The nominees for the 2015 BET Hip-Hop Awards are in. Drake and Big Sean lead the pack with 12 and 10 nominations respectively.
Nicki Minaj racked up nine nods and Kendrick Lamar trails closely behind with J. Cole at eight nominations each. Future dominates in the Best Mixtape category with all three of his latest offerings (Monster, Beast Mode and 56 Nights) as contenders.
Aside from the cyphers, the presentation of Album of the Year may very well be the highlight of the award show. Nominees in this category include Cole’s 2014 Forest Hills Drive, K.Dot’s To Pimp A Butterfly, Nicki Minaj’s The Pinkprint and Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late.
Back in April, Cole earned his first platinum album with 2014 Forest Hills Drive. The feature-less project, which dropped last December, boasts over 1,000,000 copies, including streaming tallies. His previous albums, Cole World: The Sideline Story and Born Sinner, pushed 735,000 and 720,000 units respectively. Forest Hills Drive went gold in its second week with little promotion before the album and no singles released beforehand.
In more recent months, Drake's IYRTITL became the first million-selling album of 2015. The surprise release sold another 8,000 copies in the week ending Aug. 7, making it the first album released in 2015 to sell a million copies in the U.S. IYRTITL has sold 1.007 million units since its February release and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Big Sean's Dark Sky Paradise, which featured the singles "Blessings" and "IDFWU," is also nominated along with Wale's Album About Nothing.
Check out the full list of nominees below. The BET Hip-Hop awards air Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 8 p.m. ET.
Best Hip-Hop Video
Big Sean feat. Chris Brown and Ty Dolla $ign – “Play No Games”
Big Sean feat. Drake and Kanye West – “Blessings”
Fetty Wap – “Trap Queen”
Kendrick Lamar – “Alright”
Nicki Minaj feat. Beyoncé – “Feeling Myself”
Best Collabo, Duo or Group
Big Sean feat. Drake and Kanye West – “Blessings”
Big Sean feat. E-40 – “IDFWU”
Fetty Wap feat. Monty – “My Way”
Nicki Minaj feat. Beyoncé – “Feeling Myself”
Nicki Minaj feat. Drake and Lil Wayne – “Truffle Butter”
Best Live Performer
Drake
J. Cole
Kanye West
Kendrick Lamar
Nicki Minaj
Lyricist of the Year
Big Sean
Drake
J. Cole
Kendrick Lamar
Nicki Minaj
Video Director of the Year
Alan Ferguson
Benny Boom
Chris Robinson/Lil Chris
Colin Tilley
Director X
DJ of the Year
DJ Drama
DJ Envy
DJ Esco
DJ Khaled
DJ Mustard
Producer of the Year
DJ Mustard
J. Cole
Kanye West
Mike Will Made-It
Pharrell Williams
Timbaland
MVP of the Year
Big Sean
Drake
Future
J. Cole
Kendrick Lamar
Nicki Minaj
Track of the Year
“Alright” – Produced by Pharrell Williams and Sounwave (Kendrick Lamar)
“Blessings” – Produced by Boi-1da and Vinylz (Big Sean feat. Drake and Kanye West)
“Commas” – Produced by DJ Spinz and Southside (Future)
“IDFWU” – Produced by Dj Dahi, Dj Mustard, Kanye West and Key Wane (Big Sean feat. E-40)
“Trap Queen” – Produced by Tony Fadd (Fetty Wap)
Album of the Year
Big Sean – Dark Sky Paradise
Drake – If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
J. Cole – 2014 Forest Hills Drive
Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly
Nicki Minaj – The Pinkprint
Wale – The Album About Nothing
Who Blew Up Award
Bobby Shmurda
DeJ Loaf
Fetty Wap
Rae Sremmurd
Tink
Hustler of the Year
Dr. Dre
Drake
J. Cole
Jay Z
Nicki Minaj
Made-You-Look Award (Best Hip-Hop Style)
A$AP Rocky
DeJ Loaf
Drake
Kanye West
Nicki Minaj
Best Club Banger
Big Sean feat. E-40 – “IDFWU” (Produced by Dj Dahi, Dj Mustard, Kanye West and Key Wane)
Dej Loaf – “Try Me” (Produced by Dds)
Fetty Wap – “Trap Queen” (Produced by Tony Fadd)
Future – “Commas” (Produced by DJ Spinz and Southside)
Rich Homie Quan – “Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh)” (Produced by DJ Spinz and Nitti Beatz)
Best Mixtape
Future – 56 Nights
Future – Beast Mode
Future – Monster
Lil Wayne – Sorry 4 The Wait 2
Travis Scott – Days Before Rodeo
Sweet 16: Best Featured Verse
Drake – “Blessings” (Big Sean feat. Drake and Kanye West)
Drake – “My Way (Remix)” (Fetty Wap feat. Drake)
E-40 – “IDFWU” (Big Sean feat. E-40)
Kendrick Lamar – “Classic Man (Remix)” (Jidenna feat. Kendrick Lamar)
Lil Wayne – “Truffle Butter” (Nicki Minaj feat. Drake and Lil Wayne)
Impact Track
Big Sean feat. Kanye West and John Legend – “One Man Can Change The World”
Common and John Legend – “Glory” (From The Motion Picture “Selma”)
J. Cole – “Apparently”
J. Cole – “Be Free”
Kendrick Lamar – “Alright”
People’s Champ Award
Big Sean feat. Drake and Kanye West – “Blessings”
Fetty Wap – “Trap Queen”
Future – “Commas”
Kendrick Lamar – “i”
Rae Sremmurd – “No Type”
Rich Homie Quan – “Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh)”
