Diddy and His Dirty Money, Snoop, Young Jeezy, Fabolous, Soulja Boy, Ludacris, Monica, Tiny & Toya ... Will Be in the Building Shutting Down the ATL for the BET HIP HOP AWARDS, Saturday, October 10, 2009

Ice Cube Honored As This Year's "I AM HIP-HOP" Icon Award Recipient

* Hosted By Comedian and Actor Mike Epps *

NEW YORK, Oct. 6 -- BET Networks is gearing up for its fourth annual BET HIP HOP AWARDS in Atlanta, GA hosted by actor and comedian Mike Epps, the show will tape on Saturday, October 10th at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlantic Civic Center and will premiere on the network on Tuesday, October 27 at 8:00 p.m.* This year's show is sure to have you on your feet with appearances and performances by Snoop, Jeezy, Soulja Boy, Wale, E-40, Fabolous, Gucci Mane, Goodie Mob, Lil Scrappy, Dorrough, Monica, Tiny & Toya, DJ Khalid, DJ Drama, Trina, Diddy featuring his sexy Dirty Money crew, and of course you know they'll be some surprises.

One of the most popular segments of the show are always the "hip-hop ciphers" and it promises not to disappoint this year as it features some of the true heavy weights as they battle it out, raw, uncut - for the fans.

To refresh the minds, the Hip-Hop Awards Voting Academy has nominated rapper, producer and style aficionado Kanye West for an impressive nine awards. Jay Z and Lil Wayne follow closely behind with seven nominations and T.I. rounds things off with six nominations. Additionally, BET has added two new nomination categories to this year's show - "Made-You-Look Award" (Best Hip Hop Style) which will go to the ultimate trendsetter and "Best Hip-Hop Blog Site," which will go to the online site that consistently keeps hip-hop fans in the know non-stop.

The BET HIP HOP AWARDS will showcase "Hip Hop Cares" which highlights various community organizations and foundations powered by prominent rap super stars in the industry. This year BET will feature 50 Cents' G-Unity Foundation, Busta Rhymes' affiliation with RockCorps, Jim Jones' service to Entertainers Alliance for Education Foundation and Young Jeezy's Street Dreams Foundation as they give back to major causes affecting their communities and the hip hop community at large.

BET once again teams up with Cossette Productions, the famed producers of the GRAMMY Awards� and the seven record-setting BET AWARDS shows, to handle production of the telecast. Stephen G. Hill, BET President, Music and Programming, along with Lynne Harris-Taylor, BET Vice President of Specials, are executive producers of the telecast.

For additional information, visit BET.com.

*All times ET/PT

About BET Networks

BET Networks, a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is the nation's leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs television programming for the African-American audience. The primary BET channel reaches more than 98 million households and can be seen in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and sub-Saharan Africa. BET is the dominant African-American consumer brand with a diverse group of businesses extensions: BET.com, a leading Internet destination for Black entertainment, music, culture, and news; BET Digital Networks - BET J, BET Gospel and BET Hip Hop, attractive alternatives for cutting-edge entertainment tastes; BET Home Entertainment, a collection of BET-branded offerings for the home environment including DVDs and video-on-demand; BET Mobile, which provides ringtones, games and video content for wireless devices; and BET International, which operates BET in the United Kingdom and oversees the extension of BET network programming for global distribution.