There are some days on the calendar that are simply loaded down with celebrity birthdays, as though some days lend more cosmic fame than others. September 25 is just such a day, as there are a number of fantastically talented, awesomely dynamic personalities who will be blowing out the candles today. Some will obviously be more festive than others. It's unlikely that T.I. (who is currently serving a 10 month prison sentence for illegal weapons possession) will have as big a party as, say, Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones (she could buy an awful lot of cake with that T-Mobile money). Former UFC champion and current star of "The Ultimate Fighter" Rashad Evans is probably having a bittersweet birthday, especially considering his grudge match with Quinton "Rampage" Jackson won't be happening any time soon. Ryan Leslie can probably get himself an extra cupcake, as his hotly-anticipated second album is sure to make a splash when it hits in November. And how will Will Smith celebrate turning 41? I'm not sure how he spends his birthday, but I do know that I play "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" at my party every year.

But despite all the high-profile birthdays today, this morning's Wake-Up Video nod goes to Santigold, who is now 33 years old. Even though her debut album came out well over a year ago (and she's been putting out singles since 2007), her tunes remained ubiquitous throughout the summer, mostly thanks to that Bud Light Lime commercial that borrowed "Lights Out." It's an excellent song with a super-cool video, but now it just makes me crave a citrus-flavored lager.

Having spent my entire professional career interviewing famous people (save for those few months where I wrote about bespoke suits and bathtubs shaped like slingback heels), I don't really get starstruck. There are a handful of people around whom I squeal like a teenage girl (as anybody who has been in the room with me while Rob Zombie is present can attest), but I generally don't get blown away by fame.

But when it comes to raw, physical abilities, it becomes a whole different ball game. I'll start hyperventilating over even the most minor athletes. I shook late Boston Celtic Reggie Lewis' hand once and count is as one of the great moments of my life. My brother met former Boston Red Sox pitcher Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd at a bar a few years ago and I got really jealous. I once went to an industry party solely because I was told Kevin Garnett would be there. The point is, I'm blown away by sports figures, so when I was called upon today to sit down with His Royal Highness LeBron James, the King of Everything, I had to take a few deep breaths.

I sat down with King James (along with film director Kris Belman) to talk about "More Than a Game," the documentary about his high school basketball team. We also went over the movie's killer soundtrack, which features tunes from Mary J. Blige, Jay-Z and T.I., as well as the killer remix of Drake's "Forever" that features verses from Lil Wayne, Kanye West and Eminem. He also revealed who his pick is for the "Hottest MCs" list, who he thinks had the best verse on "Forever" and how he rates new teammate Shaquille O'Neal as an MC — all of which will be appearing all over MTV News over the next few days.

But stupidly, here's the first thing I thought when I shook James' hand: "Man, this guy is tall." I've been around basketball players all my life, but I've obviously never been around the best in the game. It is incredible that James is so unbelievably fast considering his size. The other thing I noticed? His tattoos are great. The dude really carries his ink well.

So the sum total of observations I was able to make during my interview? LeBron James is tall and has tattoos. Insight! But hey, at least I got a great photo (I'm on the bottom), so nobody can say I was never in the presence of royalty.

The MTV Video Music Awards are just a few short days away, and though there is all sorts of buzz surrounding the performances, the parties and the New York-centric stunts that will be happening all this week into Sunday's broadcast, it's important to remember that the reason the biggest stars in music will gather in Radio City Music Hall is to see who wins the coveted Moonman in each of the 15 categories. We'll be taking a look at each of the top categories this week, starting today with the Best Male Video award. The nominees are Eminem's "We Made You," Jay-Z's "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)," T.I.'s "Live Your Life," Ne-Yo's "Miss Independent" and Kanye West's "Love Lockdown."

Best Male Video has been around since the first Video Music Awards in 1984, where David Bowie's "China Girl" beat out Billy Joel, Lionel Richie, Herbie Hancock and Michael Jackson for the prize. Past winners of the award include legends like Bruce Springsteen, Prince, Will Smith and Beck, as well as recent noisemakers Chris Brown and Justin Timberlake.

Two of the men nominated for the award this year have already won it, as Eminem took home the Moonman for Best Male Video at 2000's event for "The Real Slim Shady" and again in 2002 for "Without Me," while Kanye West took home the Best Male Video prize in 2005 for "Jesus Walks." Jay-Z's "99 Problems" snagged a nomination for Best Male Video in 2004 but lost out to Usher (though he still grabbed four awards — including Best Rap Video — that same year). This is the fourth consecutive Best Male nomination for T.I. (who has never won a Moonman in any category) and the second year in a row that Ne-Yo has been nominated for an award (he lost out to Pussycat Dolls in the Best Dancing in a Video category).

Of the five videos, Jay-Z's is the newest and the one with the most buzz. "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)" is on The Blueprint 3, which hits the streets today. The next newest comes from Eminem, whose album dropped earlier this year and whose first single "We Made You" announced the return of Slim Shady to the top of the music world. The other three clips all come from 2008 albums (Kanye West's performance of "Love Lockdown" even closed last year's show). So it seems like it will be a showdown between Eminem and Jigga, though the person who has the best chance of scoring a Moonman in this category is director Anthony Mandler, who helmed both "D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune)" and T.I.'s "Live Your Life."

A year ago today, a kid from Baltimore dived into a swimming pool a dude in a Speedo and emerged a legend. Just shortly after 11 a.m. local time in Beijing on August 17, 2008, Michael Phelps helped his team take first place in a relay race to earn himself an eighth gold medal, breaking the record for the most top prizes taken in a single Olympics. In seven out of the eight races he won, Phelps broke either a world or Olympic record (all told, Phelps holds a grand total of 37 world records, the most recent of which he broke only three weeks ago). The record had been held by Marc Spitz, another swimmer who took home seven golds in 1972. Phelps owns 14 golds and 16 medals total, only two shy of the all-time record held by gymnast Larissa Latynina, who competed for the Soviet Union in 1956, '60 and '64.

