The 2010 BET Awards went down Sunday night (Jun 27) live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and the red carpet was full of black star power as celebrities like Ciara, T.I. (who brought along his entire family), Keri Hilson, Nick Cannon, John Legend, Diddy, Carmelo & Lala, Nicki Minaj, Brandy, the Black Eyed Peas and more arrived in style at the 10th annual show.

Check out 40+ pictures from the BET Awards’ red carpet below and when you continue reading…

Pharrell Williams and his N.E.R.D. bandmates Chad Hugo & Shay Haley posed for pics on the red carpet of the Interactive & Innovative Awards at Skylight Soho in New York City Thursday (May 27).

Former Pussycat Doll Melody Thornton attended Fox’s “So You Think You Can Dance” Season 7 viewing party in Los Angeles.

R&B singer Qwanell “Que” Mosley (formerly of the singing group Day 26) hit up the “Get Him to the Greek” VIP screening at the AMC Magic Johnson theater in Harlem, New York City.

The Dream dropped by “Fuse Top 20 Countdown” in New York.

Ice Cube was in promo mode for his new projects, including his new TBS sitcom “Are We There Yet?”, as he paid a visit to Sirius XM Studios Wednesday afternoon (May 26) in New York City.

R&B singer Kelly Rowland attended the VMAN A Scandinavian Summer Issue Event at Good Units Tuesday (May 25) in New York City.

Rapper T.I. attended a Luncheon Preview for the Fall 2010 Line of his Akoo clothing brand at Abe & Arthur’s in NYC.

Actress Rosario Dawson was on hand for the Environmental Media Assocation’s Annual Organic Garden Luncheon in Venice, California at the Learning Garden at Venice High School.

Model Chanel Iman hit up the book launch party for “Glastonbury, Another Stage” at Milk Studios in New York.

And UK singer Estelle walked the red carpet of the Reuben Foundation’s Haiti Fundraiser in London.

Amber Rose stepped out last night (Wed. May 12) at Nylon’s May Young Hollywood Event at the Roosevelt Hotel in California.

Mel B attended “An Evening with NBC Universal” at The Cable Show 2010 at Hollywood’s Universal Studios Wednesday.

Gym Class Heroes frontman Travis McCoy paid a visit to Fuse studios in Toronto, Canada earlier today (Thurs. May 13) to promote his new solo project Lazarus, due in stores June 8th.

Actor Cuba Godding Jr. was on hand for the “Robin Hood” Premiere at the Palais des Festivals during the 63rd Annual Cannes Film Festival Wednesday in Cannes, France.

Musicians Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo and Shay Haley of the hip-hop group N.E.R.D. walked the red carpet at the 5th Annual Victoria’s Secret “What Is Sexy?” Bombshell edition party at Drai’s Hollywood Tuesday evening (May 11) in California.

All three of the Kardashian girls (Khloe, Kim and Kourtney) held a meet and greet session as they made an appearance at Kitson on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles Tuesday.

Comedic actor Damon Wayans was spotted promoting his new book “Red Hats” at a Borders book store in Philadelphia Monday (May 10).

And actor Denzel Washington and actress Viola Davis attended the 75th Annual New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award at the Algonquin Hotel in New York City Monday.

Musician/producer Pharrell Williams and his new artist Rhea, who was recently welcomed as the newest member of Pharrell’s group N.E.R.D., opened up for Jay-Z Saturday night (Oct 31) at the Air Canada Centre in Canada.

N.E.R.D. is currently working on their fourth studio album titled Instant Gratification, set for an early 2010 release. Pharrell says with Rhea a part of the team, they have a new sound that’s very “3-D.”

“Musically, we’re just somewhere else [with her],” he told MTV News. “The music is now very 3-D. It’s something you have to hear.” “We’re definitely somewhere else,” he continued. “I want to leave that impact moment for when you purchase your download and you purchase your CD. The music is very three-dimensional. We’re just really excited. We feel like NERD has always been the punks of hip-hop and the outcasts of alternative music – just a little different. But this time, we’re taking no prisoners.”

Hip-hop artist Pharrell Williams, along with N.E.R.D.’s Chad Hugo & Shay Haley, was spotted at the Perth Airport in Perth, Australia yesterday. N.E.R.D. performed at the Future Music Festival in Perth yesterday. Click here for a review of the show and continue reading for more photos of him and his boys arriving at the airport.

