AALIYAH LEADS BET NOMINEES

The nominees for the second annual BET Awards were announced today, and with any luck, the show will feature Humanitarian Award recipient Muhammed Ali jamming with Lifetime Achievement Award winners Earth, Wind and Fire.

Even if that doesn’t happen, the Awards show should be hilarious, thanks to co-hosts Steve Harvey and Cedric the Entertainer, who are nothing if not, er, entertaining.

The Awards will be broadcast live from Los Angeles’ Kodak Theatre June 25, though if you live in Los Angeles or elsewhere on the West Coast, you’ll have to watch it via tape delay. New categories added this year include the Viewer’s Choice for Best Video, which will be voted on at BET.com. Last year's awards show was the most-watched BET show in the network’s 22-year history, netting a 4.26 Nielsen rating (2.83 million households).

This year, BET is hoping that it will be a non-vanilla thrilla.

And the nominees are:

Best Group: 112, B2K, Destiny’s Child, Jagged Edge, OutKast.

Best Male R&B: Craig David, Jaheim, Maxwell, Musiq, Usher

Best Female R&B: Aaliyah, India.Arie, Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, Alicia Keys

Best Male Hip-Hop: Busta Rhymes, Ja Rule, Jay-Z, Ludacris, Nas

Best Female Hip-Hop: Foxy Brown, Angie Martinez, Missy Elliott, Mystic, Trina

Best New Artist: Ashanti, B2K, Craig David, Alicia Keys, Tweet

Best Gospel Artist: Yolanda Adams, Kurt Carr, Kirk Franklin, Fred Hammond, CeCe Winans

Best Video of the Year: Aaliyah ("Rock the Boat"), Busta Rhymes f/P. Diddy ("Pass the Courvosier"), Missy Elliott ("One Minute Man"), P. Diddy ("Bad Boy 4 Life") Usher ("You Got It Bad")

Viewer’s Choice: Aaliyah ("Rock the Boat"), B2K ("Uh Huh"), Ja Rule f/Ashanti ("Always on Time"), Lil’ Bow Wow ("Take YaHome"), Alicia Keys ("Fallin’")