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."

Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke teamed up to turn the 2013 Video Music Awards stage in Brooklyn into a festival of booty as they stormed through a vibrant medley of their hits "We Can't Stop," "Blurred Lines" and "Give It 2 U."

Miley, who earlier pleased her smilers by revealing the pink neon and '80s–inspired cover to her upcoming Bangerz album, had promised that she was out to pull off plotting a stunt to top the infamous moment when Madonna and Britney Spears puckered up onstage. She bombarded the stage with an army of Boo bears and booty dancers and ripped through a rendition of "We Can't Stop," which was triple-nominated for awards on Sunday night (August 25).

Miley embraced her role as the new twerk queen as she stripped off her bear-emblazoned leotard to cavort with Robin Thicke for a performance of the singer's Pharrell Williams-produced mega-hit "Blurred Lines," which is in the running for Video of the Year. With Thicke clad in a black-and-white-striped suit, Miley gave him an up close and personal private twerk show as the song climaxed.

Thicke then made his debut VMA performance one to remember as he brought out rappers 2 Chainz and Kendrick Lamar for the remixed version of his new single "Give It 2 U." Embracing the same football referee–themed vibe as the song's video, 2 Chainz was decked out in a flamboyant black-and-white outfit while Thicke surrounded himself with a gaggle of booty-empowered cheerleaders for his final winning-performance pose.

If you've been near a radio in the past few weeks, you've already heard her roar — and now it's time to hear what Katy Perry has to say. The "Roar" songstress herself is set to close out tonight's 2013 MTV Video Music Awards with an epic performance in a mystery Brooklyn location, but before she could head out under the cover of darkness, she stopped by the red carpet outside Brooklyn's Barclays Center to say hello.

Wearing a skintight leopard-print dress with long sleeves, a turtleneck, a daringly high thigh slit and, in the offbeat touch we've come to expect from Perry, gold-leaf dragonflies adorning her sternum, the singer caught up with MTV News' Sway Calloway to chat about her new album.

"I'm feeling very prismatic," Perry said, referencing the title of her upcoming album, Prism. Late last month, she announced the album's title and Octocter 22 release date in a manner far from subtle: The title and date were emblazoned on the side of a gold-plated semi truck the length of three storefronts, driving through the streets of Los Angeles.

Perry took a fan question from Twitter asking her to find three words to describe her show-closing performance. A trio, however, just wasn't enough for Perry.

"I just have a sentence if that's OK," she replied. "I know you want more anyway. Rough, tough and ready to rumble."

She also demonstrated her own roar for our cameras, saying, "That probably wasn't good for my voice."

It was the perfect Brooklyn day — blue skies, brownstones and a red carpet rolled out along the side of the Barclays Center. Is there a better place to have the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards?

Ariana Grande and Austin Mahone were the fresh faces to kick off the festivities with a pre-show performance. It's a stage that Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and Demi Lovato have all graced, and on Sunday (August 25), the two up-and-comers used their Brooklyn backdrop to deliver their biggest hits.

With dancers somersaulting on the red carpet, Austin turned toward our cameras, mugging and singing the opening lines to "What About Love." Austin Mahone is up for a Moonman award in the Artist to Watch category. His "What About Love" video competes with Twenty One Pilots, Zedd, The Weeknd and Iggy Azalea. In red and black leather, he showed off his choreographed moves on the carpeted Brooklyn street before kicking it to Ariana.

Grande belted out "Baby I" in a cappella, complete with vocal runs and flawless tonality. Her bejeweled earpiece was out, resting on her shoulder unneeded. Her crew, in all black, danced behind her onstage, but Grande stayed in place for the most part, focusing on her transition into "The Way."

Dancers led Ariana down a ramp and onto the red carpet, as she continued into her second song. She wore a princess-purple, silk dress, with sparkly prom-style jewels.

After her performance, she tried to shake off her jitters, walking over to MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway.

"I'm dying," she said.

"You must be feeling great?" Sway ...

BROOKLYN, New York — Danity Kane are back and bigger than ever. The girl group put together by Diddy on the show in 2005 appeared together for the first time in years on the 2013 Video Music Awards red carpet.

"We're baaaack!" the women collectively announced Sunday night (August 25). The group, whose roster now consists of Aubrey, Aundrea, Dawn and Shannon, looked gorgeous on the red carpet and teased that their new song will be called "Rage." They said they're "on their own this time," without Diddy.

VH1 Must-Read: Danity Kane Reunite and It Feels So Good!

Recently, the group's firecracker leader Aubrey O'Day posted a photo of the reunited crew on her Instagram. The fifth member, D. Woods, will not be a part of the reunion.

"Much love to the ladies of DK!! They have decided to reunite and I, like our amazing fans, will be cheering them on," Woods told Us Weekly.

Danity Kane burst onto the scene on MTV's "TRL" in 2006. The group's debut single, "Show Stopper," featured fellow Bad Boy artist Yung Joc. Danity's sultry vocals took their first, self-titled album and the 2008 follow-up, Welcome to the Dollhouse, to the top of the charts.

In 2009, Danity Kane broke up amid group tensions, caused especially by members O'Day and Woods, who decided to defect. "You'll see me and Drea [Aundrea Fimbres] try and pick up the pieces on our own [on this season's show] — pieces that we didn't even make," Dawn Richards said at the time. "We didn't ...