PHOTOS: WIRE IMAGE

The official video premiere of “Sooner or Later” – N.E.R.D.‘s brand new music video from their latest album, Seeing Sounds, which is in stores now!

T.I. & LUDACRIS PERFORMING TOGETHER AT THE 2008 BET HIP-HOP AWARDS

ATLANTA // SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18TH 2008 »
AIRDATE: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 23RD 2008 ON BET @ 8 PM EST. Hold up! Is that T.I. and Ludacris performing? Together? On stage? In front of people? Apparently the 2008 BET Hip-Hop Awards were full of surprises: from T-Pain replacing Katt Williams as the host at the last minute, all the way down to T.I. and Ludacris sharing the same stage. And from the looks of it, the show looked to be pretty good. Be sure to catch it when it airs on BET this Thursday – October 23rd – at 8 PM.

Follow the break to check out photos of Nas, Rick Ross, Young Jeezy, Lil Wayne, and more performing at the 2008 BET Hip-Hop Awards.

PHOTOS: GETTY / WIRE

Cassie, Lupe Fiasco & N*E*R*D* all have their own cover for the August/September issue of Complex Magazine. In the multi cover issue, Cassie will be talking about her upcoming album, training with vocal coachs and the haters. Here is a few questions Complex asked her and responses:

The Internet helped launch you, but it’s also home to extremely harsh anonymous sh*t-talkers. How do you feel about that?

Cassie: I love it.

You do?

Cassie: I do. It’s ammunition. I used to be really offended by it. It didn’t motivate me before; I didn’t get that concept. I get it now. At this point, the ridiculousness of the Internet and the things that people say—it’s funny.

What’s the harshest thing that’s been said about you?

Cassie: “She’s f****ng for checks.” I don’t f**k for checks—I’d rather live on the street.

N*E*R*D* talked about there recent success with their album, Seeing Sounds, and their buzzing clothing line BBC (Billionaire Boys Club) & Ice Cream. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

Musically, you guys aren’t exactly mainstream, but you’re probably the biggest producers that ever made it from the world of hip-hop. But then from a style standpoint, it seems you try to keep a proximity to the exclusive sh*t. You don’t have BBC brand in Macy’s, which you could. Why do you feel that’s the way to go for clothes, as opposed to how you handle your music?
Pharrell: Certain things are meant to be amongst a smaller populace. You don’t want everything you do to be ridiculous, you know? Exclusivity is a good thing. It keeps it close to you.

But at the same time, a lot of styles you guys pioneered, and Nigo started, sort of trickled down to a lot of the mall brands. Does that worry you?
Pharrell: I’m not here to take credit. I’m just really appreciative of the opportunity. The most important part is the process. The process of designing?
Pharrell: The process for everything. It’s just having fun, being creative. Of course you want to think futuristically, but I think that if you just kind of walk with today, and you never fall backwards on yesterday, and you’re not stepping too quick towards tomorrow, it’s fun. Today is a process that leads to the finish line of tomorrow. Does that make sense? I’m not trying to be all philosophical and sh*t.

Lupe Fiasco talked about his philosophy on intelligence and he talked about “retiring” and dumb people in the hood…Check out the excerpt from the interview:

Your fans have a perception of you as this well-read scholar.

Lupe Fiasco: No, no, I’m a dummy. I’m Discovery Channel smart, for real. My real learning and education came from my mother and my father, them teaching me to be interested in thinking. My mother would pull me inside, and we would discuss Middle East politics when I was 12, 13.

So when you have a song like “Dumb It Down,” does that seem contradictory? It seemed like you were trying to reach a certain…demographic, right?

Lupe Fiasco: The dumb-ass ni**as in the hood.

Because I’ve heard people who are “dumb- ass ni**as in the hood” be like, “I feel like he’s talking down to me,” like, “Why not just be on some Tupac sh*t and go straight at me?”

Lupe Fiasco: Tupac went over people’s heads, too.

These issues are now available to buy online or on stands now. Take a look at videos from the photoshoots for this issue below!

Here’s the official T2W music video premiere of T.I.’s brand new video for “Whatever You Like” off of his new album, “Paper Trail,” which is due in stores September 30th 2008!

