Mariah Carey, Drake, Lil Wayne, EMI Music Publishing & More Honored at BMI Urban Awards

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Urban music’s premier songwriters, producers and music publishers came together September 7 during the BMI Urban Awards at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills. The event toasts the teams behind the past year’s most-performed R&B, rap, pop and hip-hop songs in BMI’s deep repertoire.

Mariah Carey was named a BMI Icon. A jaw-dropping musical tribute paid homage to Carey, who joins a list of past honorees that includes The Jacksons, Snoop Dogg, James Brown, Isaac Hayes, Little Richard, Al Green, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton and more.

Drake and Lil Wayne shared the Songwriter of the Year crown by each writing seven songs that rank among the year’s most-performed. The win marks the second consecutive Songwriter of the Year title for Drake.

Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” earned Song of the Year honors for its writers Minaj, Ester Dean and Kane Beatz.

Pop Wansel earned the Producer of the Year crystal. In addition to Wansel, BMI also recognized Top Producers Warren “Oak” Felder, Jim Jonsin, R. Kelly, Lexus “Lex Luger” Lewis, Polow Da Don, Troy Taylor, Kanye West, and Tyler “T-Minus” Williams.

With 17 songs among the most-performed, EMI Music Publishing clinched the Publisher of the Year crown.

Mac Miller won the first-ever BMI Social Star Award, presented by Spotify.

BMI President & CEO Del Bryant and Catherine Brewton, Vice President, Writer/Publisher Relations, Atlanta, hosted the 2012 BMI Urban Awards. For a full list of winners, visit www.bmi.com/urban.

Photo and video footage, including interviews, performances and the Icon acceptance speech can be accessed via the official EPKlink:
http://www.epklink.com/2012bmiurbanawards

For additional photos of Mariah Carey, visit: http://bit.ly/TzkVXj

Broadcast Music, Inc.^® (BMI^®), a global leader in music rights management, is an American performing rights organization that represents more than 500,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers in all genres of music and more than 7.5 million musical works. BMI has represented the most popular and beloved music from around the world for more than 70 years. The company provides licenses for businesses that perform music, and distributes the fees it generates as royalties to the musical creators and copyright owners it represents. Find out more at www.bmi.com, follow @BMI on Twitter and stay connected through Facebook.