But before everything got started at the Gibson Amphitheatre, I took advantage of my first Memorial Day Weekend in America and hit the road (big shout to my good friend Michael Artone at Aston Martin Beverly Hills for the truly incredible Aston Martin DB9 Vantage) to the party capital of the world, Las Vegas.

Vegas was the busiest I have ever seen it, packed with people from all over America and beyond including MTV favourites Asher Roth and Soulja Boy Tell'em, who both performed there over the weekend. And although he has the hottest anthem in the world right now with "Turn My Swag On" Soulja Boy's still not of age to hit the casino floor, so he had to take his party back to the room after his monster performance. (Something tells me he still had fun, though!)

I stuck to my three-day Vegas rule, and as soon as the big weekend was over, I headed back to L.A.

There's really not that much to report so early in the week: The main stage is slowly coming together. I've already seen some massive screens that make New York's Jumbotron look small, hundreds of lights of all shapes and sizes, multilayered podiums for dancers, sweeping staircases, a huge giant popcorn statue and a robot ... yes, a robot!

The guest list looks as star-studded as ever, with names like Robert Pattinson, Eminem, Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Jim Carrey, Lil Wayne and Zac Efron all sitting front and centre.

Over the next few days, our host Andy Samberg will be learning his lines, and then a true hip-hop heavyweight, Eminem, will swing by to rehearse his hotly anticipated performance. (Em, if you're reading this, please perform "3 A.M." and bring Dre and 50 out for "Crack a Bottle.")

It's going to be a hell of a week, and the awards aren't even till Sunday!

Continue reading at Soulja Boy's answers to your questions at buzzworthy.mtv.com ...

Come on, sure you have. Don't lie. You have tons of ideas burning inside you, waiting to escape and be hurled at the iced out rapper when Buzzworthy blog's Tamar Anitai interviews him.

So get those inquisitive minds working. But please, people, be nice!

Submit your question for Soulja Boy at Buzzworthy.MTV.com now....

Which brings me to the Soulja Boy Tell'em cartoon, which debuted Tuesday. Now, if you ask my pal James Montgomery, SJB is engaged in an elaborate, subversive, multilayered art project meant to undermine our traditional bias against seemingly vapid, self-aggrandizing ringtone rap. But if you ask me, Soulja Boy is about as three-dimensional as his cartoon doppelgänger.

"Class of 3000" and, to an equal degree, the late, lamented "Hammerman" cartoon — starring poopy-pantsed fancy dancer MC Hammer — worked because their heroes were already larger-than-life figures whose carefully crafted personas made them stand out from the rest of the gang.

Soulja Boy, on the other hand, is like a teenage hip-hop lottery winner, a dude who basically got really lucky and lives to rub it in our faces with his profane, Segway-flaunting, dollar-raining home videos and nursery-rhyme raps. The first episode of his promised cartoon series is further proof that ya Boy has only one note — and it's getting more annoying than this tune.

Unlike 'Dre's Emmy-nominated "Class," which spun a colorful yarn about a performing-arts school in Atlanta peopled by a colorful collection of misfit musical kids, or "Hammerman," which pulled Hammer into superhero land thanks to some magical dancing shoes (yeah, for real), Soulja Boy is basically telling his own story, with the added twist that he's back in high school (though, as in real life, he's followed around by a member of his posse who videotapes his every move).

Oh, and his principal is grouchy "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" sidekick Alfonso Ribeiro. The first episode is set to the new song "Soulja Boy Tell'em" (does this dude ever get tired of his own name?), in which he lashes out at people dissing his fame. I'm already bored. And judging by the rapidly plunging sales numbers of the rapper's second album, iSouljaBoyTellem, so are his "fans."

I applaud Soulja Boy for trying to break out of the box and stretch his art, though I'll never understand why the clip ends with his character raining down bills into an empty viaduct. But if it were up to me, this show would break left and find Soulja Boy using his superpower — the ability to melt enemies' brains with annoyingly catchy ringtone laser beams — to save the planet from haters.

If, as Perez Hilton says, Tokio Hotel are the new Milli Vanilli, then I'd like to propose that Soulja Boy Tell'em is the new MC Hammer.

