Atlanta bred rappers Young Jeezy and T.I. and Cleveland’s Bone Thugs-N-Harmony and join chart dominators Beyonce, Akon and Justin Timberlake as nominees for the American Music Awards, which were on announced on Tuesday (October 9).
Young Jeezy, Bone and T.I., who have two nominations, will also go head-to-head with Beyonce, Linkin Park, Justin Timberlake and American Idol’s Chris Daughtry, who all have three nominations.
Young Jeezy’s The Inspiration will go head-to-head with T.I.’s Tip Vs. T.I.P. and Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s Strength & Loyalty for Favorite Hip-Hop Album of the Year.
Bone scored nominations in the favorite Hip-Hop/Rap Group category, while fans of Young Jeezy, T.I. and Fabolous will battle it out for Favorite Male Artist of the Year.
Reggaeton rapper Daddy Yankee will go against Juan Luis Guerra y 440 and Jennifer Lopez for Favorite Latin Artist of the Year honors.
The American Music Awards will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and will take place on November 18th at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California.
For the first time in the 35-year-history of the American Music Awards, fans votes determine the winner by voting online in each category.
Nominees were originally selected by a balloting system compiled from data supplied by industry publications Radio & Records and Nielsen Soundscan, which tracks retail music sales.
The ballots were then sent to a national sampling of 15,000 people, who voted based on their musical preferences and how many albums they purchased each year.
After examining voting procedures of the past, management at AMA decided to opt for the Internet to gather votes, as opposed to the earlier method.
“The Internet allows us a way to bring millions of potential voters into the voting process,” said Terry Bateman, CEO of Dick Clark Productions, the company producing the AMA’s.
“Now instead of limiting the voting to thousands of people, millions of people will have the opportunity to vote,” Bateman said. “It is America’s awards show, so why not let the public choose which nominees win?”
For more information on voting go to www.abc.com.