hip hop music news 

It may have been Britney Spears who stole the spotlight at the 25th Annual MTV Video Music Awards Sunday (September 7) in Los Angeles, but the urban music genres definitely had a presence.

The show was brought in the festivities at the beginning of the show by congratulating the ceremony's 25 years, but Rihanna followed immediately after with an opening performance -- her dark take on "Disturbia," which came equipped with a slew of zombie dancers, while the singer rolled onto the stage in some sort of a giant metallic wedding cake looking monstrosity.

Later on in the show, Rihanna returned to perform "Whatever You Like" alongside rapper T.I., who walked a young lady across the Paramount backlot, taking her to a fur shop, a club and in a ride in his Phantom, before ending up onstage beside Rihanna to finish off his performance.

Chris Brown took home the Best Male Video crown for "With You," beating out the likes of T.I., Flo Rida, Usher and Lil Wayne. Right off the bat, Chris Brown told the audience he felt the award should of went to Lil Wayne, but thanked everyone anyway.

Wayne, however, got his just dues. Later on, he took to the stage to accept the award for Best Hip-Hop Video for "Lollipop," the first of his career. He said a short thank you to three people: "God, my family and y'all."

Weezy later followed with the biggest performance of his career to date, taking to the stage without a shirt and sagging white pants to perform a medley of tracks from his popular selling album, Tha Carter III. He performed "Don't Get It" with Leona Lewis, part of "A Milli" and, with the help of T-Pain performed his second single from the album, "Got Money."

He also joined Kid Rock later during his performance of "All Summer Long," a mash-up of "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Werewolves of London."

The Pussycat Dolls took home Best Dancing in a Video honors for "When I Grow Up," while Linkin Park, rock band Tokio Hotel, Britney took the rest of the moon men.

Closing out the show was Kanye West, who vowed that he'd never return during last year's show. He came back during the Sunday event to debut a brand new show called "Love Lockdown," in which he sings ... yes, sings throughout.

Beginning in complete darkness, a silhouette of 'Ye appear in a suit, accented by a glowing red heart, which lit on and off to the thumping drums of the track.

Following the performance, many gave glowing reviews, including his peers. Cee-Lo, of Gnarls Barkley, said it was the best moment of the evening.

Aside from the ceremony and in the audience, celebs such as LL Cool J, Ne-Yo, John Legend, Taboo of the Black Eyed Peas, Ludacris, Paul Wall, Lupe Fiasco, and the Gym Class Heroes' Travis McCoy were in attendence.