By Steven Roberts

The BET Awards aired last night, and there were plenty of memorable moments. Jay-Z and Young Jeezy opened the show with a performance of "As Real as it Gets," Hov took home the MVP of the Year Award and Ice Cube was honored with the "I Am Hip-Hop" lifetime achievement award for "knockin' n----s out the box, daily, weekly, monthly and yearly." There were also performances from Snoop, Gucci Mane — excuse me, GUCCI! — and the recently-reunited Goodie Mob.

But the main segments everyone is talking about this morning are the three cyphers that took place during the show, most notably the cypher featuring Mos Def, Black Thought of the Roots and Eminem. Half of the MTV Newsroom is still debating who came the hardest.

Mos Def started off the cypher introducing the three MCs and proclaiming that since they were in his hometown, "I gotta do this for Brooklyn." The Mighty Mos proceeded to shout out various blocks in the borough in his freestyle. Black Thought represented for Philly and completely blacked out. And Eminem brought up the rear and completely murdered it. Slim Shady blended the pill-popping, inane pop culture references and amazing lyrical talent that everyone was expecting from Rehab.

There were also plenty of stand-outs from the first two cyphers. The first saw Nicki Minaj switch up her cadence between her regular high-pitched voice to an even squeakier animated one, while Joe Budden brought the same lyrical prowess that has made him such a polarizing figure. The second was a blend of teachers and students: Old-schooler KRS-One introduced newcomers Wale, Nipsey Hussle and Tunisian MC Gsan, each of whom threw down like veterans.

What do you think? Did Eminem steal the cypher or should the lyrical crown be given to Black Thought or Mos Def? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

By Jayson Rodriguez

"Every Saturday 'Rap Attack,' Mr. Magic, Marley Marl ..." — Notorious B.I.G., "Juicy"

Biggie immortalized him in rhyme, but by the time the Brooklyn MC name-checked Mr. Magic on 1994's Ready to Die, the DJ was already a living legend. It was confirmed today that Mr. Magic passed away after suffering a heart attack. (At press time it was unknown how old he was.)

Magic, born John Rivas, was a pioneer in hip-hop and made his mark as the first DJ to host a mixshow hour on commercial radio, which was revolutionary in the early 1980s but as common as a rap CD with a "Parental Advisory" sticker on it today. Back in 1982 when Mr. Magic, along with Marley Marl as his DJ and Tyrone "Fly Ty" Williams as co-producer, kick-started "Rap Attack," the program's launch was arguably as significant to music history as when the Moonman planted the MTV flag in outer space.

"Rap Attack" was a cultural touchstone fondly remembered by countless rappers, breakdancers, journalists and fans who were transfixed by the early sounds of hip-hop transmitted through their speakers by Mr. Magic.

Aside from the musical nods ("Juicy" and Whodini's "Magic's Wand"), Magic was also known for his part in the watershed battle between the Juice Crew — founded by Marley Marl and featuring Big Daddy Kane, Craig G. and Kool G Rap — and KRS-One's Boogie Down Productions.
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What did you do on Sunday?

Well, if you were Jay-Z or Beyoncé (or Beyoncé's sister Solange), then you braved the be-jorted masses in Brooklyn to check out Grizzly Bear's set down at the Williamsburg Waterfront.

Yes, that's right: In perhaps the summer's biggest fish-out-of-water moment (aside from Kanye at Nine Inch Nails last week) Jigga and B waded into the epicenter of Hipster Nation on Sunday, sending texters and Twitters into a veritable frenzy as they grooved to the hazy, lazy sounds of Grizzly Bear at the final JellyNYC Pool Party of 2009.

Perhaps fittingly, they wore their Bedford Avenue best (Jay in dark shades and a gingham shirt, Bey channeling her inner Debbie Gibson), and by all accounts — i.e. roughly 100,000 Tweets and a few shaky YouTube clips — they were really into the show, drinking booze out of plastic cups (just like us!) and bobbing their heads to the beat (and during GB's sun-dappled "Ready, Able," Jay even threw his hands in the air as if he didn't care). Apparently, Solange is really into the Grizz, and brought Jay and Bey out to the show, which is pretty awesome and gives us hope for a Grizzly Bear/Jigga collabo on The Blueprint IV (which should see the light of day sometime in 2015).

Of course, not everyone shared our enthusiasm. Even though the show was free -- you know, as in "anyone can attend" -- their appearance set blogs ablaze with (predictably hand-wringing) posts, most of which seemed to posit that Grizzly Bear were now officially "over" because Jay and Beyoncé decided to check out the show (you know, despite the fact GB's Veckatimest debuted at #8 on the Billboard albums chart earlier this year).