Since his unfathomable run last year, Phelps has had a few ups and downs (including a recent car accident), but despite those hiccups he remains a dominant athlete and one of the most recognizable sports stars on the planet. Phelps told reporters that he prepares to compete by listening to music (in Beijing, he was constantly photographed wearing his iPod earbuds) and that his playlists included Lil Wayne, T.I. and Young Jeezy. So at last year's MTV Video Music Awards, Phelps parlayed his celebrity into the opportunity of a lifetime: He introduced a performance by Weezy, one of his favorite artists. In honor of his amazing accomplishment, Phelps should take today to kick back, shine his bling and crank up "Fireman."

She has performed with Def Leppard, T-Pain, Miley Cyrus, Kellie Pickler and yes, even the Jonas Brothers. While hard at work on her new album, Taylor Swift shared with MTV News how much she'd like to work with White Stripes/ Raconteurs/ Dead Weather frontman Jack White.

Given the diverse kinds of talent she's worked with over the last year, it doesn't seem that far-fetched that Taylor and White might hit up the studio sometime soon and work on some tracks. It got us searching our archives to see who else Taylor has talked about who she wants to work with (or vice versa) and we picked our favorites!

5) John Mayer: "He Twittered the other day that he wrote a song, and he wants to make it a duet with me," she said. "I freaked out when I heard, because I've been such a big fan of John for such a long time."

4) Selena Gomez: "We have talked about a duet," Selena said. "I think it would be really neat to have the country vibe."

3) T.I. and 2) Kanye West: "I'd like to do a completely off-the-wall collaboration," she said. "I would like one of my songs to be the hook to a rap song. That would be so much fun! You know, I love Kanye West and I love T.I. — he's amazing."

1) Tim McGraw: "But you know the dream for me would be Tim McGraw singing background vocals on one of my songs," she once told MTV News.

So, who would you like to see Taylor work with next? Let us know in the comments or head over to Your.MTV.com to make your voice heard!

T.I. is currently incarcerated, serving a sentence of a year and a day for felony weapons charges stemming from a 2007 incident at the BET Awards. But prison bars can't keep the man down, as he just released a teaser for an upcoming video for the song "Remember Me." The song features a guest spot from Mary J. Blige and is from the upcoming album Paper Trail: Case Closed, which is set to hit the streets in August. The clip dramatizes T.I. dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit and being lead to his cell. A narrator declares, "It matters not how many times you fall down — what matters most is how many times you rise."

The Atlanta rapper has expressed a great deal of remorse over the course of his legal troubles and has committed himself to community service (as was seen on the MTV documentary "T.I.'s Road to Redemption"). If he serves his one year and one day sentence, Tip will be free in March of 2010, but in the meantime his video will hit "soon."

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.

By Jenna Talavera and Kathleen Newman-Bremang

Chris Brown is scheduled to appear in court today for his arraignment on felony charges of assault and making criminal threats. The singer could face more than four years in prison for his alleged altercation with girlfriend Rihanna. Will his attorneys enter a plea or ask for another extension?

With T.I. facing a prison sentence of one year and one day, Mixtape Monday has put together a track list of some of the MC's hottest tracks. Check out the behind-the-scenes info that Tip and top Atlanta DJs gave us about making the songs. And this is only part one!

Run-DMC officially became Kings of Rock when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday. Read our recap of the historic night and catch what Eminem had to say about the iconic group. Then read some heartfelt words about the induction from Eric "Shake" James, a close friend of the late Jam Master Jay.

MTV caught up with Zac Efron at ShoWest, and the former Disney heartthrob talked about everything from girlfriend Vanessa Hudgens to bonding with his "17 Again" co-star Matthew Perry.

By Nicole Tahan and Matt Wenzel

T.I. explains his experimental plea deal. Find out how giving back to the community really helped his case.

Kanye West and Spike Jonze team up again! Check out why Kanye's "See You in My Nightmares" will be included in a short film.

What role do you think Ashlee Simpson will play on the new "Melrose Place"? See why hubby Pete Wentz can't wait to see Ashlee in her new gig.

Want to know what it's like to be an MTV News intern? Check out our new Intern Insider video blog to get a taste of what intern life is like!

Are you a fan of the "Zelda" video game series? Our Multiplayer blog takes a look at Link on a train in "The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks," which is being released on the DS later this year.

By Jayson Rodriguez

From my experience, T.I. has always been a stand-up guy. You can hear it in his music, see it in the way he carries himself and feel it from the energy he performs with. This morning in the Richard B. Russell Federal Building was no different.

His sentencing was more of a formality than anything — the result of a plea deal struck last March between his lawyers and the U.S. Attorney's office in Atlanta. But Tip was stoic throughout. He entered the courtroom with a confident glide. Federal workers who attended the hearing for his plea deal last year buzzed in the back benches about the lack of celebs in attendance. "It's not like last time when everyone was here," one said. Music-industry bigwigs like Lyor Cohen and Kevin Liles were around for T.I.'s last court appearance.

Formality or not, though, he wasn't 100 percent sure the judge wouldn't reverse course and he'd be staring at 30 years in prison. The lack of star power in the building, however, didn't dissuade Tip from delivering a moving commentary about his life. The judge seemed pleased by T.I.'s completed community service. He was more than gracious toward the rapper too.
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