MTV has revealed the full list of nominees for the 2025 Video Music Awards, and Kendrick Lamar will be competing for a total of 10 honors. They include Artist Of The Year, Video Of The Year, Best Album, Best Hip-Hop, Best Collaboration, Best Cinematography, Best Choreography, Best Direction, Best Art Direction, and Best Editing. In turn, he is the hip-hop artist with the most nominations.
Ahead of him are Lady Gaga, who is up for 12 awards, and Bruno Mars, who is competing for 11 awards. Additionally, Sabrina Carpenter and ROSÉ each have eight nods while Ariana Grande has seven nominations.
Lamar's iconic "Not Like Us" diss track is single-handedly helping him earn six of the nominations while his album, GNX, and his collaboration with SZA, "Luther," are being recognized as well. Lamar dropped "Not Like Us" as the climactic diss track in his viral feud with Drake in 2024. The song already won five Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Rap Performance, Best Rap Song, and Best Music Video. Additionally, he performed it at the Super Bowl LIX halftime show. Drake is up for an award at the VMAs as well. His song, "Nokia," is competing against Lamar for Best Hip-Hop.
The MTV Video Music Awards will be held on Sunday, September 7, 2025, at the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York.
Kendrick Lamar & SZA "Grand National Tour"
The announcement of the VMA nominations comes as Kendrick Lamar and SZA have been performing together on the Grand National Tour. The run of shows kicked off on April 19, 2025, when they performed in Minneapolis. In the months since, they've performed all over North America, before beginning the European leg of the tour in July.
When Lamar hits Australia, later this year, he'll be swapping out SZA for his other longtime collaborator, ScHoolboy Q, due to scheduling conflicts. ScHoolboy Q and Kendrick Lamar were famously members of Black Hippy together.
