LIL BABY, SONY PUB TOP ASCAP SOUL AWARDS

ASCAP has crowned Lil Baby Songwriter of the Year for the second year in a row as the PRO starts to roll out it 35th annual ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards. Meanwhile, Sony Music Publishing hits the Publisher of the Year trifecta.

Lil Baby was honored for his work on such hits as “Every Chance I Get,” “Girls Want Girls,” “On Me,” “Rags2Riches 2” and “Wants and Needs.” The Quality Control artist is a Universal Music Publishing writer.

Sony Music Publishing earned the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Publisher of the Year award, following its ASCAP Awards for Pop Music Publisher of the Year and Latin Music Publisher of the Year.

Chris Brown and Young Thug’s “Go Crazy” was named R&B/Hip-Hop and Rap Song of the Year, with the award going to Orville “Buggs Can Can” Hall and Phillip "Triggerman" Price (aka The Showboys), Dion “Devious” Norman, Trè Samuels and Dave Welcome.

Gospel Song of the Year went to co-writers Johntá Austin and Jeremy “TryBishop” Hicks for “Speak to Me,” performed by Koryn Hawthorne. A complete list of winners can be found here.

The ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Awards will wrap Friday at 3pm ET with Deconstructed: Ashanti Breaks Down Her Hits, an ASCAP Experience conversation between the artist and VIBE Editor-in-Chief Datwon Thomas. The event will be broadcast on ASCAP’s YouTube channel. In the meantime, the organization will use its socials to celebrate the songwriters and publishers behind the past year's biggest hits in hip-hop, R&B and gospel.