This sort of ruined our post-weekend high, though we did get a laugh out of one Brooklyn Vegan commenter, who summed up all the hullabaloo thusly: "Do people write about me like this when I show up at Big Daddy Kane or Del La Soul or Dead Prez?"

Good point, dude.

By Rahman Dukes

The "Hottest MCs in the Game" project is just days away from its official launch, and for some reason members of the hip-hop department are already finding ourselves defending the list.

It all started this past Monday when we unveiled the news that "Hottest" was coming back, along with a poll soliciting users to tell us who their "Hottest MC" was. And although it clearly states in fine print that the current poll would have no impact on the official "Hottest" list, all hell has broken loose.

Aside from the hundreds of comments our passionate users left on the message boards, "Hottest MCs" creators Shaheem Reid, Jayson Rodriguez and myself headed to to Eminem's intergalactic home on Sirius Satellite Radio's Shade 45 station with the lovely and talented Angela Yee.

Angela has potentially the hottest show on satellite radio and wanted to sit down with the crew and pick our brains on the poll and the upcoming project. For the duration of the show, we fielded questions from users both online and on the airwaves. It was interesting: The consensus was that fans truly believe their picks on the poll would be implemented into the final selections for the list.

"Why isn't Joell Ortiz there?"

"Why are Redman and Raekwon there?"

"Gucci Mane and Soulja Boy better not be on that list or I'm no longer watching MTV." Those were just a few of the many questions/demands that we received this morning.

Sitting in on that radio show for that hour made me realize we may now be in for the biggest fight of our careers. While I always encourage fans to chime and and give us their thoughts on our many projects — specifically on the much-debated "Hottest MCs" conversation — it kills me when people ask "What gives you guys the credibility to say who is hot? Why don't ya’ll have DJs sitting on your panel?" During the live chat an old friend from my Troy, New York stomping grounds: Mr. Always Chill. Mr. Always was the first cat who let me rock a party at the Troy Boys & Girls club then gave me my first gig spinning at WRPI on Saturdays from Noon to four p.m.

So there you go: Ya boy is/has been a DJ since the 5th grade. Hip-hop is in my blood.

Tonight's NBA Draft will make a handful of young men into instant millionaires and household names in their new teams' cities. The basketball contract is merely the beginning, as there will be endorsement deals, commercial acting, clothing lines and — if they're especially ambitious — an attempted rap career. The NBA is littered on all sides with players who dabbled in the hip-hop game, but the ratio of attempts to success is way off-kilter. Save for the platinum status of Shaquille O'Neal's Shaq Diesel, most of attempts at rap have ended in sadness. To wit:

» Kobe Bryant: He just won his fourth championship and is a former MVP, but his rhyming skills left a lot to be desired. He cut one track called "K.O.B.E." that featured Tyra Banks and that he performed on NBA TV and dropped in on a few cuts with 50 Cent and Beanie Sigel (all around 2000), but couldn't get his hip-hop career going.

» Tony Parker: The San Antonio Spurs guard put out a French-language rap album called TP in 2007 (Parker is originally from Belgium). Apparently he's not a bad MC, but since we don't speak French, we have to assume he's just reciting pie recipes or talking about kittens.
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By DJ EFN

Most people have come to associate Miami with South Beach real estate, Cuban cuisine and the bass-heavy music of Uncle Luke. But Miami's hip-hop history runs a lot deeper than that. Few would think of Miami as a playground for b-boys and b-girls, but in the early '90s that's exactly what it was. It's the scene that nurtured my passion for hip-hop and the surrounding culture. The city of Miami would be nothing had it not been for the pioneering music of Luke and 2 Live Crew, Poison Clan, DJ Uncle Al and the Sugar Hill DJs, DJ Laz and Ghetto Style DJs, as well as the blood, sweat and tears shed by the graffiti artists and b-boys.

But for some reason this scene was lost — left out of the history books and denied its proper recognition. It's left to be reminisced about among those that lived it. Many of us veterans still remain and are still strong forces within the Miami hip-hop industry. This is my recollection of this scene, how I experienced it and the people and places that I saw during this period.

