Green Day raps hip-hop to rock MTV video music awards

Nekesa Mumbi Moody, Miami

Green Day, which arrived at the Miami venue in the vintage green convertible from their gritty Boulevard Of Broken Dreams video, won best rock video and video of the year for the clip two of its leading eight nominations. It also won the viewer's choice award, best group and several technical categories, losing only to Gwen Stefani's What You Waiting For? for art direction.

The Gorillaz animation duo, which includes Blur's Damon Albarn, picked up two awards, Best Breakthrough Video and Best Special Effects, for Feel Good Inc.

In recent years, hip-hop and pop have dominated the show, especially in the major categories. Not this year. My Chemical Romance and Coldplay were among the showcase performances, and Kanye West was the only rapper to win an "all-genre" award, with his Jesus Walks taking best male video.

The Killers won for best new artist. Fall Out Boy won the MTV2 award for its song Sugar, We're Going Down, beating artists like Mike Jones, My Chemical Romance and reggaeton star Daddy Yankee.

Before the awards began, MTV dodged two major disasters one from nature, the other from the barrel of a gun.

The annual bash was briefly overshadowed by Hurricane Katrina, which hit southern Florida on Thursday and killed several people. As the storm passed, a celebratory mood took over the city until rap mogul Suge Knight was targeted by gunfire at a Kanye West party.

Knight was shot in the leg and scheduled for surgery at a Miami hospital; his lawyers would not release his condition, which was not expected to be life threatening.

"The theme of tonight is, anything can happen," proclaimed host Diddy, whose entrance included dancers, pyrotechnics and a cascading waterfall a spectacle that rivalled the show's actual performances.

And Eva Longoria showed her booty and a lot more with a skimpy one-piece pink bathing suit that featured a plunging neckline reminiscent of J-Lo back when she was dating a guy named Puff Daddy.

"Hey Diddy, you said anything goes, and I wasn't going to let a little hurricane prevent me from wearing my bathing suit!" said the Desperate Housewives star.

Not to be outdone, Paulina Rubio wore a skin-tight lace Dolce & Gabbana vintage gown that showed off her thong. She calmly eluded the reaching arm of co-presenter Lil Jon.

Another flashback came in a tribute to Diddy's protege, the late Notorious B.I.G., featuring Diddy "conducting" a string orchestra as the legendary rapper's songs played. Snoop Dogg came out at the end and delivered a verse on the B.I.G. hit, Warning.

Diddy made three ward-robe changes in the first half-hour alone. Kelly Clarkson's Since U Been Gone won two awards, for best female and pop video. Also winning two awards were Missy Elliott, the Gorillaz and Stefani.