Sexy female football players, mini monster trucks, barely-there bikinis, giant jars of caviar, a cotton candy-covered dancer and verses from Kendrick Lamar and 2 Chainz. Oh, and Robin Thicke taking his shirt off for a change.

Add it all up and you have VMA-nominated? Thicke's latest dose of irresistible eye candy: "Give It 2 U." On the eve of his performance at Sunday's 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, Thicke sat down with MTV News' Sway Calloway to debut the clip for his second single from Blurred Lines on MTV's All Access Live Experience, sharing the story behind the video and revealing that his son is the real star.

And if you thought "Blurred Lines" was a party out of control, well, Thicke has definitely upped his game for the sequel. Imagine the sexiest halftime show ever and you'll get a flavor of what Thicke and director Diane Martel have cooked up for an encore.

It opens with a spirit squad taking the field, along with the aforementioned shirtless Thicke, flanked by a woman covered in bags of cotton candy and tiny parade floats. In addition to The Stingettes, Alabama State University's dance team, Thicke and wife Paula Patton's son, Julian Fuego, shows off his fancy dancemoves at mid-field, proving that it's definitely all in the genes.

From there you see, in quick succession: Thicke grabbing a taste of cotton candy, a naked guy dancing through the frame, giant dancing rolls of $100 bills and champagne bottles, more cheerleaders and additional mini floats with after-hours themes.

By the time 2 ...

The 2013 Video Music Awards are now only three days away, and it's safe to say we've lined up one of the most impressive performer lineups in VMA history: Lady Gaga, Kanye West, Miley Cyrus, Justin Timberlake, Robin Thicke and more. If we only had a glimpse at those rehearsals... Luckily, there are little things called Instagram and Twitter.

For the most part, our roster of VMA performers has been pretty hush-hush when it comes to sharing behind-the-scenes pics, but a few musicians have been getting decidedly snap-happy. Check out a few rehearsal pics from the likes of Miley Cyrus and Austin Mahone below.

Just Bein' Miley Backstage
Miley Cyrus is slated to perform on Sunday at the Video Music Awards, having been nominated for Best Song of the Summer, Best Pop Video and Best Female Video for "We Can't Stop."

Check out some of her decidedly silly backstage snaps below:

Nothing like a good Furry makeout sesh to get the creative juices flowing.

We hope she sports those slippers onstage.

Cyrus's signature hair gets a twist.

Austin Mahone Counts Down
Austin Mahone appears beyond pumped for his VMA pre-show appearance on Sunday — the Artist To Watch has been counting down the days. Publicly. On Instagram. Check out gleeful grams — and more — below.

Watch Mahone count to three!

He gets cryptic with this tweet. What looks insane, Austin? Care to share?

Pics or it didn't happen.

We Stand Here Waiting...
Lady Gaga is primed to open the 2013 Video Music Awards with the first-ever performance of her ARTPOP single "Applause," and we have no idea ...

Everyone knows when step onto the VMA stage, you've got to seize the spotlight. After all, this is your time to shine, your moment to make a memory. And that's especially true if you've been tapped to open the show; not only will you set the tone for the entire evening, but there are two-plus hours of entertainment still to come, and, given the history of the Video Music Awards, well, you know anything can happen (and, more than likely will). So you've got to be great. In front of an audience filled with the most famous people on the planet, and millions of fans watching around the world. No pressure or anything.

It's little wonder, then, that over the past three decades, the VMA's opening slot has produced some of show's most iconic moments: triumphant comebacks, touching tributes, thrilling performances ... not to mention a few infamous missteps that have become the stuff of legend. Regardless, we're still talking about them, and in the lead up to the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, we're taking a look back at the most memorable opening moments in VMA history.

In the early days (you know, the '80s) the opening slot of the show was generally reserved for the hosts — who can forget Dan Akroyd and Bette Midler rising from the Radio City stage dressed as astronauts at the first-ever VMAs, or Eddie Murphy's epic menagerie of sweaters in 1985? — while the real moments took place later (like, Madonna's decade-defining "Like a Virgin" performance, which occurred some 40 minutes into the ...

It's the rallying cry of bands on their way home after a long tour. The drunken chorus of newly minted New Yorkers as they roll over the Brooklyn Bridge at 3 a.m. And now, nearly 30 years after the Beastie Boys dropped the seminal album Licensed To Ill, "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" is the official anthem of the 2013 Video Music Awards.

The Beastie Boys' debut studio album, Licensed to Ill, dropped in 1986, fresh from the new Def Jam Recordings, which was headed up at the time by Rick Rubin and the Boys' then-manager Russell Simmons. The record contains some of the band's biggest hits, including "Fight for Your Right" and the tribute to the borough that many of the guys called home: "No Sleep Till Brooklyn."

A battle cry, a debaucherous ode to BK embraced New Yorkers and non-natives alike, the song also represented a shift in music — a merging of hip-hop and rock that the guys pulled off with their trademark tongue-in-cheek swagger. The accompanying video, featuring the Beasties' friends and co-directed by Def Jam pal Ric Menello — who passed away in March — captured that same spirit.

In celebration of the jam's history — and to get pumped for the Video Music Awards' first time in Brooklyn — MTV News spoke with the people behind the song and video. They gave us a heartfelt and hilarious new-before-seen peek at Brooklyn's own unofficial anthem.

A 'Very New York Song'
Russell Simmons, Def Jam Recordings founder:
"It was perfect, you know, 'No Sleep Till Brooklyn.' It was ...

Up until now, Zayn Malik has remained relatively tight-lipped about his engagement to Little Mix's Perrie Edwards. But on Friday (August 23), the One Direction heartthrob took to Twitter to open up to his Directioners about his "happy" news.

"Never been more happy in my life! Thank you to everyone that has been so lovely about my engagement to my beautiful fiancé!" Zayn wrote two days after his rep confirmed the engagement to MTV News. "Big love."

Just two days before the guys are slated to appear at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, 1D visited the "Today" show Friday morning, where Niall Horan tried to deflect talk about Zayn's engagement, joking, "I'm pregnant. It's exclusive to the 'Today' show."

Malik and Edwards first sparked engagement rumors Wednesday after the Little Mix singer was spotted wearing some bling at the U.K. premiere of One Direction's new 3-D flick, The following day, he sat down with U.K. radio station Capital FM and called the engagement "cool."

Malik has been busy making the rounds promoting "This Is Us," which hits theaters August 30. Additionally, 1D is up for Best Song of the Summer for their single "Best Song Ever" at the VMAs. They are currently ahead in the competition, with Miley Cyrus' "We Can't Stop" trailing behind.

Directioners can vote for the boy band with the hashtag #voteonedirection. The VMAs will go live from Brooklyn's Barclays Center on Sunday. The pre-show kicks off 8 p.m. ET/PT followed by the main show at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

When Mos Def (now Yasiin Bey) and Talib Kweli dropped their Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star album in 1998, the plan was never to form something permanent — but try to tell that to the legion of fans that have championed the duo since they formed 15 years ago.

"It was definitely a one-time thing; it was definitely a project," Talib told MTV News as we rode down Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn in a dollar van, a nod to the group's first music video, "Definition." In that clip, he and Mos rapped from a similar van, a popular mode of public transportation in New York City outer boroughs.

"Even though we didn't envision Black Star as a group per se, it became a group," he admitted. "Once the music was created and it came out, once people responded and it resonated with people the way that it did, you can't tell nobody Black Star wasn't a group."

The LP will turn 15 years old on September 29, and hip-hop heads have been singing its praises ever since. It was a thoughtful and independent juxtaposition to big-budget, major-label albums like Diddy's No Way Out and Ma$e's Harlem World, with love songs like "Brown Skin Lady" and the hip-hop ode "Definition."

With the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards taking place at the Barclays Center on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, the cultural hub that both Talib and Yasiin hold so dear, we take a trip down memory lane with Kweli to talk about some of the album's stand-out tracks.

"The day it came ...

Classic cinematographer Gilbert Taylor passed away Friday, August 23, at the age of 99, as reported by BBC News, leaving behind an impressive filmography of incomparable importance. Taylor died at his home on the Isle of Wight in England, with his wife, Dee Taylor, and family by his side.

With a career spanning over 40 years and including films such as "A Hard Day's Night," "The Omen" and "Star Wars," Taylor's contributions to the world of film are immeasurable.

Taylor was born in 1914 in Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire, and found work as a camera assistant at London's Gainsborough Studios at the young age of 15. He then served as an officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve during World War II, filming the aftermath of overnight raids on Germany for Winston Churchill. Taylor's cinematography career began with 1948's "The Outsider" starring Richard Attenborough.

After working on the Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" and Alfred Hitchcock's "Frenzy," Taylor — by then almost a 30-year film industry vet — began work on George Lucas' latest film, "Star Wars," in the 1970s. His contributions to the film, as he revealed in an interview with American Cinematographer magazine, were substantial.

"George avoided all meetings and contact with me from day one," said Taylor. "So I read the extra-long script many times and made my own decisions as to how I would shoot the picture. I took it upon myself to experiment with photographing the lightsabers and other things onstage before we moved on to our two weeks of location work in ...

It's not a dream! It's not a hoax! Ben Affleck will play Batman in 2015's "Man of Steel" sequel, meaning that the Academy Award winner will come face-to-cowl with Henry Cavill's Superman in what's sure to be the team-up — or throwdown — of the decade. But not all is right in Gotham. Comic book fans are a notoriously fickle bunch, and Ben Affleck's brief tenure as Batman-to-be has been divisive at best.

Thanks to nearly 75 years of constant appearances in comics, films and television shows, Batman has become a character that fans feel incredibly passionate about. This constant exposure has also given fans a checklist of essential ingredients every actor must possess before getting the keys to the Batmobile. Here are five Bat-traits that the "Argo" director will have to nail in order to bring this new Batman to life.

Bat Body
Affleck isn't known for taking on particularly physically demanding roles, with his characters in recent films like "Argo" and "The Town" not nearing the level of superhuman physique that previous Batman Christian Bale sported in his three outings as Bruce Wayne. Affleck will need to tone up his everyman bod past even the heroic proportions he sported when he played a superhero in 2003's "Daredevil." But audience members need not worry, because Affleck will get in fighting shape for the role — that's what personal trainers are for.

Affleck doesn't even have that far to go, especially when compared to Marvel Studios leading man Chris Pratt, who went from an extreme schlub on "Parks and ...