And here’s another T2W music video premiere! Check out N*E*R*D’s brand new video for the remix to “Everyone Nose,” featuring Kanye West, Lupe Fiasco, and Pusha T of The Clipse.

BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA // SUNDAY, JULY 27TH 2008» Rapper Jay-Z hit the stage last night during day 3 of the 2008 Pemberton Music Festival, a weekend long event in British Columbia (Canada).

The sun had just set behind the mountains on Sunday evening as Jay-Z took the stage to a roar of cheers – and quickly stole the show. Backed by a brass band, the legendary producer and rapper worked the 30,000-person strong crowd into a frenzy. The ground shook as the audience thrust their fists in the air to hit after hit, including “99 Problems” and his breakthrough “A Hard Knock Life.”

“To come up and here and get this much love, don’t think I don’t appreciate it,” Jay-Z shouted to the thundering crowd. “I appreciate each and every one of y’all out there.” [ SOURCE ]

N*E*R*D took the stage as well earlier in the day, so check out photos of them when you continue reading below!

(PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES)

MILAN, ITALY // JULY 15H 2008 » Pop superstar Rihanna (y’all might as well accept the fact that this girl is HUGE now) recently performed overseas in Italy at the MTV Mobile Bang Concert. According to various sources, she performed “Breakin’ Dishes” and her smash hit, “Umbrella.”

NEW YORK CITY // JULY 15TH 2008 » Pharrell ‘nem (collectively known as N*E*R*D) performed this past Tuesday in New York City at Santo’s Playhouse for the Sounds Like Paper Celebration, hosted by Paper Magazine and Converse.

If you haven’t heard already, Pharrell is supposed to undergoing a pretty painful procedure to remove some of his tattoos. But instead of going with the old method of laser removal, which doesn’t particularly work well for people with dark skin, he’s having the DNA in his skin cloned, which is basically “growing skin.” Surgeons will remove the layers of skin currently on his arms, and replace it with his “new skin.” Sounds cool, huh?

(PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES)

Here is the official T2W video premiere of ♫ Spaz by N*E*R*D from their latest album Seeing Sounds (Interscope) in stores and online now!

First up, I’d like to let everyone know that T2W is back online for good now! Some of you may have noticed that we experienced a few “testicular difficulties” (copyright Fresh lol) all day yesterday and for most of today, which made posting not only difficult, but 100% impossible. At one point I was afraid that I had lost everything (posts, comments, pages, etc.), but you’ll be glad to know that I fixed the problem and we’re back in action now! Now back to the updates!

The guys of N.E.R.D. and Fonzworth Bentley made a special appearance on yesterday’s episode of TRL to premote their respective projects. Fonzworth, who plans on releasing an album later on this year, also premiered his new video, featuring Andre 3000 and Kanye West, Everybody. You can also catch Fonz on VH1′s latest reality series, From G’s to Gents every Tuesday at 10 PM.

(PHOTOS: WIRE IMAGE)

We haven’t had an exclusive giveaway in a while, so I thought I’d give away two N*E*R*D t-shirts to two random Think2Wice readers who leave a comment before midnight tonight (Eastern)! So when you leave your comment, be sure to leave a valid e-mail address so that we have a way to contact you so that we can collect your names addresses and all of that good stuff. Good luck!!

CONTEST NOW CLOSED. THANKS TO ALL WHO ENTERED!

LONDON, ENGLAND // TUESDAY, JULY 1ST 2008 » Pharrell Williams hosted an afterparty for N*E*R*D‘s concert from the KOKO Club at the Maddox Club yesterday night in London. Jay-Z made a quick appearance on Pharrell’s behalf. I’m digging that SpongeBob Tee on Pharrell! Kennesha, you know where I can find that? Lemme know! Check out the rest of the pics after the cut.

(PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES)

Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo (of production team The Neptunes) and Shay Haley, collectively known as N*E*R*D, return to release their third studio album, Seeing Sounds (Interscope), available June 9th, 2008; but you may pre-order the album on AMAZON now!

N-E-R-D.COM // MYSPACE.COM/NERDOFFICIAL

The album starts off as an innocent childlike melody then filters with a showery noise and Pharrell talking about vivid, nostalgic memories of when he was 7 years old … and … um … I’ll just leave it at that. Next the album cuts to “Everyone Nose (All the Girls Standing in the Line for the Bathroom)” and “Windows“; already I’m getting a groovy 80′s vibe.

