Last night, the New York Yankees shook off a weight that has been around their collective neck since 2004. In defeating the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim by a score of 5-2, the Yanks won their first American League pennant since 2003 and overcoming their growing reputation as choke artists since they blew a three game lead against the Boston Red Sox in the 2004 playoffs. For the first time in years, the World Series (which kicks off at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx on Wednesday) will actually pit the two best teams in either league against each other for total dominance of baseball. Their opponent, the Philadelphia Phillies, match up pretty well, sporting a similarly dangerous lineup and a deep pitching squad. Philadelphia might have a bit of a leg up on the Bronx Bombers, as by the time the first pitch of the World Series is thrown on Wednesday night, the Phils will have had over a week off. In any event, it should be a memorable tilt between two of baseball's most storied franchises.

At the end of every Yankees victory, the song pumped into Yankee Stadium is "New York, New York" (sung by Frank Sinatra), a tradition that dates back decades. But since the brand-new Yankee Stadium is a 21st century marvel that may have cost over $1 billion, it needs a new celebration song for the future — a badass track from a modern New York artist who knows how to represent for sports. So here's the Newsroom's vote for a new tradition: Every time the Yanks score a victory, the fans should exit to Busta Rhymes' "New York Sh--."

It sometimes seems like singer, producer and Auto-Tune aficionado T-Pain has been around a lot longer than he actually has. But his first music only came out back in 2005, and the guy is only 26 years old. He'll almost certainly be spending his birthday — which is today — in style, as it seems like every time we see him he's either hanging out in a strip club, buying ladies dranks or rolling up to awards shows on elephants. But what do you get a guy who has everything, including a "big ass chain," his own Auto-Tune-centric iPhone app and a fine collection of top hats?

Regardless, Pain hasn't slowed his output, as he's constantly appearing in videos, guesting on songs and working on his own album Revolver, which is expected late this year or early next. But if there's any one collaborator who should buy Pain a cupcake on his birthday today, it's Busta Rhymes. Pain guested on Busta's track "Hustler's Anthem '09," and it's one of the strongest songs from Rhymes' latest album Back on My B.S., which came out earlier this year. The track is hot, but the video is even hotter: A super-saturated Hype Williams joint that taps into Busta's classic court jester vibe. So blow out your candles, T-Pain, and be proud that if nothing else, you've brought Busta back to his technicolor greatness.

Perhaps you read that Mariah Carey's upcoming CD, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel, will come with a 34-page booklet packed with ads for upscale perfumes and liquors. Her label, Island/Def Jam, is promoting the venture as a ground-breaker in integrating marketing for a music industry that has seen a steadily increasing decline in music sales over the past decade. But as pioneering as it is, Mariah is not the first artist to dip her toe into musical product placement by teaming up with advertisers to hawk her music.

Last year, Chris Brown's label cut a deal with the Wm. Wrigley, Jr. company to have the singer turn his song "Forever" into a jingle in ads for Doublemint gum by using the 1famous "double your pleasure, double your fun" tagline. While plenty of singers have lent their songs out to be used in commercials, the collaboration with the gum maker and Brown — whose ads were pulled after he was arrested for assaulting Rihanna — presented a new level of corporate collaboration.

Coca-Cola recently recruited Cee-Lo Green from Gnarls Barkley, Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump, Panic! At The Disco's Brendon Urie, Gym Class Heroes' Travis McCoy and Janelle Monae to write and sing a new jingle, "Open Happiness," which was turned into a music video aired, among other places, on MTV. And last year, Santigold, Pharrell Williams and Strokes singer Julian Casablancas hooked up to write "My Drive Thru," a jingle for Converse sneakers.

For years, artists like Jay-Z and Diddy have hyped their own brands in songs, and others, like Busta Rhymes, have gotten deals on the back end after paying tribute to liquors like Courvoisier in verse. But more recently, new band Parachute acoustically reworked their song "She is Love" to serve as the "single" for a new ad for beauty products giant Nivea. The deal was such a success that the band's next single is also going to be used in a Nivea ad.

But frankly, these deals pale in comparison to a few of the most notorious product placement gigs in music history. First came British rock icons the Who, whose third album, 1967's The Who Sell Out, was packaged as a concept record with fake commercials between the songs but which led to lawsuits by real commercial interests who cried foul over the parodies. Then there was Flaunt It, the notorious 1986 debut album from New Wave supergroup Sigue Sigue Sputnik, on which the band sold actual ad time between songs alongside fake ads that they created themselves.

In the past few days, much has been made of the size of Madonna's biceps. Are they too big? Is that healthy? How did they get like that? No matter what the solution, one thing is for certain: Madonna could probably throw a pretty good chokehold on a would-be assailant.

But Madonna is hardly the only musician walking around with VIP tickets to the gun show. In fact, a number of rockers and rappers have committed themselves to keeping themselves jacked up — some more dramatic than others. 50 Cent kept himself ripped and his shirt off for most of his early career, making his muscles a part of his persona. But some people sneak up on you — remember when Timbaland all of a sudden got into weightlifting, or when you realized that Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails had become gigantic? Seriously, that guy could use his triceps to smash open walnuts.

Sometimes it makes sense when you consider the genre (the fact that Pete Steele of Type O Negative and Glenn Danzig are all jacked up isn't surprising considering their metal roots) and D'Angelo's muscles certainly became a part of his personality once the video for "Untitled (How Does It Feel)."

But who has the biggest arms among the muscular musicians? Click below for a sampling of buff musical bods, featuring Reznor, Akon and Busta Rhymes.

(Click here for more photos of ripped rockers, from Akon to Danzig!)

By Selina Kaye

Swizz Beatz has proven that he is a man of many talents. As a producer, he has sat behind the boards for some of the biggest names in hip-hop and R&B, including Beyoncé, Jay-Z, T.I., Fat Joe and Busta Rhymes. As a label founder and mogul, he introduced the world to DMX and Ruff Ryders. As a performer, he had a massive hit with "It's Me B----es". Lately, he's been honing his skills as a tattoo artist, and last week photos surfaced of Swizz inking Eve (another Ruff Ryders find) with a black spider on her shoulder. Now Swizz is working to nurture yet another role: Painter.

Lately on his Twitter, Swizz has been plugging his burgeoning art career. He posted two pictures of paintings he has recently completed: One of a mother and child, and another depicting a young Michael Jackson that he made as a tribute to the late star. Both paintings are beautiful and intricate, and Swizz clearly has an eye for detail and skills with a brush.

He's also been working his way into the art community. In fact, a few weeks ago Swizz hosted an event sponsored by high-end magazine Haute Living in Miami, celebrating the opening night of Art Basel Miami, a top-shelf worldwide art show. His artwork was showcased on the walls of the restaurant at the event. All the while, Swizz has kept it interactive, streaming video of him working in his art studio and keeping his fans posted via Twitter. In fact, he recently Tweeted that he has his first solo show coming up soon.

He hasn't forgotten his other projects, though, as he has a new production on Whitney Houston's new album and has at least one credit on 50 Cent's upcoming Before I Self Destruct.

Last night, Whitney Houston hosted a listening party for her upcoming album I Look To You, which attracted the likes of Alicia Keys, Swizz Beatz, L.A. Reid and label head Clive Davis. I Look To You represents the first collection of new Houston songs since 2002's Just Whitney, and by all accounts it represents an exceptional comeback for one of the biggest divas in music history.

Among the most enthusiastic attendees at last night's event at Lincoln Center was TV host/magazine magnate/homemaking icon Martha Stewart. She took to her Twitter account to praise the singer and her new album. "Whitney Houston singing and performing better than ever last night!!" she wrote. She also posted a picture she snapped of Houston on stage with a microphone. Stewart also got particularly excited about one of the songs via her Twitter. "ALICIA KEYS WROTE ONE OF THE SONGS. She danced while it played. L.A. Reid, Dionne Warwick, Whitney's mom Missy,and lots of other friends, family," she wrote. (Stewart's Twitter is fantastic, by the way, as it has these dispatches from her social life in between random drink recipes and suggestions for centerpieces. Totally surreal.)

Houston premiered nine songs from the upcoming album (scheduled for release on September 1), including two tracks written by R. Kelly and a Swizz Beatz-produced number called "Million Dollar Bill." Meanwhile, nobody should be shocked that Stewart was at the part rubbing elbows with record industry executives and VIPs from the R&B world. After all, she and Busta Rhymes go all the way back to 1997.

Welcome to the weekly Newsroom Poll, where we will give you a sneak peek into the lives and minds of some of the correspondents, writers, editors and producers here at MTVNews.com. Every week, they'll answer a poll question that will reveal some of what we talk about behind the scenes here in the newsroom. Enjoy!

Nothing gets us excited like a good list, so when MTV News' James Montgomery made a list of the best albums of 2009 so far, it sparked a ton of debate amongst the staffers here. We also had long talks about whether or not Drake's mixtape really is the greatest we've heard so far this year. All this back-and-forth led to this week's question: What's the best song of the first half of 2009?

Joel Hanek
Even though the mixtape this song debuted on Kanye's blog last summer, I'll have to go with Kid Cudi's "Day N' Nite." Sure, I may be biased because he's a fellow Clevelander, but that song has a long shelf life (probably due to the countless remixes that are put out). Everything he does is catchy, from Kid Cudi's style (which is something that straddles singing and melodic rapping) to the track itself (from the major scale synths to sampling bands like RATATAT and Band of Horses). I don't think a song without a proper album has been this successful since Lisa Loeb's "Stay." (Lisa Loeb / Kid Cudi comparison = Success!)
Read more...

When Russell Brand was announced as the host of this year's MTV Video Music Awards, he slid his way into a special place in history. He joins the short list of stars who have hosted the show more than once, and the extremely rare air of people who have hosted two years in a row.

Arsenio Hall was the first host to come back for another year — in fact, he led four straight shows from 1988 to 1991. Hall, the host of a wildly popular talk show, was right at home as the ringleader of MTV's rock and roll circus. He presided over Guns N' Roses' performance of "Welcome to the Jungle" in 1988, the set that got Andrew Dice Clay banned from MTV in '89, the 1990 show-wide attack on Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center, Paul Reubens' first public appearance (as Pee-wee Herman) after his lewd conduct arrest in '91 and the backstage fistfight between Poison's Bret Michaels and C.C. DeVille that same year.

In 1995 and 1996, Dennis Miller (yes, that Dennis Miller) took over the hosting duties. Miller brought his dry, acerbic wit to the proceedings that included such key moments as Van Halen's 1996 reunion with David Lee Roth, Michael Jackson's legendary 15-minute performance that opened the '95 show and the famously awkward interview live from space with two Russian cosmonauts.

Brand will become the only other host to take on duties two years in a row, but Chris Rock has also held the reins more than once. The comedian hosted the show in 1997, 1999 and 2003. The 1997 show was especially wild, with Fiona Apple's angry acceptance speech, the memorable meeting between Martha Stewart and Busta Rhymes and the show-closing, butt-bearing performance of Marilyn Manson's "The Beautiful People" that led Rock to proclaim "Get to church now!" at its conclusion.

With that company, Brand has a lot to live up to, though he's already got a good start on establishing his place in VMA history.

Since the photos of her and T-Pain surfaced last week, Taylor Swift has stayed completely mum about what exactly she'll be doing on tonight's CMT Music Awards. We do know she'll take the stage with Def Leppard for one of their collaborations (possibly "Photograph," for which they are nominated for a video award) and that there will be some sort of reference to her playing football, but the T-Pain collaboration remains a mystery. We'll be tuning in tonight, but in the meantime, here are a few things we hope will happen.

(Click here for more photos of Taylor Swift, T-Pain, Kellie Pickler and others getting ready for the CMT Music Awards)

» Swift begins singing "Love Story," then gets interrupted by T-Pain, who storms the stage and remixes the song so he sings the chorus using Auto-Tune.

» T-Pain opens with an attempt at country music, perhaps trying his hand at a Toby Keith song. Swift interrupts him and tells him it's not nearly 'hood enough. She insists they break into Busta Rhymes' Hustlers Anthem '09, with Pain singing the chorus and Swift spitting Busta's verses.

» Def Leppard performs "Photograph" with Swift. Everything is the same sonically, but all the bandmembers are wearing big top hats and grills.

» T-Pain and Taylor Swift drive around in an Escalade, bumping the new 50 Cent mixtape. Neither of them perform, though they do cruise through a Sonic for a cherry limeade.

I've written about Busta Rhymes shows in the past. You've read my praise of his and Spliff Star's showmanship time and time again. I always throw in there that he's one of the greatest, if not the greatest, pure live performer in hip-hop ever.

The energy doesn't stop. They make you jump, scream, dance ... everything a commanding MC is supposed to do. The greatest thing about Mr. Rhymes and Street Colonel Spliff (please don't forget Spliff when you talk about a Bus stage show — Spliff is more than a hype man) is that no two shows are the same. They switch it up every time I seen them. Every single time? Amazing. So often I've gone to rap concerts where I can tell you what the rapper is going to do before his own DJ can. They don't switch formats. But Bus? True MC. He changes the show up.

Last night in Manhattan, at Santos Party House, we all had a ball: Bus, Spliff, me and all the fans. Read more...