Lil Wayne leads the 2012 Billboard Music Awards nominations with 10 nods including the Top Artist acknowledgement.

Weezy is tied with megastar Lady Gaga for a total of 10 snags. The two will compete against songbird Adele —who leads the nominations overall with 18 nods— Rihanna and pop star Katy Perry for the Top Artist prize. Wayne is also up for Top Male Artist, Top 200 Billboard Album, Top Rap Album and Top Rap Artists, among other recognitions.

Other hip-hop nominations include Big Sean and Wiz Khalifa for Top New Artist (the latter is also up for Top Rap Artist); Drake for Top Male Artist, Top Rap Artist and Top Billboard 200 Album for Take Care; Nicki Minaj for Top Female Artist; and Jay-Z & Kanye West for Top Rap Album for Watch the Throne. Pitbull featuring Ne-Yo, Afrojack & Nayer ("Give Me Everything") and Katy Perry featuring Kanye West ("E.T") are both up for Top Hot 100 Song.

The Billboard Music Awards are based on chart rankings as they pertain to album sales and downloads, track downloads, radio airplay and touring as well as streaming and social interactions on Facebook, Twitter, Vevo, Youtube, Spotify and other popular online destinations for music. These measurements, tracked year-round by Billboard and its data partners, including Nielsen Entertainment and Next Big Sound, are based on the reporting period of March 1, 2011 through February 29, 2012.

The show will take place at Las Vegas' MGM Grand and be broadcast live on ABC on May 20. Tickets for the 2012 Billboard Music Awards are now on sale at Ticketmaster.com and MGMGrand.com. –Gina Montana

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