Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and Drake are just some of the rappers up for a Moonman this year at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Nominations for the awards show, which will air on September 10 at 8 PM ET and PT, were announced on Tuesday (August 6).
Taylor Swift had the most nominations, with 10. She was followed by Post Malone‘s nine. All of Malone’s nominations except one are for his collaboration with Swift, “Fortnight.”
Em’s half-dozen noms, except for Artist of the Year, are all for his video “Houdini.” Lamar’s Drake diss “Not Like Us” scored a nomination for Song of the Year, while his opponent Drizzy got two nominations for his Sexyy Red and SZA collab “Rich Baby Daddy.”
The nominees for the category of Best Hip-Hop are “Rich Baby Daddy,” “Houdini,” GloRilla‘s “Yeah Glo!” Gunna‘s “fukumean,” Megan Thee Stallion‘s “BOA” and Travis Scott and Playboi Carti‘s “FE!N.”
You can check out the full list of nominations here.
Six VMA noms isn’t Eminem’s only recent big accomplishment. Last month, his latest album The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) has topped the Billboard 200 with the biggest sales week of 2024 in Hip Hop.
Debuting atop the chart during the week of July 27 with 281,000 equivalent album-units, Em’s 12th LP finally knocked Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department after an unbroken 12-week stint at No. 1, per Billboard.
The Death of Slim Shady‘s first-week sales make it the biggest rap debut of 2024, eclipsing Future and Metro Boomin‘s previous benchmark of 251,000 units sold with We Don’t Trust You.
Eminem’s latest offering also had the second biggest digital launch of the year with 114,000 sales, second only to Swift’s 274,000. The Death of Slim Shady does not have a physical release until September 13.
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The album was originally projected to earn between 270,000 and 290,000 album-equivalent units in its opening week, so it landed right in the middle of this estimate.
The Death of Slim Shady (Coup de Grâce) is Em’s 11th No. 1 album, putting him level with Kanye West, Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand. Only Drake (13), Swift (14), JAY-Z (also 14) and The Beatles (19) have more.
The album also had a bigger opening week than Slim Shady’s previous album, 2020’s Music to be Murdered By (279,000), as well as 2017’s Revival (267,000).