The "BET Award for Best Male Hip-Hop Artist" and "Best Female Hip-Hop Artist" are awards given to honor the outstanding achievements artists have made in Hip hop every year. The winner is determined based on sales and overall quality of content released within the eligibility period. In 2007 there was no award given for "Best Female Hip-Hop Artist", there was only the "BET Award for Best Male Hip-Hop Artist" which was renamed the gender-neutral title of "BET Award for Best Hip-Hop Artist". This was due to a lack of material from female rappers as a collective during the eligibility period.
T.I., Kanye West, Jay-Z, Drake, and Kendrick Lamar are the only rappers to win the "Best Male Hip-Hop Artist" more than once; Jay-Z, T.I., and Kendrick Lamar have each won twice and Kanye West and Drake have each won three times. T.I. is the only rapper to win the award consecutively, in 2006 and 2007. For "Best Female Hip-Hop Artist", only Missy Elliot and Nicki Minaj have attained multiple victories, both winning the award back to back, with Elliot winning from 2003 to 2005and Minaj winning from 2010 to 2016, respectively. Minaj is the first and only rapper to win "Best Hip-Hop Artist", for both male and females, 6 years in a row consecutively.