In the late '80s and early '90s, New York was the dominant city in regards to hip-hop music and culture, while other cities such as Los Angeles, Atlanta, Houston and Chicago were starting to come into their own. Miami had been recognized on the national scene with the success of 2 Live Crew, but it also created a Miami stereotype that made it difficult to take the city seriously as a hip-hop force. Breakdancing pioneers like Chilski and Speedy Legs made sure to inspire young future breakers. The streets of Miami were also covered in art by graffiti crews like Ink Heads, STV, Dam Crew, Aim Crew and BSK, who showcased their talents while avoiding the cops.
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By David Rosario

Before Def Jam ever came along, Rick Ross was signed to Miami's own Slip-N-Slide Records. In late 2002 and early 2003, Rick was pumping out song after song in preparation of the "original" version of his debut album Port Of Miami. And in early 2003, I got invited to a listening session to hear most of the album. Keep in mind that this was a completely different album from the Port Of Miami that was released in 2006 — you know, the one with "Hustlin'" on it, with Ross focused on wordplay and beats that sounded like they belonged on Jay-Z's The Blueprint.

One of the songs from the 2002/2003 version of Port Of Miami (called "Listen") was produced by Kanye West. It was based round a beat that later became T.I.'s song "Doin' My Job." It became one of the many reasons why Ross and T.I. had beef for a couple years and threw jabs at each other for a brief period. (Check out the four minute mark of this 2006 interview with Ross for his thoughts on Tip.)

Ross' version of the song actually leaked prematurely on a DJ EFN mixtape and everybody at Slip-N-Slide was fuming mad. In the song, Ross also dropped the line, "99 Jamz show me some love." This was at a time when Rick Ross was actually at odds with 99 Jamz and had a couple of scuffles with them over airplay issues and such. And I do remember that during that era, 99 Jamz made it a point to not play any Rick Ross songs at all. But obviously that later changed as 99 Jamz and DJ Khaled ended up breaking Ross' breakthrough single "Hustlin'", which was responsible for getting Ross his multi-million dollar deal with Def Jam … and the rest, of course, is history.

All this week, MTV News will be celebrating Miami's legends, superstars and upstarts. Keep checking back with us for more from the evolving city.

Taylor Swift has some crazy hip-hop collaboration with T-Pain in the works for the CMT Music Awards on June 16. And the photos of the country cutie decked out in chains making gangsta hand signals alongside T-Pain are kind of hilarious, but fans of Taylor aren't surprised to learn that the singer has a hip-hop bone.

In fact, we here have known about her passion for the street for quite a while — since last November in fact. When she stopped by MTV News' offices last fall to promote her album Fearless (which is still in the Top 10 on the album chart), she shared with us her dream to go hip-hop.

Well, it's nice to see Swift branching out and trying something new on for size. We just can't wait until June 16 to find out what exactly that is.

By David Rosario

My name is DRO, or David Rosario as most of my friends know me. I'm a 25-year-old journalist, blogger and hip-hop photographer based out of Miami, Florida. I've pretty much dedicated the last 10 years of my life to covering every aspect of Miami's hip-hop scene and everything associated with it.

I run a Miami-based hip-hop and fashion site called The305.com. The site has been around since 2002 and it has gone through many facelifts, but in the seven years of operation, we've profiled and featured a lot of Miami's hip-hop artists way before they got their chance to be in the mainstream spotlight. I'm talking about featuring Rick Ross before he had his beard. We published one of Pitbull's first interviews. We had DJ Khaled before he had his own radio show. Those are just a few, but I've seen a lot of our artists grow into becoming superstars that have taken our area code toward global status. And seriously, "305" is more than just an area code, it's a lifestyle.

My real passion is photography. I've shot almost every major hip-hop artist in Miami and I've also had a chance to shoot a lot of artists that stop through Miami. I grew up idolizing some of the people I've shot and within the last few years, seeing them and taking photos of them has seemingly become something of the norm for me. And I'm thankful for that.

As a photographer, I've had a lot of memorable shoots throughout the years. Some of my favorite include:

(Check Out More Photos of Rick Ross, DJ Khaled and Other Miami Giants Care of Mr. 305)

» I did a Pitbull photoshoot in front of a bronze map of Cuba during a time when Cubans of all ages were in Miami parading the streets in a later-to-be-known false alarm regarding Fidel Castro's death. It's one of my favorite images because the timing of when it was shot has so much meaning to those who know about it.
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By Steven Roberts

For the first week of 2009, MTV News wanted to showcase five up-and-coming MCs — Asher Roth, Kid Cudi, Wale, Charles Hamilton and B.o.B. — we felt you would be hearing a lot from this year.

We received a lot of feedback, and most of it wasn't "MTV sucks," so that's a bonus! You guys actually liked many of the artists we chose. While you may not have agreed completely with all five of the artists, there was at least one or two you thought were dead on.

After sifting through your feedback, these are the artists we'd like to give honorable mentions:
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