will.i.am is taking legal action against Pharrell for his use of the "I am" phrase. In court documents obtained by Rolling Stone, the rapper/producer claims he owns the copyright to the two words and states that Pharrell's logo for his creative brand "i am OTHER" looks "confusingly similar" to will.i.am's "I AM" logo.

The "i am OTHER" brand was created by Williams as a "creative venture and way of life," he writes on his site, with brands such as Billionaire Boys Club & ICECREAM and Brooklyn Machine Works as part of the company. In will.i.am's opposition document, he claims that "the registration of the mark... is likely to dilute the I AM mark and the WILL.I.AM mark."

Williams was "disappointed that Will, a fellow artist, would file a case against me," he said in a statement following the lawsuit. He continued, "I am someone who likes to talk things out and, in fact, I attempted to do just that on many occasions. I am surprised in how this is being handled and I am confident that Will's trademark claims will ultimately be found to be as meritless and ridiculous as I do."

will.i.am appeared on for her performance of "Fall Down" earlier Wednesday (June 26) but has not yet commented on the legal matter. Request for comment by MTV News to will.i.am has not been returned by press time.

Even if you've watched Miley Cyrus' on repeat since its release, you're probably still confused by some of the clip's more surreal images.

Some of the defining shots include Miley rocking a giant teddy bear backpack, a hand that bleeds pink paint and a skull made of French fries. Luckily, director Diane Martel opened up to MTV News about working on the statement-making visual, revealing the origins of several key scenes.

"The teddy bears my art director [Aramis Israel] found, and I knew they had to go on the twerkers' backs," she said of one scene that appears as though the giant bears are dancing. Martel said she and Israel looked to their favorite blogs for inspiration. "I'm really into kid's culture these days and this is the audience I play to, gotta keep 'em happy!"

The Ying Yang Twins Rate Miley's Twerking Skills!

Some ideas were more spur of the moment, including a scene where a partygoer rubs white bread all of his face, and that one where someone pretends to amputate their fingers, spewing pink paint everywhere. Martel explained, "The bread and the fingers I made up during a location scout in the kitchen."

While on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" this week, Miley added that the bread actually means something as well. "Got to get the bread! A little bit of money," she explained. "And also that it's kind of weird. A trippy moment. We thought it was symbolic for money."

Perhaps one of the standout symbols is the French fry skull, created by visual artist Christopher Chiappa, who Martel says ...

Jay-Z once paralleled his artistic plight against those of some of hip-hop's enlightened minds like Talib Kweli and Common. In an often-quoted lyric from his 2003 supposed retirement LP, The Black Album, Hov suggests in that if he wasn't such a commercial draw, he'd pack even more meaning, insight and raw skill into his lyrics: "If skills sold, truth be told, I'd probably be lyrically Talib Kweli/ Truthfully I wanna rhyme like Common Sense," he admitted in song.

It's ironic now that as Hov is set to release his 12th solo album via a surely lucrative partnership with Samsung, he seems to be embarking on the road he wished for back then. A single hasn't been released for Jay's upcoming Magna Carta Holy Grail, but the Brooklyn-born rap king has released lyric sheets for three of the album's tracks — and all of the cuts bypass the party for a deeper dive.

On Hov partners with Justin Timberlake to explore the push and pull of celebrity in an all-seeing society, and on the rapper questions religion and shoots down persistent rumors that he is part of a secret society.

On Wednesday (June 26), Jay released the lyrics to another track via the Magna Carta phone app. "Oceans" appropriately features singer/songwriter Frank Ocean, and on the song, the "Big Pimpin'" MC ponders the transatlantic slave trade using the ocean off the Ivory Coast as his inspiration. "This water mixed my blood/ This water tells my story/ This water knows it all," reads a portion ...

DOVER, Delaware — Kanye West's Yeezus album was deemed everything from artistic to aggressive, but one thing was for certain — it was something fans, including Kendrick Lamar, couldn't wait to get their hands on.

"It was hard for me to grasp it on the first take," K-Dot told MTV News at the Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Delaware. "I got it, but as I kept listening throughout the week, I understood where he was going and that was him stepping out of the box again and doing what he felt.

And as an artist, we all need to take heat into that and salute that because, at the end of the day, it's so much we can do following radio, following the politics in the business so for somebody to come back again and do what they want, it helps out new cats like myself, Cole, Drake, whoever, so salute."

Recognizing that Kanye stretched boundaries with his sixth studio album, which will hit #1 on Billboard's album chart, Lamar admitted he appreciates and understands the message Yeezy was trying to convey.

"My interpretation is, man, it's crazy how you come through with a distorted beat and still tap the realm of hip-hop and put some hardcore raps on it," Lamar said. "So I digest it, digest it and he continues to break rules."

The unconventional album, with the lack of a proper single and its experimental sounds, doesn't necessarily fit in a specific genre, but according to Lamar, that's what makes it so great.

"I'm good with the fact that ...

Miley Cyrus is on a roll, cruising around the country to promote her new single, and its record-breaking video. In the week since Miley dropped the Diane Martel-directed clip, it has amassed nearly 33 million views, breaking Justin Bieber's "Beauty and a Beat" record for most first-day views.

Miley made her rounds on the talk show circuit this week, with appearances on "Jimmy Kimmel Live," "Good Morning America" and "Live With Kelly and Michael." Here are the highlights:

Rolling With Her Homies
Miley kicked off the bi-coastal trip Tuesday night with Kimmel in L.A., where she talked about chilling with her "Ashtrays and Heartbreaks" pal, Snoop.

"I just call him 'Snoop.' I'm not actually that sure [how we met]. I started hanging out with him in the studio and I worked with [producer] Diplo a little bit ... He comes by the studio, he listens to my music, and he's excited about what I'm doing with my career, so it's cool," Miley revealed. "We're more alike than you would think. We're very similar. He actually said that."

Kimmel joked, "That's because he's so high, he doesn't even know what his name is."

"Me too," she added. "We both are. No, yeah. That's why we get along so well, I guess."

Haters Keep On Hating
Miley was in NYC on Wednesday, where she kept the gossip lovers at bay on "GMA." Asked about her engagement to Liam Hemsworth, she noted, "I'm wearing a ring," then proceeded to thank any haters for helping boost her popularity.

"I've got a really bomb fanbase, and they're the ...

Complete awesomeness at all times is what Kanye West promised in the lead-up to his Yeezus, and with that dedication, the self-proclaimed Michael Jordan (and Steve Jobs ... and Walt Disney) of rap will debut at the top of next week's Billboard albums chart for the fifth time in his solo career.

West's highly experimental hip-hop album managed to move over 325,000 copies without a traditional album rollout. There was no single for radio, no video for MTV or YouTube and a limited press run — yet, Yeezy was still able to snag the #1 spot in a week that saw a number of high-profile releases.

J. Cole moved the release of his sophomore LP, Born Sinner, up one week — from June 25 to June 18 — to meet West at retail and work himself into the conversation. It was a risky move for the Roc Nation MC, but the gamble paid off and earned him the runner-up position. Cole's Born Sinner sold 296,000 copies, a jump from the first-week sales of his previous album, Cole World: The Sideline Story, which sold 217,000 in its first week when it dropped back in 2011.

"Grateful for the everyone that bought the album. Thank you. 3hunna," J. Cole wrote on Twitter late Tuesday night, when the final projections all but guaranteed him a successful sales week.

Mac Miller also made a sizeable dent in the charts with his sophomore indie release, Watching Movies With the Sound Off, which notched 101,000 sales. Mac's 2011 debut, Blue Slide Park, debuted ...