Organizers of the 5th Annual BMI Urban Awards have announced this year’s
event will include participation from The Game, Fat Joe and Kanye West.
The event will be hosted
by the President and CEO of BMI, Del R. Bryant, and Catherine Brewton, who serves
as Vice President of Writer/Publisher Relations.
The Gap Band will also be
honored with this year’s BMI Icon Award, an award honoring creators of
music that have made "a unique and indelible influence on generations of
music makers."
The Gap Band has had their
work sampled by numerous Hip-Hop artists through the years, compiling a catalog
that includes such hit songs as "You Dropped a Bomb on Me," "Oops
Upside Your Head," "Burn Rubber" and many others.
Past honorees include James
Brown, Paul Simon, Isaac Hayes, Carlos Santana, Al Green and others.
Awards will also be given
for Urban Song of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Producer of the Year and
Publisher of the Year.
Top urban producers and
BMI songwriters whose songs have hit #1 on the Billboard Charts will also be
recognized.
BMI is a non-profit organization
that collects license fees from businesses that use music and then distributes
royalties to the music creators and copyright owners. BMI currently represents
over 300,000 songwriters, composers and publishers from all genres of music.
This year’s
event will take place on August 26th in the Grand Ballroom of the Fontainebleau
Resort in Miami.