Tinie Tempah leads nominations for Mobo awards 2010

Rapper Tinie Tempah leads the nominations for this year's Mobo awards, with organisers saying urban music "is now the UK mainstream". Dizzee Rascal, N-Dubz, Plan B and Professor Green are also nominated for the event, which will take place in Liverpool on 20 October. "Obviously being nominated is only one part, winning is something else, but to be nominated for four Mobos in one of my favourite cities has blown me away," the rapper told the Liverpool Echo. The 21-year-old has been nominated for best UK act and best newcomer, as well as for best single and video. N-Dubz, who won two prizes last year, have three nominations – and face Tinie Tempah in two major categories. Several award categories have a long list of nominees – in honour of the Mobos' 15th anniversary, 15 acts have been named for best UK act, best international act and best African act. But this number will be whittled down to five over the next month. Apart from the jazz and gospel categories, all awards will be voted for by the public. "What a massive change compared to when we started 15 years ago," founder Kanya King said. "I am very proud of the level of talent in the UK today and extremely pleased with the dominance of Mobo music artists in the charts both here and in the US." Not long after these comments, Simon Frith, chair of the Mercury prize, offered a slightly different opinion of UK music. "British tastes have sort of blind spots," he told the BBC yesterday. "Black female music has always had a particularly tough time." Although urban music is up 32.9% in the UK this year, the only black British female singers in the UK album/single charts are former reality TV show contestants. "It may be radio play or playlists, promoters or whatever it is," Frith said, "[but] unless you are in the mode of a certain type of entertainer it's very hard space to occupy." The complete list of 2010 Mobo nominations: Best newcomer Tinie Tempah Professor Green Scorcher Labrinth Devlin Best UK act Tinie Tempah Jay Sean Tinchy Stryder Taio Cruz Chipmunk N-Dubz Giggs JLS Roll Deep MIA Dizzee Rascal Alexandra Burke Sade Plan B Leona Lewis Best song Taio Cruz ft Ke$ha – Dirty Picture Tinie Tempah – Pass Out N-Dubz ft Mr Hudson – Playing With Fire Mark Ronson & The Business INTL ft Q-Tip & MNDR – Bang, Bang, Bang Professor Green ft Ed Drewett – I Need You Tonight Best UK R&B/soul Sade Natalie Williams Corinne Bailey Rae McLean Plan B Best UK Hip-hop/grime Giggs Professor Green Skepta Akala Wiley Best international act Drake Alicia Keys Jay-Z Rihanna Eminem Janelle Monae Black Eyed Peas Nicki Minaj Ne-Yo Usher Beyonce Jason Derulo Lil Wayne Travie McCoy Trey Songz Best reggae Damian Marley Mavado GYPTIAN Vybz Kartel GAPPY RANKS Best album Plan B – The Defamation of Strickland Banks (679/Atlantic) JLS – JLS (Epic) N-Dubz – Against All Odds (UMTV) Chipmunk – I Am Chipmunk (Jive/Columbia) Dizzee Rascal – Tongue in Cheek (Dirtee Stank) Best video Mark Ronson & The Business INTL ft Q-Tip & MNDR – Bang, Bang, Bang Tinie Tempah ft Labrinth – Frisky Tinchy Stryder - You're Not Alone Alesha Dixon – Drummer Boy Dizzee Rascal – Dirtee Disco Best African act K'Naan (Somalia) P-Square (Nigeria) Hip Hop Pantsula (South Africa) JJC (Nigeria) Banky W (Nigeria) Concha Buika (Equatorial Guinea) Mulatu Astatke (Ethiopia) Wanlov the Kubolor (Ghana) Angélique Kidjo (Benin) M3NSA (Ghana) Yuri Da Cunha (Angola) Tinny (Ghana) Waldemar Bastos (Zimbabwe) Staff Benda Bilili (Congo-Kinshasa) BLK JKS (South Africa) Best gospel act Faith Child Guvna B Rachel Kerr Jake Isaac Beverley Trotman Best jazz act Robert Glasper Brad Mehldau Empirical Phronesis John McLaughlin