Things start to speed up a bit with the rockish, hip-hop influenced “Anti Matter” and “Spaz,” one of my favourite tunes from this album. “Yeah You” is a nice, smooth midtempo joint a la “Sooner or Later,” though the ladder has its subtle high points. “Happy” is another favourite of mine; another rock tune. “Kill Joy” is enticingly suspenseful. “Love Bomb” is starry and stellar! “You Know What” and “Laugh About It” are some more tunes I favor from this album, they’re both rockable! Although Seeing Sounds wasn’t half bad, I felt that there were holes in the overall delivery compared to N*E*R*D’s previous work. And the ending did not do much for me at all I must say.

The very beginning of the video for N*E*R*D*‘s latest single, Everyone Nose, displays a URL: EveryoneNose.com. So you know my curious ass had to check it out to see what was up. Unfortunately, I’ll have to wait until tomorrow, because the splash page is a blank black page with the words “COME BACK TOMORROW ;-).” So curiosity got the best of me once again, as I right-clicked and “viewed the source.” And the description in one of the meta tags (you’d have to be html/code literate to know what the hell that is) reads:

“Everyonenose.com features uncensored photos and videos from the new n.e.r.d. music video everyonenose.”

So I’m guessing the site will feature uncensored photos and videos from the new n.e.r.d. music video everyonenose. Yes that’s me. Mr. Obvious. But anyway, check out N*E*R*D*’s new video above, which features a cameo from Hollywood’s biggest cokehead, Lindsay Lohan! And if you didn’t already know, the song is a tribute to ladies who … snort coke. Duh, everyone NOSE!

Here is a new track from N*E*R*D‘s forthcoming project Seeing Sounds (Virgin) also releasing sometime this Summer. The song is called Spaz and I totally spazed when I heard this song on a commercial!! I was like, “that must be new!” So I went to searching all over the Internet and apparently I was right! The song is fun and energetic, I just rocked out to it in my room a few minutes ago, my Mom thinks I have gone mad and I love it! N*E*R*D is back peoples…

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO SPAZ

Hip Hop Group N.E.R.D is on the June 2008 cover of the Source Magazine. Not sure of the actual content of the magazine, but I do know that they are currently touring on the Glow In The Dark Tour with Lupe Fiasco, Rihanna, and Kanye West. Click the following link to see when N.E.R.D. will be in your area.

Glow In The Dark Tour Dates

Kanye has been dropping hints all week, but he finally let the cat out of the bag in an entry on his blog titled “The End of the World As You Know It!”. Kanye West will be hitting the road pretty soon with Rihanna, N.E.R.D. and Lupe Fiasco in the “Glow in the Dark” tour. Besides the promo poster above, he hasn’t released any major details yet, like dates and what-not, but I expect those will come along shortly. Am I excited? Hell no … I’m ECSTATIC! I don’t really too much care for Lupe and N.E.R.D., but they’re okay. Rihanna’s pretty cool too. But Kanyizzle? You better believe I’m gonna be breaking open my piggy bank and scrounging up some dough for this! Because you know he’s gonna charge a grip or two lol. All I know is that he better bring his ass to Greenville, SC. I don’t feel like driving all the way to Charlotte or Atlanta…

By the way, when is that Flashing Lights video coming? . . . 

Here music producer and mogul Pharrall can be seen in this television commercial for his Blason jewelery line, in association with Luis Vuitton. In the commercial you can also peep a clip of N*E*R*D’s new single “Everybody Nose”! Oh, and you might as well check out the final mix over at Pharrell’s Blog. No dramatic changes really, just synth-pop. [ SPOTTED @ Rap-Up.com ]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOMINIQUE!! A HUNDRED DOLLAR BILLS? LOOK AT-CHU, AT-CHU!!

[See post to listen to audio]
OK, huge N*E*R*D fan, took me a couple of listens to get into this. “Everybody Nose,” I’m guessing, is the lead single from N*E*R*D’s upcoming LP, the follow-up to 2004′s Fly or Die, N.3.R.D. set to release in Spring of 2008. I’m really excited becos I loved Fly or Die, I still bump it every now and then when I’m in my rebellious-phase. But man, did that album go hard!