The award, whose theme was celebrating 50 years of Hip-Hop, awarded the duo in the Top R&B/Hip-Hop & Rap Song of the Year category for their song, “Essence.”
By Hope Ibiale
Nigerian artistes, Wizkid and Tems, have been announced as the recipients of an ASCAP Rhythm & Soul music award. The award, whose theme was celebrating 50 years of Hip-Hop, awarded the duo in the Top R&B/Hip-Hop & Rap Song of the Year category for their song, “Essence.” Other winners at the award show include Dr. Dre for the inaugural ASCAP Hip-Hop Icon award; Dwan Hill, Big Buddy Music and Fun Attic Music for Gospel Song of the Year; Dr. Luke for Songwriter of the Year, Warner Chappell Music for Publisher of the year, and many more.
“Essence,” produced by Legendary Beatz and P2J, was released in 2020 as part of Wizkid’s fourth studio album, Made in Lagos. It would later become the most streamed song off the album and one of the all-time’s most successful African songs, pushed further by a Justin Bieber remix. Asides from winning the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul music awards, “Essence” has gathered several accolades like, being nominated at the 64th Grammy Awards, becoming the first Nigerian song in history to chart on the Billboard Hot 100 and the Billboard Global 200, it also won multiple awards at the 2022 NAACP Image awards, and many other impressive achievements.
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By winning the ASCAP award, Wizkid extends his record as the most awarded African artist of all time with over 130 career awards, including a Grammy, Billboard awards, BET awards, MOBO awards, AFRIMA awards, and Headies awards.
Since its induction, the ASCAP music awards has honoured its top members in a series of annual awards shows in seven different music categories: Pop, Rhythm and Soul, film and television, Latin, Country, Christian, and concert music. Awards are presented through a “vote online,” making up 50% of the judging criteria. The other 50% come from different music critics. The awards recognise the songwriters and publishers of the past year’s most-performed songs based on data from terrestrial and satellite radio and streaming services, as specified by the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Music Awards rules.