Artiste of the Year at the 2012 Ghana Music Awards, Sarkodie has earned his first ever nomination at the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards. Tagged as Ghana's fastest rapper and the King of Azonto, Sarkodie has been nominated in the Best International Act (Africa) category at the 2012 edition of the prestigious awards scheduled to come off on July 2. The You Go Kill Me rapper however faces stiff competition from WizKid, and Ice Prince, both from Nigeria; Lira from South Africa; Camp Mulla from Kenya; and Mokobe from Mali who have also been nominated in that category. This year's BET Awards is scheduled for the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, July 2 and Sarkodie will be hoping to follow the footsteps of D'banj and 2Face Idibia who were joint winners of the awards last year. UK based Ghanaian rapper Sway also earned a nomination as the Best International Act (U.K.) category alongside Estelle, Labrinth and Emeli Sande. Rapper Kanye West tops this year's nominations with seven nominations. Six of the nominations came from his Watch the Throne collaboration with Jay-Z. Jay Z himself had five nominations while his wife Beyonce, had six nominations, the second highest this year. Actor Samuel L. Jackson has been named to host the awards while Chris Brown and Nicki Minaj have been confirmed as performers on the night.