LL COOL J, Nicki Minaj, and Jack Harlow to Host 2022 MTV VMAs

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The Video Vanguard Award winners LL COOL J and Nicki Minaj, together with rap star Jack Harlow, will host and present the night’s major events as the 2022 “VMAs” air LIVE from Prudential Center on Sunday, August 28 at 8PM ET/PT.

By adopting a more creative and distinctive approach to the conventional “host” role seen in past years, the three rappers will announce the show’s star-studded lineup of performers, presenters, and winners.

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Lizzo and Jack Harlow are the latest round of global superstar performers that will take the stage at MTV’s 2022 VMAs. The show will air live from Prudential Center on Sunday, August 28, at 8 pm ET/PT.

Global superstar Jack Harlow returns to the MTV stage for his first solo performance after last year’s epic “VMAs” debut collaboration of the mega-hit “INDUSTRY BABY” with Lil Nas X. Harlow hopes to win his first Moon Person after receiving a tie for the most nominations (7) this year, including two of the night’s top prizes, “Video of the Year” and “Artist of the Year.” The 10x nominee received nominations for “PUSH New Artist” and “Song of the Summer” in 2020 and 2021, respectively.

Lizzo, multi-hyphenate diva, is scheduled for another huge MTV moment with a performance of “2 Be Loved” from her critically praised new album Special, following a show-stopping debut with a massive mashup of “Good As Hell” and “Truth Hurts” in 2019. In addition to being a nominee for 11x, the artist and song of the year categories are up for grabs this year.

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MTV Unveils The First Batch Of 2022 VMAs Performers, Featuring J Balvin, Khalid, Anitta, And More

MTV Video Music Awards season is approaching. Last month, MTV unveiled the full list of nominations for the 2022 VMAs, which are set to go down on August 28. Now, what the broadcast will look like is starting to become more clear, as the first set of artists set to perform on the show was revealed today: Anitta, J Balvin, Marshmello with Khalid, and Panic! At The Disco. The show usually has a lot more performers than just a handful, so this first artist drop is surely just the start of what should shape up to be a worthwhile lineup.

It could be an even bigger night for Anitta than just her time on stage, as she’s also nominated for Best Latin with “Envolver.” In that category, she’s up against fellow performer Balvin and Skrillex’s “In Da Getto,” Balvin’s sole nomination. Meanwhile, Panic! At The Disco has a Best Alternative nomination with “Viva Las Vengeance.”

Elsewhere on the nomination side of things, Kendrick Lamar, Jack Harlow, and Lil Nas X are tied for having the most, as they’ve each racked up seven nods for this year’s show.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Here Are the 2022 MTV VMAs Nominees

  • Video of the Year

  • Artist of the Year

  • Song of the Year

  • Best New Artist

  • Best Collaboration

  • Push Performance of the Year

  • Best Pop

  • Best Hip-Hop

  • Best Rock

  • Best Alternative

  • Best Latin

  • Best R&B

  • Best K-Pop

  • Video for Good

  • Best Metaverse Performance

  • Best Longform Video

  • Best Cinematography

  • Best Direction

  • Best Art Direction

  • Best Visual Effects

  • Best Choreography

  • Best Editing

After Ye’s Infamous Taylor Swift VMAs Moment, He Did An ‘Exile’ To Japan Because ‘America Hated’ Him

It goes without saying, but Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Taylor Swift have had a famously contentious relationship since the infamous stage-crashing incident at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Now, Ye has revealed that the situation really impacted him, so much so that during the aftermath, he fled to Japan.

The second part of Ye’s recent Drink Champs interview is out now, and in it, he revealed (as Pitchfork notes) that after the VMAs, he “did a personal exile” with Virgil Abloh in Japan because “all of America hated” him. He also said, “Everyone was like, ‘You wrong for this one, you won’t win this,’ by telling me, ‘You shouldn’t have ran on stage, you were rude,’ God forbid.”

He also addressed the VMAs in the previously released first part of the interview, saying, “I was actually talked in to going to the awards show. At that time, it was [my manager] Don C.’s job to talk me into stuff. They find new people whose job would be to talk me into doing something that I don’t want to do — influencers, people around you. So that night, I said, ‘Man, I’m not going to this awards show. I’m not sitting through this no more.’ And the very first award, they sit me in the front row. You got [Beyoncé’s] ‘Single Ladies’ video… this is one of the best videos in history. So it’s not that it’s just for her when the artist does something that’s that compelling and incredible. We got to respect it.”

Watch the new Drink Champs episode below.

Lizzo Missed The VMAs For An Extremely NSFW Reason

At this year’s VMAs, Lizzo and Cardi B’s “Rumors” was up for Song Of The Summer, a title that ultimately went to BTS’ “Butter.” Lizzo did end the evening with one award, though, as she and Yayayayummy won Best Artist x Creator Collab for the “mustard watermelon” TikTok trend they launched. Lizzo wasn’t at the ceremony, though, because she was keeping busy with… something else.

In a TikTok video yesterday, Lizzo hinted at what she was doing the night of the VMAs, with the clip’s text overlay reading, “I really won a VMA while I was getting my back blown out last night… I’ll be there next year promise.” In the video, “Rumors” plays in the background, and the lyrics heard in the clip are fitting: “All the rumors are true, yeah / I f*cked him and you, yeah.”

She also captioned her post, “WE WON THE FIRST @mtv VMA FOR A TIKTOK BESTIES!!! WE DID IT— WHERE MY MOONMAN AT?”

@lizzo

WE WON THE FIRST @MTV VMA FOR A TIKTOK BESTIES!!! WE DID IT— WHERE MY MOONMAN AT? 😤

♬ Rumors (feat. Cardi B) – Lizzo

Naturally, a lot of the comments on the post reference Chris Evans, as Lizzo and the actor have had some flirtatious social media interactions in recent months. Lizzo didn’t indicate who she spent time with that evening, though.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The VMAs Add Doja Cat, Chloe Bailey, And Shawn Mendes To Their 2021 Performance Lineup

Last week, MTV unveiled a handful of the artists who will be performing at their 2021 ceremony, and the list included Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo, Lorde, Machine Gun Kelly, and Camila Cabello. Those roster would certainly be enough, but the VMAs tend to go bigger than that, so there were surely more artists to be added. Indeed, more have been: MTV unveiled a handful of new performers, and they are Doja Cat, Chloe Bailey, Shawn Mendes, and Twenty One Pilots.

This is a big one for Bailey (of Chloe x Halle), since it going to be her solo debut. She’ll be performing her single “Have Mercy” from her upcoming solo album. Meanwhile, Mendes is set to perform his recent single “Summer Of Love,” and Twenty One Pilots will perform “Saturday,” It’s not clear what song(s) Doja will perform yet, but what we do know is that she’s up for five awards this year.

The nominees for this year’s show (which is set for September 12, by the way) are led by Justin Bieber and Megan Thee Stallion, who have seven and six nominations this year, respectively.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.