9 September 2010 Last updated at 04:33 ET

Tinie Tempah leads Mobo Awards field

Tinie Tempah had a UK number one in March with debut single Pass Out

Rapper Tinie Tempah is leading the way in the nominations for this year's Mobo Awards with four nods.

The 21-year-old south Londoner is up for best song for debut single Pass Out and best video for follow-up Frisky, as well as best newcomer and best UK act.

N-Dubz - who won two awards last year - have three nominations, as do with Plan B, Dizzee Rascal and Professor Green.

The awards, held in Glasgow in 2009, will take place this year at Liverpool's Echo Arena on 20 October.

The fields in the categories of best UK act, best international act and best African act have been widened to include 15 nominees, as the ceremony celebrates its 15th anniversary.

Tinie Tempah - real name Patrick Okogwu - will compete for best UK act against nominees including Leona Lewis, JLS, Alexandra Burke and Tinchy Stryder as well as N-Dubz, Dizzee Rascal and Plan B.

Pass Out, which hit number one in March, goes up against tracks including Mark Ronson's Bang, Bang, Bang and Dirty Picture, by Taio Cruz featuring Ke$ha, for best song.

Last year's other double award winners, JLS, are also up for best album with their eponymous debut offering.

They are nominated alongside Plan B's The Defamation of Strickland Banks, Against All Odds by N-Dubz, Chipmunk's I Am Chipmunk and Dizzee Rascal's Tongue N' Cheek.

N-Dubz stars Tulisa and Fazer talk about what it means to be nominated

Awards founder Kanya King said: "I am very proud of the level of talent in the UK today and extremely pleased with the dominance of Mobo music artists in the charts both here and in the US".

She said that marked "a massive change compared to when we started 15 years ago".

Official Charts Company figures show that UK sales of "contemporary urban" singles were up by 32.9% for the first eight months of the year compared with the same period in 2009.

US stars Rihanna, Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce and Alicia Keys are all nominated in the best international act category.