UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES AND BET ASSEMBLE R&B, HIP-HOP HITS FOR 2004 BET AWARDS NOMINEES CD - INAUGURAL EDITION FEATURES OUTKAST, BEYONCE & JAY-Z, JANET JACKSON, MARY J. BLIGE, LUDACRIS, MISSY ELLIOTT, R. KELLY, KANYE WEST AND MORE!
CD Entitled BET AWARDS*04 NOMINEES Debuts with June 29 Telecast Premiere
LOS ANGELES, June 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Since its inception in 2001, the annual BET Awards special has generated higher ratings with African-American viewers than any other awards telecast, including the Grammys, Soul Train Awards, NAACP Image Awards and MTV Video Music Awards. This year for the first time, the show has its own soundtrack album, as more than a dozen of the biggest hits of the past year from today's hottest hip-hop and R&B stars are featured on BET AWARDS*04 NOMINEES (Hip-O/UTV/UMe). The compilation CD is set for release on Tuesday, June 29 to music retail stores, the same day as the premiere BET Awards telecast at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
The star-studded BET Awards special will be hosted by actress/comedian Mo'Nique, and features performances from Outkast, Janet Jackson, Jay-Z and others also heard on the new album. Producers of the new collection are Stephen Hill, BET Senior Vice President for Music Programming and Talent; Erika Irish, BET Vice President for Business Development; and Ron Weisner of Ron Weisner Entertainment.
BET AWARDS*04 NOMINEES includes three massive #1 smashes: "The Way You Move" (#1 pop/#1 rap/#2 R&B) from Outkast featuring Sleepy Brown and "Crazy In Love" (#1 pop/#1 R&B) from Beyonce featuring Jay-Z are both Video of the Year and Best Collaboration nominees, plus "Stand Up" (#1 pop/#1 R&B/#1 rap) from Ludacris. A more vintage R&B #1 is the 1975 bonus track, "Fight The Power," from The Isley Brothers, winners of the 2004 BET Lifetime Achievement Award.
Top 10 R&B/Top 10 rap/Top 20 pop are G-Unit's "Stunt 101," Kanye West's "Through The Wire," and Sean Paul's "Like Glue." Two other Top 10 pop/Top 10 R&B hits are R. Kelly's "Ignition (Remix)" (#2 pop/#2 R&B) and vocal group Jagged Edge's "Walked Outta Heaven" (also #2 R&B). Musiq lays down "Whoknows" (Top 30 R&B). Also heard from the Dirty South that produced Outkast is the King of Crunk, Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz featuring the Ying Yang Twins, with "Get Low."
Three major soul divas are also heard: Mary J. Blige with "Love At 1st Sight" (Top 30 pop/Top 10 R&B), Missy Elliott with "I'm Really Hot" (Top 20 rap/Top 30 R&B) and Janet Jackson with "I Want You" (Top 20 R&B). Classic soul singer Luther Vandross contributes the Top 40 pop/Top 30 R&B "Dance With My Father" while new neo-soul star Anthony Hamilton offers "Comin' From Where I'm From."
Vandross, Hamilton and Kelly are nominated for Best Male R&B Artist; Beyonce, Blige and Jackson for Best Female. Hamilton and West are nominated for Best New Artist. West, Ludacris and Jay-Z are Best Male Hip Hop Artist nominees, and Elliott is among the female nominees in that genre. G-Unit, Jagged Edge, Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz, and OutKast are among those nominated for Best Group.
ABOUT BET
BET, a subsidiary of Viacom, Inc. (NYSE:VIA) (NYSE:and) (NYSE:VIA.B) , is the nation's leading television network providing quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs programming for the African-American audience. The BET Network reaches more than 78 million households according to Nielsen media research, and can be seen in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. BET is a dominant consumer brand in the urban marketplace with a diverse group of branded businesses: BET.com, the Number 1. Internet portal for African Americans; BET Digital Networks -- BET Jazz, BET Gospel and BET Hip Hop, attractive alternatives for cutting-edge entertainment tastes; BET Event Productions, specializing in a full range of event production services, including event management, venue selection, talent recruitment, sound, lighting and stage production; and BET Books, the nation's leading publisher of African-American themed romance novels under the Arabesque Books label, and publisher of new imprints Sepia and New Spirit.
ABOUT UNIVERSAL MUSIC ENTERPRISES
UME represents the largest catalog in the U.S. of recorded music with recordings from the world's greatest artists from A&M, Geffen, MCA, Universal, Interscope, Mercury, Island, Polydor, Motown, Def Jam, MCA Nashville, and more. Among the legendary artists are Abba, Aerosmith, Louis Armstrong, Chuck Berry, James Brown, The Carpenters, Eric Clapton, Patsy Cline, John Coltrane, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, The Four Tops, Judy Garland, Marvin Gaye, Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday, Buddy Holly, The Jackson Five, The Mamas & The Papas, Bob Marley, Bill Monroe, Van Morrison, Nirvana, Parliament, The Police, Public Enemy, Smokey Robinson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Cat Stevens, Rod Stewart, The Supremes, The Temptations, Muddy Waters, Hank Williams, and The Who.
UME is a division of Universal Music Group, the world's leading music company with wholly-owned record operations or licensees in 71 countries around the world. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, one of the industry's largest global music publishing operations. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalog of music in the industry, which is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and UM3 (outside the U.S.).
Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi Universal, a global media and communications company.
Source: Universal Music Enterprises
CONTACT: Michael Lewellen, +1-202-608-2003, or Tosha Whitten-Griggs,
+1-404-763-8656, both of BET Awards; or press, Sujata Murthy, +1-310-865-7812,
or Todd Nakamine, +1-310-865-7797, or Amy Gardner, +1-310-865-9804, or radio,
Elliot Kendall, +1-310-865-9852, all of Universal Music Enterprises
Web site: http://www.bet.com/
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