeptical.

"I didn't want to mess up a good thing because we went out on top, but everybody just kept asking for it," he explained. "Plus a lot of people blew up off of this show, so now I'm giving everybody the opportunity to come back and have fun. It's really like the hip-hop version of the roast shows, so we're bringing the biggest names in hip-hop and comedy to come have a good time."

Cannon said returning for a new season is interesting because it gives him a chance to pair comedians and artists who grew up watching the show with emerging artists and comedians, making for a great dynamic. Artist cameos on this season include everyone from A$AP Rocky and Mac Miller to 2 Chainz and Joey BadA$$, while comedians include Lil Duval, Kevin Hart and Mike Epps.

Expect a similar setup — with the Black versus Platinum teams this season — but a more raw show. "The format is basically the same except that ...

Miley Cyrus celebrated her appreciation for a good party in her "We Can't Stop" video, and Snoop Dogg did the same when he touched on his "Ashtrays & Heartbreaks" partner's capacity to get loose in an epic follow-up to his December Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) Monday night.

Using the name "Here_Comes_The_King," Snoop Lion/Dogg took to Reddit to take questions from his legions of fans. Predictably, there were a lot of queries dealing with the old puff, puff, pass, but rolled into the sprawling Q&A were a few gems.

For example, after a fan asked: "Snoop, I NEED you to do a song with some Michael Jackson background vocals. Is there a chance?" Snoop responded: "did a song with Michael when he was alive! Its in tha vault." Yup, according to the , there's an unreleased Jackson/Dogg track kicking around in the ethers — which is no surprise, given that Snoop has always been an ardent Jackson supporter.

Snoop also revealed that he's a big fan of K-Pop and that if he could do one song with anyone living or dead it would be Bob Marley. No real surprise there.

After the AMA wrapped up, Snoop then sweetened the deal by releasing a special video in which he answered more queries, including "What song are you most proud of throughout your career?" ("No Guns Allowed), "Is it true that you're the reason Dre started smoking weed?" ("No") and "I can't get any girls. Got any advice for a young 20-year-old guy like me?" ("Yeah. Strip club. Or Craigslist")

Dylan O'Brien's vacation from Beacon Hills has been anything but restful. The star (who plays Stiles on the MTV series) has been hard at work filming the upcoming dystopian drama "The Maze Runner."

Based on the young-adult novel by James Dashner, "The Maze Runner" centers around teen Thomas (O'Brien), who awakens in a rusty elevator with no memory of who he is. What he does come to find out is that he's been delivered to the middle of an intricate maze, along with a slew of other boys, who have been trying to find their way out of the ever-changing labyrinth — all the while establishing a functioning society within the enclosure they've come to call "The Glade."

With production on "The Maze Runner" still in full swing, MTV News was lucky enough to get its hands on five exclusive first-look stills from the film, featuring O'Brien and his young co-stars, including Kaya Scodelario and Aml Ameen. From an image of a visibly injured Thomas, to a gang of boys running to the supposed safety of the sky-scraping structure, the tenor of these images is clear: danger lurks around every corner.

Check Out FIVE Exclusive New Photos From 'The Maze Runner.'

Eager for more scoop on "The Maze Runner"? The cast (including O'Brien and Scodelario), along with director Wes Ball and author Dashner, will be hosting a Twitter chat on Monday, July 8 to answer fan questions. Submit your queries using #MazeRunnerChat and be sure to follow @MazeRunnerMovie on Twitter.

"The Maze Runner," ...

Jay-Z has gone head-to-head with the best of them.

The rap titan popularized Italian luxury clothing line Iceburg only to take it all back and start Rocawear after they failed to give him an endorsement deal. He's championed Ace of Spades over Louis Reoderer's Cristal champagne, made hip-hop fans tuck their beloved Mitchell & Ness jerseys in favor of button-up shirts and forced New Yorkers to choose between the Knicks and Nets.

He's battled against Nas, Mobb Deep, Ma$e and Jim Jones, but now, with his new Samsung deal and the release of his 12th LP Magna Carta Holy Grail, Jay may be taking on his biggest challenger yet: the iPhone.