When Hammer came on the scene back in 1987, critics said he was bad for rap, and 20 years later, Soulja Boy faced the same charges when he dropped "Crank That." (Ironically, Ice-T came to Hammer's defense and said haters were just jealous, but this year, Ice-T called Soulja Boy's music "garbage" on a mixtape, sparking a hilarious YouTube battle.)

But the real parallels come out in Soulja's newest album, iSouljaBoyTellem, due out next week.

Top five things that make one a "Hammer":

1) Have your own dance.

CHECK! I mean, even I learned how to "Crank That." (Well, really, really badly.)

2) Have your own trademark fashion accessory that, once out of fashion, will never, ever come back in style. Hammer had his pants.

CHECK! Soulja Boy puff-paint sunglasses.

3) Have lots of simple pop songs that have just a few words repeated over and over. See: "U Can't Touch This," "2 Legit 2 Quit," "Pump It Up."

CHECK! "Gucci Bandana," "Wit My Yums On," "Booty Got Swag."

4) OK, here it comes: Spend money like there's no tomorrow.

CHECK! Soulja Boy's new song "Shoppin' Spree" really lets you know he's not a coupon-clipper in this economy, spending straight cash on $10k rings, $30k necklaces, $300k Lamborghinis and $500k houses.

5. Round it all out with a real-talk rap about how you've got to "Pray" just to make it today.

CHECK! Really! "I Pray" (the outro on Soulja's new album) sounds suspiciously like T.I.'s "What Up," but it informs us that he really cares where his soul ends up.

Don't get me wrong, I loved MC Hammer when I was a kid, and I am loving the new Soulja Boy album. I would even say that "Hey You There" is a piece of audio art, with its old-school Beastie feel and amazing editing that Girl Talk would be proud of. Well maybe not the line, "I farted, and it smelt like a stink bomb." "Kiss Me Thru the Phone" is destined to be a hit with the abstinence-loving "Twilight" fans who just want to think longingly about their true love's lips. And the song "Soulja Boy Tellem" is a perfect depiction of a day in the life of a teen rap superstar, and it shows that he is developing as an artist, not just a one-trick pony.

So, maybe he's not the next Hammer after all. What do you think?

Ever since Soulja Boy Tell'em entered the hip-hop realm, his place there has been questioned and his creativity scrutinized. But it looks like he's finally had enough. Soulja Boy is hitting back, in a vlog battle with Ice-T.

It all started last week, when DJ Cisco's Urban Legend mixtape was released and contained some pretty harsh words from Ice-T directed toward Soulja Boy, at one point telling him to "eat a di--" and blaming him for "singlehandedly killing hip-hop." Ouch.

Two days later, the gloves were officially off when Soulja Boy posted his own response video, in which he laughs throughout and constantly refers to Ice-T's age, repeatedly calling him an "old-ass n---a" (six times, we counted). Although he seems to be joking for most of the video's seven-and-a-half minutes, Soulja Boy does have some serious moments in which he acknowledges Ice-T's influence on hip-hop (calling him a legend), but also says that times have changed, and he's doing what he has to in order to support his family. Soulja Boy, tell him!

Another two days went by, and another response video surfaced. On June 22, Ice-T posted a video apologizing to Soulja Boy for telling him to "eat a di--," but still making it a point to say that his music is "garbage." Ice-T says this isn't an old-school vs. new-school or East Coast vs. West Coast war, though he warns that there will be ramifications for Soulja Boy from the West.

Not surprisingly, other artists have begun to add their two cents to the debate, and one of them is the most influential in the game right now. Mr. Kanye West himself decided to weigh in on the debate on his blog, siding with Soulja Boy. Soulja Boy hasn't killed hip-hop, Kanye says, but instead he represents the true meaning of what hip-hop should be. "He came from the 'hood, made his own beats, made up a new saying, new sound and a new dance with one song."

The debate comes as no surprise to us, since Soulja Boy was the most controversial name at the table when our Hip-Hop Brain Trust got together recently to name the Hottest MCs in the Game. Seriously, we thought the battle would never end. Check it out below.

Whose side are you on? Should Ice-T retire and quit whining like a cranky old man? Or are Soulja Boy and his fellow ringtone rappers the death of hip-hop?