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Kendrick Lamar named R&B/hip-hop songwriter of the year at the 2026 BMI R&B/hip-hop awards

Story by Marisa Mendez

Kendrick Lamar has been crowned R&B/Hip-Hop Songwriter of the Year by music publishing organization, BMI.

The 2026 BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards were held in Los Angeles last Wednesday (Aug. 26), where K-Dot was honored with the aforementioned award for co-writing six of the previous year’s most-performed songs. The tracks include “Luther” with SZA, “Hey Now” with Dody6, “Peekaboo” with AzChike, “Squabble Up” and the Lefty Gunplay-assisted “tv off,” which all live on his 2024 album, GNX, as well as “30 for 30,” which lives on SZA’s SOS deluxe album.

Dot also took home the BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Song of the Year honor for “Luther,” which he co-wrote alongside BMI songwriters Matthew “MTech” Bernard, Atia “INK” Boggs, Sam Dew, Roselilah (BUMA), Mark “Sounwave” Spears and SZA.

The late Tay Keith was named R&B/Hip-Hop Songwriter of the Year at last year’s ceremony, but he wasn’t able to attend. While he passed in June, his family attended this year’s ceremony and accepted the 2025 award on his behalf.

The show featured performances from Belly Gang Kushington, YKNiece, Real Boston Richey, Miles Caton, Tone Stith and Tiana Major9, and later in the night, Nas was honored with the BMI Icon Award. He personally requested Evelyn “Champagne” King for a tribute performance of “I’m In Love” and “Love Come Down,” followed by Large Professor with a DJ mix of some of Esco’s greatest hits.

After being presented with the award by the legendary Babyface, Nas said in his speech, “Staring at records on wax I saw the three letters, BMI. No matter the legends I was listening to, I saw BMI. Never in a million years did I think I would be partners with BMI. It just shows you that the things you dream about could really happen.”