• Andre 3000 has a new album (sans Big Boi), an new movie and a new clothing line coming out! But he wants you to know that the clothing line thing doesn't mean he's gay, okay? [NB]

• Good to know: Wayne Brady knows his R&B video cliches. [BWE]

• Jay-Z gives Nas and Kanye praise, Bill Clinton-style. [Bossip]

• Someone please explain the need for Baby Phat medical scrubs. [C&D]

• Labelle is back! [SB]

Andre 3000 is heading back to the big screen with his new film, Battle in Seattle, and he's hoping to school a large audience about a 1999 World Trade Organization protest in Seattle that turned "into full-scale chaos."

"When I saw the title 'Battle in Seattle,' I thought it was catchy," André Benjamin told us last week. "I thought, 'Hey, this may be some kind of rap movie.' You know, they want some kind of battle. They want me to do the kind of '8 Mile' battle thing. 'Cause that's the roles they give to rappers anyway. So once I read it, I was like, 'Hey, OK, this is something serious.' And then, the bigger picture, it was something I didn't know about. I knew if I didn't know about it, I knew a lot of people didn't know about it. So I said, 'Let me bring this to the world … through my people, through people in the rap world.' So at that point, I felt like I was doing a good deed bringing light to it."

[MTV]

NAACP leaders meeting in Cincinnati say they're going to ramp up their campaign against flying the Confederate flag in South Carolina. In 2000, a compromise between state parties for and against the flag in saw it removed from the Capitol dome and instead flown on the Statehouse grounds near the Confederate Soldier Monument.

The fact that everyone in the country isn't against the flying of a symbol that was once devoted to the decimation of the United States has always confused me. Not being from the region, I don't really understand the bond some Southerners – like Georgian Andre 3000 there – feel with the flag. Is there anyone out there who thinks the banner is a symbol of heritage – not hate – and wants to explain their beliefs?

One of the most glamorous annual events in New York City, the Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was held last night. As usual, the stars showed up to the party — this year's theme was "Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy" — in all of their designer finery, and as usual, some gowns were finer than others. Loads more pics after the jump.

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Andre 3000/Benjamin, who has been making the rounds doing publicity for his new film with Will Ferrell, Semi-Pro, which debuted at No. 1 this weekend, told MTV that fans should get ready for a lot more music from him in the near future. In addition to a collaboration on John Legends new album, he has plans to record a solo album, due in the fall, followed by another Outkast album with Big Boi.

By his own admission, Andre hasn't laid down tracks for either album. Only two songs have been conceived, and both exist only "in my head," he said.

No worries, he calmly said — it's the finish line that counts.

"After I finish promoting 'Semi-Pro,' I'm going to the studio and kind of staying in there for a while," he promised. "[I'll] bang out something!"

MTV recently unveiled their 10 MCs in the Game list, for which the network's hip hop journos took into account the rappers' work in the past 6 months to a year. Even though this isn't about career-spanning accomplishments, the list barely makes sense: The Game is No. 3? Jim Jones is on the list at all? Lil Wayne, in a triumph I'm sure will please a few Stereohypers and infuriate 50 Cent, took to the No. 1 spot. Here's what he had to say.

"I saw the preview [of the show], and if I'm lying, I'm flying: I was like, 'Who won?' … I'm glad I won. Yaaa dig! Don't stop believing in me. They say I'm the Hottest MC in the Game. If you label me that, I will live up to it. Trust me."

I guess that means he's happy?

The interesting top 10 and MTV's honorable mentions after the jump.

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If it weren't for the anachronistic Bluetooth sparkling on Andre 3000's ear in footage caught by TMZ yesterday, he could have easily been mistaken for a Mark Twain character. TMZ said Tom Sawyer, but I think that's just because they didn't want to deal with the consequences of comparing him to Jim, the runaway slave.

[TMZ]