When the “Run” video was released earlier this month, it caused quite a stir online. Could this possibly be a trailer for something bigger? (The answer — “Coming never” — was revealed at the end). And what about the idea behind the wild video? And all the cameos? Melina Matsoukas, the video’s director, gave Elle the stories behind the visual.

“Beyoncé was definitely really excited; Jay was a bit skeptical, but we were able to kind of force him into it,” she said. “He’s always interested in doing something different so I think that part was exciting to him. I think he was hesitant about ‘Oh, now I have to be an actor.’ I was like, ‘If it works, great. If not, then we’ll cut around it and make it a more typical video.’”

Once he was in, though, Hov was ready to play ball.

“Jay put in a call for Sean Penn,” explained Matsoukas, who has directed dozens of videos. “It was the end of us shooting the first day. One of Jay’s creatives came up to me and she’s like, ‘OK, we need to call Sean Penn now. He’s coming tomorrow.’ And I’m like, ‘What? OK.’ So I’m driving back through the desert, and my phone’s not working, and it didn’t work that night, and I wake up the next morning to a text from Sean Penn.”

Penn, who was just one of a star-studded cast that also included Don Cheadle, Blake Lively, Rashida Jones and Jake Gyllenhaal, improvised all of ...

Jay Z has parted ways with his longtime manager John Meneilly, according to The New York Daily News.

It’s unclear why the alleged split occurred. One source said the decision was made a couple months ago and that it was “amicable and mutual,” while another claimed “it wasn’t [Meneilly's] choice.”

Meneilly has worked with Hov for years, primarily in a business capacity — he was a part of the launch of Roc Nation and reportedly helped facilitate the deal with Samsung for Hov’s Magna Carta Holy Grail — though he was credited as his manager in the liner notes for MCHG, according to HipHopDX.

Meneilly has been down with Hov since the Roc-a-Fella days, and though he was almost never in the spotlight, he did get shoutouts on wax from time-to-time, including on Jay’s “My 1st Song” and Kanye West’s “Last Call.”

Adam Fleischer

Usually pouring water on my head. Catch me @adamfleischer

Sure, Drake has had some out of this world success in music, but he’s not actually from out of this world, is he? Charles Hamilton certainly think so.

“I believe Drake is an alien,” the rapper said during an interview with Sa Neter Tv7 in his native Harlem. “Let’s not go too far into the song ‘Started from the Bottom,’ [but] there’s a melody in that song, and that melody is, like, the mental ringtone of the aliens.”

Then, he got to the heart of what most people have been wondering about the Drizzy hit.

“But, the reason why there is a debate, is because 808s are used in that song; so, if that song was truly an alien song, why would it have 808s?” he asked. How, indeed? “808s are frequency-based, not drum-based. So if you’re dealing with frequencies and sh–, a pissed off alien can go, Wooo, wooo, wooo, wooo, and make the song.”

That’s just one of the many seemingly strange, memorable moments from the nearly 30-minute interview.

Others include, but are not limited to: his belief that Jimmy Iovine being “the closet thing we got to God”; his worship of Sonic the Hedgehog and J Dilla; his claims that he still has a record deal; his theory on what happened between Jay Z and Solange; his beliefs in mysticism and alchemy; his thoughts on Yeezus; and why he never sold out.

Just watch the whole thing. And then take it back to when MTV News spoke with Charles back in ...

Want to become an official S.H.I.E.L.D. agent? Then you’re going to want to head to New York City starting May 30 to visit Discovery Times Square, where a new interactive exhibit allows visitors to not only join the elite organization, but to explore mind-blowing props from the Marvel movies, and the science behind them.

In advance of the opening, I had a chance to sneak a peek behind the scenes of the exhibit while it was still being built for a private tour. And what I saw was, for any fan of Marvel Studios, pretty stupendous.

The first thing you should know is that with only a few short days left until the official opening (and about 37 hours until the opening night party), crews were still working around the clock 24-hour long shifts to finish the one-of-a-kind exhibit. That meant I wasn’t able to experience the full power of the exhibit – most of the electronics in particular still needed to be hooked up – but it was still plenty cool.

Once everything is up and running, the tour starts off by getting your own personalized S.H.I.E.L.D. identification badge. You can scan your picture, enter some basic info, and you’re able to access both the exhibits at Discovery, and a webpage with more info and surprises at home.

From there, the exhibit allows 30 guests to enter at a time, every five or six minutes. My tour guide confided that beyond making an incredible exhibit, one of the large concerns ...

I don’t know if you’ve seen Cherub’s video for their hit single “Doses & Mimosas” yet, but it’s way, way ballsy. Like, literally, you guys.

From golden underwear to ass-less chaps, electro-pop duo Jordan Kelley and Jason Huber show fans a whole new side of themselves in this video — if by “side” you mean basically every inch of flesh and every tongue-in-cheek tattoo (see if you can spot the mer-kitten lactating into a dog dish!).

Yup, they play strippers — and, yup, they take their roles very seriously. If you define “seriously” as romping around with alligators and donning pants-less chef uniforms while staring at boobs.

The guys told us more about their inspiration for the video — spoiler: they watched “Mike Magic” on loop for two days — as well as the dark side of the bouncy summer anthem.

