Yesterday 88Nine Radio Milwaukee went live with their nominations for their fifth annual "Best Of" awards, and this year sees continued growth and recognition of the Milwaukee hip-hop community.

Every category features a number of hip-hop artists and one category, "Best Music Video," is completely dominated by hip-hop artists.

Leading the way is Klassik with a total of six nominations between his solo work and his work with iOye!. The second-highest amount of nominations went to The Hollowz with five, while the other group the emcee of The Hollowz minted music with last year – Logic of Logic & Raze – grabbed four nominations.

Gerald Walker, KingHellBastard, Rusty P's and Evan Christian, SPEAK Easy and Fresh Cut Collective all received four nominations each.

Many of the other acts on the list saw multiple nominations of two or three as well.

For the next month Radio Milwaukee will be taking votes for who their listeners like the best online.

Raising the stakes a bit this year, Radio Milwaukee has teamed up with the Yellow Phone Music Conference to host and be involved with the networking portion of the award party that's being held at Turner Hall March 6.

This will help to create a greater network between artists and local, regional and national music industry professionals, envisions Radio Milwaukee's Assistant Programming Director Jordan Lee.

"We see that Yellow Phone is working towards becoming one of the premier music conferences in the country. A lot of artists in Milwaukee don't get the conference part concept. We're going to do what we always do with the networking party with trying to get artists and other people to start a dialogue with each other without anything else in the way. The Yellow Phone Music Conference is a mirror of that because their goal is to take local and regional unsigned artist and get them in front of industry individuals."

The party will fall at the halfway point to the next YPMC, and Lee reveals that Yellow Phone will have several special announcements and opportunities for those who attend.

"We came together and thought putting together a "Halfway to Yellow Phone" networking experience was the perfect thing to do, and it's a double win for local musicians because they are going to announce early registration perks as well as some other incentives."

Performing at this year's event are The Delta Routine, Boy Blue, Trapper Schoepp and the Shades, Jayme Dawicki, Logic & Raze and several of 88Nine's DJs.

Tickets for the party can be purchased here for $10, and the event is all ages.

Here are the hip-hop nominees in each category.

Milwaukee Album of the Year:

Gerald Walker – The Other Half of Letting Go
KingHellBastard – The War Room
Klassik – Death of a Beatmaker
Logic & Raze - ...STILL untitled
Prophetic – Purgatory
Rusty P's & Evan Christian – Get Love
SPEAK Easy – So To Speak
Tay Butler – Mayor
The Hollowz – Dreams Of Sex And Flying

Milwaukee Song of the Year:

AUTOMatic – The HBs
The Hollowz – Parade
Fresh Cut Collective – Let Go
Kid Millions – Higher Ground
Klassik – Going On
Evan Christian & Rusty P's – Get Love

Milwaukee Solo Artist of the Year:

Gerald Walker
Haz Solo
Kid Millions
Prophetic
SPEAK Easy
Tay Butler

Milwaukee Band of the Year:

AUTOMatic
Fresh Cut Collective
King Hell Bastard
Klassik
Logic & Raze
Rusty P's & Evan Christian
The Hollowz

Milwaukee's Catchiest Song of the Year:

AUTOMatic – The HBs
The Hollowz – Parade
Fresh Cut Collective – Let Go
Kid Millions – Higher Ground
Klassik – Going On
Evan Christian and Rusty P's – Get Love

Album Artwork of the Year:

Gerald Walker – The Other Half of Letting Go
KingHellBastard – The War Room
Klassik – Death of a Beatmaker
Logic & Raze - ...STILL untitled
SPEAK Easy – So To Speak
Tay Butler – Mayor
The Hollowz – Dreams Of Sex And Flying

Best Music Video of the Year:

Dana Coppafeel – Paradise
Fresh Cut Collective featuring A-Biz and Dana Coppafeel – Let Go
Gerald Walker – The Missing Piece
Jon Frost – The Make Up Song
KHB – Ma'Waukee
Logic & Raze – Thirsty
iOye! – Misfits
SPEAK Easy – More Fire

Bandcamp/Digital Release of the Year:

Klassik and iOye! – F*** Yellow Lights
Milo – I wish my brother Rob was here
Safari Al – Hermitage Academy
The Supper Club – The Supper Club: The Spirit Cove Edition