Like Andy Warhol to a previous generation of rock and pop acts, performance artist Marina Abramović has become a muse to some of today's biggest stars.

From her appearance in the new Jay Z video for 
 to a just-dropped provocative clip
 from Lady Gaga, Abramović has become a muse and touchstone for a whole new generation.

But who is Abramović and why are Jay and Mother Monster hyping her to their fans?

Abramović was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1946 and began her career in the early 1970s as a painter, visual, text and sound artist as well as one of the pioneers of the performance art movement. Along with fellow performance artists Vito Acconci, Chris Burden and Bruce Nauman, Abramović helped explode the boundaries of fine art with conceptual performances and happenings that often involved her testing the limits of her endurance and pain threshold.

Like Burden, who once crucified himself on a Volkswagen Beetle in a piece called "Trans-fixed," Abramović was not afraid to put herself in harm's way for such pieces as 1973's "Rhythm 10," during which she played a kind of Russian roulette with a series of knives, cutting herself multiple times in the process, which she then repeated. In "Rhythm 5" from 1974, she lay at the center of a burning 5-point star until she lost consciousness.

But perhaps her best known work is 2010's "The Artist is Present," a grueling performance during which Abramović sat silently for 736 hours in a gallery at New York's Museum of Modern Art staring at a group of ...

With in theaters now, 21-year-old Logan Lerman returns as the demigod son of Poseidon — but don't expect his triumph in "Lightning Thief" to have left him jaded. In fact, as Lerman told MTV News, fans will find Percy lacking major confidence in this sequel.

"At the end of the first movie, Percy was the hero. He saved the day and everything was great," Lerman said. "Now, at the beginning of this film, we find him, and he's not the hero anymore. He's filled with self-doubt. He's been one-upped by another demigod, and he's not sure if he's good enough to be the hero that might be expected of him."

Of course, you'll have to purchase a movie ticket to find out if Percy can live up to his legendary destiny and retrieve the Golden Fleece. And though his character had a rough go of it this time around, Lerman told MTV News that when it came to the film's stunts, he had an easier time thanks to his training for "Lightning Thief."

"I was pretty good with the sword work and the wire work now," Logan explained. "When we did the first movie, I didn't know anything about any of that. So having to pick up a sword for the first time and feel comfortable was a little nerve-racking. Now, I can go out there and [say], 'Let's learn this sequence. Let's train to figure out what the choreography is, and make it crazy and make it good.' We just did a lot of prep for all the choreography ...

Fans were up in arms when Birdman announced plans to work on a new Big Tymers album with Lil Wayne and Drake — minus Mannie Fresh — but it turns out that the Toronto rapper had no idea that project was on the table, until he started receiving hate mail.

"I didn't get the phone call about that," Drake told MTV News, clearly caught off guard by the question, and even glancing over at his management for answers. "But I'm sure I'll be involved."

"I would've loved to bring the Big Tymers out [at OVO Fest], that would've been crazy," he said after catching himself. "But maybe we'll save that for next year."

Drake explained that he never actually had a conversation with Birdman about working on a Big Tymers album, but only heard uproar over the project in passing, after Birdman initially announced the news on a special YMCMB edition of "RapFix Live" in Miami and ruled out Mannie Fresh's involvement.

"Mannie Fresh is an incredible guy and of course Birdman is one of a kind," he said. "I think I heard about it or watched some of it, and then I got people being like, 'You'll never be a Big Tymer, your sh-- is terrible — just going off on me."

"So I'm not the one being like, 'Oh I'm a new Big Tymer,'" he added, laughing. "[But] I'm down though, to work on anything. If Birdman calls me to work on something I'ma work on it."

During his most recent visit to "RapFix Live" last month, Birdman admitted that after ...

In their new video, the Kings of Leon do something they haven't done in years: smile.

Yes, inspired by the newfound happiness that fuels their upcoming Mechanical Bull album, the Kings ditch the dourness that came to define the Come Around Sundown era, and get back to the business of being a bad-ass band ... and, according to "Supersoaker" director W.I.Z., that was precisely the point.

"The Kings make serious rock and roll music, with the wisdom and panache not to take themselves too seriously," he wrote to MTV News in an email. "[We wanted] playful, sensual ideas of teen angst, rock and roll and Americana; we wanted to a make a piece that was urgent as well as effortless, precision with abandon."

