Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and SZA are set to receive special honors at 2024 BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards, which will be held on Thursday, Sept. 5 at Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles. This will mark the first time the private event has been held in L.A. in nearly 10 years.
Babyface will receive the BMI Icon Award, while SZA will be presented with the BMI Champion Award in honor of her efforts in fostering the next generation of music creators. The event will be hosted by BMI president & CEO Mike O’Neill and vp, creative, Atlanta, Catherine Brewton.
“We’re excited to honor the legendary Babyface with the BMI Icon Award in celebration of his incredible talent and gift of prolific songwriting which has influenced decades of hits among all genres,” Brewton said in a statement. “We’ll also recognize the exceptional industry-shifting career of SZA, who challenges conventions and has a unique vibe that continues to transform and inspire a new feel of R&B that we have grown to love.”
Throughout the evening, BMI will also salute the songwriters, producers and music publishers of the past year’s 35 most-performed R&B/hip-hop songs from BMI’s repertoire. The BMI R&B/hip-hop song, songwriter, producer and publisher of the Year will also be named during the ceremony, along with top producers.
Babyface has won 12 Grammy awards, including a record four awards for producer of the year, non-classical. He secured his most recent Grammy – best R&B song for SZA’s “Snooze” – earlier this year. In addition, in 2021, he received a trustees award from the Recording Academy.
Babyface has received 63 BMI Awards, including song of the year three times and BMI pop songwriter of the year seven times. Together with his LaFace Records co-founder L.A. Reid, he was named a BMI Icon in 2006. In addition, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2017. He has also been honored by The Apollo Walk of Fame, where he received the inaugural Legacy Award.
Previous BMI Icon honorees include James Brown, Al Green, Isaac Hayes, Janet Jackson, Patti LaBelle, LA Reid, Nile Rodgers, Snoop Dogg, The Jacksons, Busta Rhymes and Lil Wayne.
SZA received nine 2024 Grammy nominations for the ceremony held earlier this year, more than any other artist. She went on to win three awards – best progressive R&B album, best R&B song for “Snooze” and best pop duo/group performance for “Ghost in the Machine,” featuring Phoebe Bridgers.
Over the course of her career, SZA has received four Grammy Awards, plus Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for co-writing “All the Stars” from Black Panther. She has earned 10 BMI Awards, one American Music Award, six Billboard Music Awards, three MTV Video Music Awards and six BET Awards.
She received Billboard’s Women in Music Rule Breaker Award in 2019. Four years later, she was crowned Woman of the Year at that same event. In 2024, she received the Hal David Starlight Award at the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Previous BMI Champion Award recipients include Inflo, Khalid, Mark Ronson, Residente, Sebastian Krys, Keith Urban and Lee Thomas Miller.