Check it out below:

Year of the Caprese is out now.

Brenna Ehrlich

Brenna Ehrlich is a reporter for MTV News as well as the senior writer/editor for the O Music Awards. In the past, she served as associate editor at Mashable, penned a netiquette column for CNN and co-authored the blog and book "Stuff Hipsters Hate." She likes trying not to die in moshpits and listening to songs on repeat. Follow her on Twitter @BrennaEhrlich for news on cats and punk bands.

What have you done today? Probably nothing. Our lives are mostly replete with aimless meandering, all culminating in the Big Sleep.

Well, here’s one little girl who will not go gently: 9-year-old skater Sabre Norris, who does not know the meaning of the word “quit.”

Check out her skate story below, as well as a video of her mastering her favorite trick.

“My skating all started because I wasn’t allowed to get a bike because we don’t have a garage. So my mum bought us skateboards instead. I started from rolling down my dad’s business car park. I’ve been skating for about 3 years.

“My favorite trick is a 540. I watched Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins do it on the internet, and I just had to do it. That was my 75th attempt of the day. Every time I tried one and didn’t land it, I put a rock on the table. It ended up being my 75th rock. I was frothing. I did some 720s, too. Not proper. I called it 540 to revert to splat. I didn’t cry though.

“My goal is to do 100 of them before this Saturday. I’m up to 75. I still can’t ride a bike, but I can do a 540.”

Brenna Ehrlich

Brenna Ehrlich is a reporter for MTV News as well as the senior writer/editor for the O Music Awards. In the past, she served as associate editor at Mashable, penned a netiquette column for CNN and co-authored the blog and ...

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Hundreds of thousands of new cases are reported every year. Count Lupe Fiasco among the many people whose lives have been directly affected by the disease.

“My grandmother passed away from cancer,” Lupe explained on “NewsNation With Tamron Hall,” while discussing his new single, “Mission,” which is meant to uplift those affected by the disease and was released in collaboration with Stand Up To Cancer. “It was very sudden; it wasn’t a drawn-out battle or fight.”

The Chicago native added that in recent years, he’s had a number of friends diagnosed, including a professor from Chicago State University, who particularly inspired the song.

“His reaction to it was he was gonna fight it, and fight it in a very bold, aggressive, vigorous kind of manner,” he explained. “And it was the first time I had ever seen a close friend of mine battling with cancer.”

Lu decided to write the song in his friend’s honor, as well as for his grandmother and everyone else who has battled cancer. The track, which also serves as a single for upcoming album Tetsuo & Youth, includes both vocals from cancer survivors giving personal accounts and finds the rapper telling stories from their perspectives in his verses.

Once it was finished, but before it was released, Lupe went around and played it for patients at the Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center in Chicago. With their approval, he ...

So not only did 17-year-old Brett Nichols win his high school talent contest for his spot-on Michael Jackson dance moves, become a viral sensation and get an official nod from MJ’s estate — he also, apparently, brought peace to his school.

When MTV News asked Nichols — before school — if the viral video has made a difference when it comes to his high school career, he said: “Oh, totally. There are guys who maybe a week ago would never even talk to me [talking to me now]. There’s generally a lot of positivity.”

“The whole school doesn’t seem to be in as much small chaos as it used to be,” he added. “It’s not a crazy school, but every school has its rough moments and there haven’t been those lately.”

Take that, Dalai Lama.

Sure, this newfound peace might have something to do with the fact that the school year ends come Friday, but I’m guessing Nichols’ fancy moves and the fame they have brought to California’s Pitman High have made a major impact on the school’s denizens.

The video, which hit the Web last week and has since racked up more than 14-million views, is about 13 years in the making.

Nichols was first introduced to Michael Jackson’s moves in 2001 after seeing the “Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Special” at age five. A few years later, he started practicing Jackson’s dance steps — sometimes for three hours at a time. He’s entirely self-taught.

“I thought it was the coolest thing I had ...

Over the last few years, Ne-Yo has struck gold with his foray into the EDM scene. Features on hits like “Give Me Everything,” as well as his own EDM-inspired last album, R.E.D., and its smash single, “Let Me Love You (Until You Learn To Love Yourself),” made some wonder if the singer would ever return to his R&B roots.

Fear not: That’s exactly what he plans to do on his new album, Non Fiction.

“I needed my R&B fans to know that I hadn’t abandoned them,” Ne-Yo said during an interview with Power 105.1′s “The Breakfast Club” on Tuesday (May 27) — the same day that he released his Jeezy-assisted new single, “Money Can’t Buy.”

“I had heard something like that being said, and nothing could be farther from the truth. I’ma keep the lights on; I’ma make the money. But I’m also gonna make the music that feels good to me. But at the same time, I do understand where that came from.”

“This album is 99.999998 percent R&B,” he vowed. “I can’t completely abandon that fanbase, because, as I said, they kept the lights on for a very long time. I still got some stuff that can live in that [EDM] world, but there’s so much R&B on this album that I had to find something that could live in that world but could also make sense on the album.”

The Jeezy collab is the first full step back towards the R&B world. The song connects the two to follow up their 2011 ...