Will.I.Am has to make room on his shelf. The Grammy-Award Winner received Artist of the Year honors yesterday for his pro Barack Obama viral music clip, “Yes We Can.” The stark, black and white video was directed by Bob Dylan’s son, Jesse, and features a number of notables chanting Obama’s familiar refrain: “Yes We Can.”

Will wrote the lyrics based on a speech the Illinois Senator gave during the New Hampshire Primary in January, the second contest of what has become a drawn-out process to select the Democratic Presidential Nominee. John Legend, Common, Nick Cannon, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Herbie Hancock were just a few of the close to 40 celebrities who participated. Never one to be outspoken, the rapper/producer blogged about his reasons for the song and video on huffingtonpost.com.

“I was never really big on politics … and actually, I’m still not big on politics,” he wrote at the time. [But] “the outcome of the last two elections has saddened me … on how unfair, backwards, upside down, unbalanced, untruthful, corrupt and just simply, how wrong the world and politics are. … So this year I wanted to get involved and do all I could, early.” Other winners included Stephen Colbert, the Onion News Network, and TomGreen.com. A ceremony will take place June 9th in New York. -Jayson Rodriguez

Watch “Yes We Can” here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY