Triple success for Mobo winner

The American rapper 50 Cent, who was delayed at Heathrow immigration this week and questioned about US gang violence, has swept the board at the Music of Black Origin awards.

British music fans voted to award the east coast MC, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, best album, best single and best hip hop act.

50 Cent, who claims to have been shot nine times and regularly wears a bulletproof vest, was discovered and signed by Eminem after a troubled early life in New York.

His debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin', has sold millions. The awards coincided with the British leg of his tour, No Fear No Mercy.

The Mobos, in their seventh year, have been called "a showcase of the primacy of the black experience in youth culture". They aim to reward music that is black in spirit rather than necessarily in the skin-colour of its performers, and to acknowledge music's debt to urban and street culture.

The UK act of the year award was shared for the first time after an equal number of votes were cast for Punjabi MC - 27-year-old Rajinder Rai, from Coventry - and Big Brovaz.

Big Brovaz, a mixed male and female hip hop act with an anti-gun and non-violent stance, also won the best newcomer award.

The band's members, who share a house in south London, say their music is aimed at 8 to 15-year-olds.

The So Solid Crew member Lisa Maffia won the prize for the best garage act, but other shortlisted women performers, such as the Mercury prize nominee Terri Walker, were left empty handed.

Kanya King, the founder of the Mobos, had earlier praised a shortlist heavy with domestic and female talent.

The American Justin Timberlake won best R&B act, and Christina Aguilera won best video for Dirrty, her collaboration with the US hip hop star Redman.

The fashion icon award went to L'il Kim, who presented the awards in a ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London.