Perhaps the biggest and most important awards when it comes to hip hop, the BET Hip-Hop Awards for 2015 should be an enormous affair reflective of the rollercoaster of a year it’s been in the hip hop world. Beefs, controversies, collaborations new and old, amazing and not so, a whole bunch of great records too. Most of all though, the BET Hip-Hop Awards will be a whole bunch of the world’s most talented people all in the same room for a night of celebration. And after the batshit craziness of the VMAs, who isn’t looking forward to this?
The BET Hip-Hop Awards 2015 nominations are as follows:
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)”
Just putting together a tally, you can already pencil in people like Fetty Wap (5 nominations), Kendrick Lamar (8), Nicki Minaj (9) and Drake (who leads the pack with a massive 12 nominations) to clean up bigtime after the year they’ve all had, but there might be snubs, there might be surprises and Kanye West might continue his 2020 Presidential campaign (we hope and pray).
All of this is being hosted by Snoop Dogg on October 9th (to be aired October 13th). Howl will keep you covered on the 2015 BET Hip-Hop Awards as it happens.