On July 4, Jay will drop Magna Carta for free via a music app accessible only to Samsung Galaxy phone users. Samsung purchased one million digital LPs at a reported $5 per album just so they could obtain the rights, and non-Galaxy users will be able to buy the album three days later. The window of exclusivity that Hov and Samsung offer has created heavy buzz, but is it enough to push Samsung into the forefront of a smartphone market led by Apple?

"One pattern with Jay-Z and a lot of the companies that he does deals with is that they're basically trying to buy cool. A lot of the time he goes with brands that are not necessarily the #1 in the category," says Zack O'Malley Greenburg, Forbes magazine senior editor and author of "Empire State of Mind: How Jay-Z Went From Street Corner to Corner Office." He ...

To some, Dwight Howard is an overpaid, slightly petulant manchild who routinely quits on teams and believes he is hilarious despite mounting evidence to the contrary.

Slim Thug does not agree with that assessment. The way he sees it, Howard is cream of the NBA's 2013 free agency crop, a misunderstood, marquee player capable of bringing multiple titles to whichever team he signs with. And Thug is determined to make that team his hometown Houston Rockets.

Houston is one of several teams vying for Howard's services, and they're seen by many to be one of the frontrunners, along with the center's former team, the Los Angeles Lakers. The thing is, the Lakers can offer him more money than anyone else ... so Thug has taken it upon himself to alert Howard to some of Houston's many advantages, via a series of inspired tweets that set the Internet ablaze on Monday.

And one day after his initial pitch, Thug was still selling Houston to Howard when he got on the phone with MTV News (ironically, he was calling from Los Angeles).

"I was trying to tell him the best things, from my standpoint; I know the Rockets ran a lot of good things by him [in their pitch to the big man], but I was talking in terms of women," Thug told MTV News. "Obviously he loves women, and if you love women, Houston is a great place, D. I seen your baby mama on 'Basketball Wives,' and there's plenty out here that are way better than her ...

Iggy Azalea is gearing up to release her debut album The New Classic and the Australia native's adventurous road to release had made her this month's MTV Artist to Watch.

In the year since she signed with T.I.'s Grand Hustle label and later added a deal with Island Def Jam to the fold, the 23-year-old admits that she's had time to discover herself as an artist and hone in on the music she really wants to make.

It's clear, even from the visuals that have accompanied her recent singles "Work" and "Bounce" that she's doing things on her own terms. For the Bollywood-themed "Bounce" video, Iggy hoped to have her boss and mentor T.I. make a cameo, but getting him all the way to India proved to be an issue.

"I shot my new video in India and I did invite him but he couldn't make it because it takes a really long time to actually obtain a visa [for] India," she told MTV News. "I invited him a week before. I didn't realize it takes so long, so he couldn't come with me when I shot my video in India."

"Bounce" followed the video for "Work," which Iggy based on one of her favorite Australian film's "Priscilla, Queen of the Desert," (in addition to a little influence from OutKast and Quentin Tarantino).

"I really liked this film as a kid and always identified with it because it's [about] drag queens and they have to keep stopping in small rural towns and they're not accepted," she explained to MTV News. "I ...

One Direction have always had a slightly dirty sense of humor about their clean-cut image. While they don't have the hard-partying reputation of The Wanted, with an album dubbed Take Me Home, they can be naughty when they want to be.

Occasionally photographed leaving a nightclub or with a new rumored love interest, the fab five aren't afraid to be open about who they are, even with the flashing lights of a photographer's lens never far away.

"I don't think we've ever tried to be squeaky-clean. Nobody's perfect," Liam Payne says in Glamour magazine's August cover story.

"The thing is, when you're playing a part, eventually it goes wrong," Harry Styles added. "Eventually someone's going to see that that's not who you are. So it's best to be yourself from the get-go."

But they admit that when they're constantly away from home, it can be hard to stay in touch with themselves. While traveling across the country for their Take Me Home Tour, they're learning how to balance their personal and professional lives.

"Yeah, it's something that is quite hard — people being a bit rude to [ex-girlfriend Danielle Peazer] on the Internet. And it's a challenge having a relationship on the road," Payne explained. (Payne and Peazer reportedly broke up back in May.) "Credit to anybody that does it, really."

But some of the guys are doing it. Zayn Malik (who recently got a tattoo of his girlfriend, Little Mix's Perrie Edward) and Louis Tomlinson are two members that have found a way to find time for both long term love ...