A year after Beyoncé topped the 2017 Grammy Awards nominations, her hubby is following suit.
Jay-Z leads this year's pack with eight nods, including album of the year for 4:44, his critically acclaimed meditation on success, marriage and being black in America. He is joined in the Recording Academy's top category by Childish Gambino (Awaken! My Love), Kendrick Lamar (DAMN.), Lorde (Melodrama) and Bruno Mars (24K Magic).
It's the first album-of-the-year nod for Jay-Z as a lead artist, after being nominated as featured on Lamar's good kid, m.A.A.d city, Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III and Beyoncé's self-titled effort.
With 21 wins and 74 nominations, the 47-year-old rap titan now ties Stevie Wonder and Georg Solti as the third most-nominated artist in Grammys history, behind Quincy Jones (79) and Paul McCartney (74).
Lamar, with seven nominations, and Mars, with six, also made strong showings in below-the-line categories. DAMN., Lamar's third album-of-the-year contender after good kid and To Pimp a Butterfly, is in the running for best rap album, while its explosive lead single, HUMBLE., is up for best rap song, performance and music video. Mars, fresh off a 2016 win for record of the year (Mark Ronson's Uptown Funk) is vying for R&B album against Gambino, another major player with five nods.
Grammy nominations are voted on by 13,000 industry professionals, with more than 22,000 entries submitted to the Recording Academy. In order to be eligible this year, recordings must have been released between October 1, 2016, and September 30.
The 60th annual Grammy Awards will hold on January 28 at New York's Madison Square Garden. The ceremony, which has been held at Los Angeles' Staples Center in recent years, returns to the East Coast for the first time since 2003.