And in keeping with those themes, W.I.Z. — who's directed videos for Oasis, Marilyn Manson, and Kasabian — filled the "Supersoaker" clip with over-saturated colors, texts and pop art, casted a gaggle of models, ran the footage through a gritty, Super 8 filter, and basically let the band be themselves. Or, as he put it:

"My inspiration is the hungry beat of Nathan's snare drum and the soul in Caleb's rasping voice," he wrote. "The look is an imagined hybrid of pop-art screenprint, hand tinting and Technicolour film."

Now that's some prime director-speak. And though some may want to read even deeper into "Supersoaker's" style and sentiment ... especially in these Instagrammed times of twerk, well, W.I.Z. advises them to stop digging, sit back, and enjoy the video for what it is: a kick-ass rock and roll clip, ...

Eminem might be the next rapper to drop a monster album this year with only a few days' notice, but there was no mention of that Wednesday night when Shady took the stage for an extended set at G-Shock's "Shock The World" 30th anniversary party in New York.

The performance coincided with the brand announcing Eminem's own limited edition, Detroit-inspired G-Shock watch, which will be released in December.

After an opening set from Shady Records signee Yelawolf, who delivered singles like "Trunk Muzik," Marshall Mathers hit the stage in shorts, a baseball cap and a camo hoodie for his very rare performance.

D12 rapper and producer Mr. Porter played the role of hype man for Shady, and while fans were unsure whether to expect only songs from his most recent albums, or maybe even a preview from his upcoming project, Em took it back to some of his classics.

From Marshall Mathers' "Kill You" and "Stan" to Recovery's "No Love," Em rotated between albums, and finally stripped down to his usual white T-shirt after getting warmed up. "Criminal," "Cleanin' Out My Closet," "The Way I Am," "Sing For The Moment," "Like Toy Soldiers" and even his verse on "Airplanes" made the cut.

The Shady Records family was in the building to show their support — including Obie Trice, who watched from the VIP section — but Royce Da 5' 9'' was the only cameo of the night, joining Eminem for their Bad Meets Evil collaboration "Lighters."

Em followed up their radio hit with "Not Afraid" from his most recent album Recovery, before the lights dimmed ...

Now this is the Lady Gaga we've been missing!

Never content to put out a simple teaser video for her new album, Mother Monster blew minds late Wednesday when she dropped a bizarre, definitely NSFW clip in which she pays homage to legendary performance artist Marina Abramović.

Oh and she gets totally nude and hugs a bunch of giant crystals, too.

The trailer of sorts for her upcoming album, ARTPOP
, is a tribute to the Abramović Method, which the artist describes as an exercise that "helps participants to develop skills for observing long durational performances."

In Gaga's case, that means a two-minute video which opens with her laying on a gallery floor in an all-white jumpsuit while singing a single note for nearly 30 seconds and then standing in the rain in the middle of a river doing the same while wearing a pair of yellow horns over her eyes.

Gaga, who is slated to take the stage on August 25
 at the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards, had said in an earlier statement that her new album would find her working with a number of art-world luminaries and Abramović certainly fits the bill. The 66-year-old Serbian performance artist has been provoking audiences for more than four decades, often with works that are physically challenging.

One of her most famous pieces is the 2010 "The Artist is Present" work at New York's Museum of Modern Art, during which she sat in silence for more than 730 hours while looking into the eyes of a rotating series of visitors ...

The Wanted's Nathan Sykes was feeling the pressure when he was asked to contribute his vocals to Ariana Grande's ballad It marked the first time he would hit the recording studio after undergoing vocal cord surgery back in April.

"I met Ariana at a charity bowling event thing, and she seemed lovely, and we kept in contact, and she's a really talented girl," Sykes recalled to MTV News. "I got the call from [manager] Scooter [Braun] like, 'We want you to try this vocal. It's a really hard vocal, and she doesn't even know it's been turned into a duet.'

"This would have been the first time I've recorded since my surgery, so I went in," he explained, noting that the team had to evaluate his post-surgery vocal ability. "I was really nervous. I've never been so nervous for a session, and went in and [did] what I like to think is quite possibly the best vocal I've ever recorded. I'm really proud of it."

Grande, who Sykes called the "best female vocalist" out right now, previously gushed to MTV News about how great the boy bander did on the song, which will appear on her debut album, Yours Truly, as well as the soundtrack for The Wanted singer, on the other hand, initially had his reservations.

"I didn't know how my voice would sound 'cause I didn't know what my capabilities [were], and it was kind of scary that I've had so much more control than I've ever had due to the team that I've ...