New Orleans rapper Lil Wayne has been nominated for an unprecedented 18 BET awards after the nominees were officially announced on the morning of Thursday September 8.

The ceremony is set to take place at the Atlanta Civic Centre on October 11 and will be hosted by comedian Mike Epps.

This comes after an extremely successful week which saw his new album, 'Tha Carter IV', debut at number 1 in the US charts, selling an outstanding 964,000 copies.

Winning a BET award shall be no easy feat as Wayne will have to fend off fellow hopefuls Nicki Minaj, Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa who have also been nominated in a selection of categories including Lyricist of the Year, Track of the Year and Best Live Performer.

The other artists with the most nods, Kanye West and Wiz Khalifa, have only half the nominations of that of Lil Wayne, illustrating his dominance in the hip-hop industry over the past year.  

Lil Wayne has released nine studio albums including 'Tha Carter III' which went triple platinum, propelling him to international success. Watch the video for Lil Wayne's latest track here: