They like him — they really like him.

A year after showering Kanye West with 10 Grammy nominations for his debut album "The College Dropout" (he won three), Grammy voters singled out the rapper-producer's sophomore effort, "Late Registration," with eight nominations.

That isn't all: They also nominated West's protege, R&B singer John Legend, eight times for his debut album, "Get Lifted," and West's mentor, Common, four times for the West-produced "Be." Both record for West's GOOD label.

West and Legend top the list of multiple honorees for the 48th Annual Grammy Awards tonight in Los Angeles. The only other artist with as many nominations is pop singer Mariah Carey, for her surprising comeback, "The Emancipation of Mimi," the best-selling album of 2005.

The day the nominations were announced, West told reporters, "I'd like to thank the academy for paying attention to my music, not my mouth." That's because West previously had told MTV News, "If I don't win album of the year, I'm gonna really have a problem with that. ... You can never take away from the amount of work I put into it, so I don't wanna hear all of that politically correct stuff."

West has a sizable ego, as some of his lyrics and interviews make clear. After losing best new artist to Gretchen Wilson at the American Music Awards in November 2004, he told MTV, "I felt like I was definitely robbed. ... I was the best new artist this year, so get that other (b.s.) out of here."

At last year's Grammys, West gave a fiery, show-stealing rendition of "Jesus Walks" right after losing the best new artist award to Maroon 5. West's performance, which included his apparent death and subsequent resurrection, played out symbolically on music's biggest night: West went on to win the best rap album Grammy. His emotional acceptance speech earned a standing ovation and some laughter when West said, "A lot of people were wondering what I was going to do if I didn't win any (awards). I guess we'll never know."

In the music world, complaining about losing awards is hardly rare, but campaigning for them is. And West was doing that as early as September 2005, three months before nominations were announced, during an appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

"I fight for what I think is the best at the time," West said, pointing out that he had spoken out for rapper 50 Cent in 2004. "I went on TV the next day and I said, 'You all robbed 50 Cent of his Grammy. He was the most important thing — he was the soundtrack to our life in 2003.' Now when it was my turn, I was just being an advocate for what was the best out there, which just so happened to be me."

West clearly is not a shrinking violet: He appeared on the cover of the pre-Grammy issue of Rolling Stone posing as Jesus, bloodied and wearing a crown of thorns on his head. West claims to have a lot in common with Jesus because he's had to fight for recognition and suffer for his success.

West also said his No. 1 hit "Gold Digger" was the best song last year and should have been nominated for the Grammy's best rap song category. It's up for record of the year, which is actually a more prestigious honor.

Last year, West probably deserved to win album of the year but lost to Ray Charles' "Genius Loves Company" in what was clearly a sentimental vote after Charles' death.

"Gold Digger" has another West-Charles connection: In it, actor Jamie Foxx, who won an Oscar last year portraying Charles in the film "Ray," re-interprets the melody from Charles' R&B classic "I Got a Woman" in his best Ray Charles voice. At the Grammys, Foxx and West will perform "Gold Digger."

Tonight, West's "Late Registration" could become the first all-rap album to earn a Grammy as album of the year.