BMI named Kendrick Lamar its 2026 Songwriter of the Year in the R&B/Hip-Hop category at the organisation's ceremony in Los Angeles, recognising six of the previous year's most-performed songs that carry his writing credit.
Five of those six came from GNX: Luther, hey now, peekaboo, squabble up and tv off. SZA's 30 for 30, which features Lamar, completed the set. BMI ties its songwriter honours to performance activity across its repertoire, so the award measures how much of his recent writing stayed in rotation rather than the size of any single hit.
Luther did its own work on the night, taking R&B/Hip-Hop Song of the Year for Lamar and its other credited writers. The SZA collaboration had already won BMI Pop Song of the Year earlier in 2026, which put it across two of the organisation's major genre ceremonies in the same cycle. Its chart run matched that: 13 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and Record of the Year at the 2026 Grammys.
Nas received the BMI Icon Award, the ceremony's highest honour, on the same night. O Lil Angel was named Producer of the Year and Sony Music Publishing took Publisher of the Year, with BMI recognising 35 of the previous year's most-performed R&B/Hip-Hop songs in total.
Songwriter of the year is a different measurement from an album award, which is why it keeps landing on Lamar. It counts the sustained radio and streaming life of records already released, and GNX has stayed in circulation long past the point where most albums drop out of the calculation.
The organisation's other honours this year have gone to Johnny McDaid, who is receiving the BMI President's Award, while Lamar's writing keeps turning up elsewhere, including on producer Dahi's debut album with Childish Gambino. Nas, meanwhile, has been working with the rapper Skilla Baby. Both sit at the hip-hop and rnb-soul crossover the ceremony exists to measure, and the rest of the season is tracked on award watch.
The facts
- BMI named Kendrick Lamar its 2026 Songwriter of the Year for R&B/Hip-Hop in Los Angeles.
- Six of the year's most-performed songs carried his writing credit.
- Five came from GNX: Luther, hey now, peekaboo, squabble up and tv off.
- Luther also won R&B/Hip-Hop Song of the Year and had taken BMI Pop Song of the Year.
- Luther spent 13 weeks at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and won Record of the Year at the Grammys.
- Nas received the BMI Icon Award; Sony Music Publishing took Publisher of the Year.
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