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The 2009 Video Music Awards nominations are out, and though much of the attention is on Best Video, one of the most intriguing categories is the race for Best New Artist. It pits Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" against 3OH!3 ("Don't Trust Me") and three top-shelf MCs: Drake ("Best I Ever Had"), Kid Cudi ("Day 'N' Nite") and Asher Roth ("I Love College").
The nominations are lead by two artists who appeared in a rather prescient feature MTV News' Stephen Roberts produced at the beginning of the year, announcing the five "MCs to Watch in 2009." ">Kid Cudi was on that list, and his nomination for his signature hit "Day 'N' Nite" — one of the best hip-hop jams of the year so far— proves that Roberts' prediction was deadly accurate.
In addition to producing the super-cool video for "Day 'N' Night," Cudi has spent the year prepping his debut album and touring with Asher Roth, another Best New Artist nominee and MC to watch. Roth managed to overcome the inevitable comparisons to Eminem and scored a big hit with "I Love College." The video features much of the frat house debauchery Roth raps about in the song, but it also has a contagious energy that makes Roth seem like the most fun dude in the universe. (And who says he isn't?)
Though he wasn't one of the "MCs to Watch," Drake has certainly built up a great deal of buzz in the hip-hop community. And unlike some artists, he has fully delivered on that hype. A smooth, crooning MC in the Lil Wayne mold, his runaway hit "Best I Ever Had" has not only found a home on regular rotation on MTV but also has camped out near the top of the Billboard chart for most of the summer. Though the Canadian rapper has recently hit on hard times (he re-injured his knee at a concert stop in New Jersey), he's still had an incredible year: He dropped a much-downloaded mixtape, signed with Lil Wayne's Young Money label, was drafted to the "American's Most Wanted" tour and got Kanye West to direct the clip for "Best I Ever Had."
Gaga's nomination is the least shocking of the five, as her album The Fame has been an unstoppable phenomenon since it dropped last year. The singles "Just Dance," "Poker Face" and "Paparazzi" are all dance-pop masterpieces, and her signature visual style — equal parts haute couture and sci-fi convention — has undoubtedly given her a boost.
3OH!3 and Lady Gaga are rarely mentioned in the same sentence, but besides both being nominated for Best New Artist, they have more in common than that. The Colorado duo's hit "Don't Trust Me" has the same sort of construction at Lady Gaga's best tracks: Hummable, pulsating disco-pop dressed up in electro-guitars and colorful costumes. But the 3OH!3 boys are down with hip-hop at heart, as their recent collaborations with Lil Jon (who recently joined them on stage at a concert in New York) and Kid Cudi (who appeared on a remix of "Don't Trust Me") prove.
Clearly they've all made big impacts, but it'll be another few weeks before we find out who will join the likes of Maroon 5, Nirvana, 50 Cent, Alicia Keys and Eminem as winners of the Moon Man for Best New Artist.
