Sony Music Publishing was named Publisher of the Year at the 2026 BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards, marking the second consecutive year the company has taken the top publisher honor.
According to Sony Music Publishing’s official announcement, the award recognizes the publisher’s representation of 27 of the past awards year’s most-performed R&B and hip-hop songs in BMI’s repertoire. That figure is up from 23 songs the previous year.
SMP songwriters also collected major individual honors. “luther,” the collaboration between Kendrick Lamar and SZA, was named R&B/Hip-Hop Song of the Year. BMI-credited co-writers on the track include SMP’s Mark “Sounwave” Spears, Matthew “M-Tech” Bernard, Atia “INK” Boggs, and Sam Dew. Jahaan Sweet was recognized among the year’s Top Producers.
Additional Awards Context
The ceremony also saw Nas receive the BMI Icon Award and Kendrick Lamar named Songwriter of the Year. “luther” had previously set a record with 23 weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, surpassing the previous mark held by Lamar’s own “Not Like Us.”
Songs contributing to SMP’s Publisher of the Year total included high-performing titles such as “Timeless” (The Weeknd and Playboi Carti), “Like Him” (Tyler, the Creator), “Yukon” (Justin Bieber), and “25” (with writing credits including Rod Wave and Tems).
Analysis
Publisher of the Year awards at the major PROs are based on performance data—primarily airplay and streaming of songs in the society’s repertoire. A back-to-back win with an increased song count (27 versus 23) indicates SMP maintained and modestly expanded its share of the highest-velocity R&B/hip-hop repertoire over the awards period.
The heavy presence of SMP writers on “luther,” the night’s Song of the Year, underscores the company’s strength in both superstar collaborations and the producer/songwriter community that drives much of the genre’s chart and radio activity. Sounwave’s continued association with Lamar’s recent output remains a notable through-line.
For the broader publishing sector, the result reinforces the concentration of high-performance R&B/hip-hop income among a small group of major publishers. Independent publishers and administrators tracking market share will note both the volume of songs and the longevity of tracks like “luther” as relevant benchmarks when evaluating catalog performance and co-write strategies.
Sony Music Publishing, led by Chairman and CEO Jon Platt, has now secured the BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Publisher of the Year title in consecutive years while also collecting parallel honors at other PROs earlier in 2026. The company did not release additional financial or market-share metrics beyond the 27-song total cited in the announcement.