Drake, Lil Wayne and Mariah Carey Top Honorees at 2012 BMI Urban Awards

The Cash Money/Young Money contingent took home three of the top awards at BMI's 2012 Urban Music Awards. Drake and Lil Wayne shared honors as urban songwriters of the year, while Nicki Minaj's smash hit "Super Bass" was named urban song of the year.
 
The ceremony, which took place Friday evening (Sept. 7) at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, Calif., also honored EMI Music Publishing as publisher of the year and Andrew "Pop" Wansel as urban producer of the year. The awards ceremony was hosted by BMI president/CEO Del Bryant and VP of writer/publisher relations/Atlanta Catherine Brewton.

The evening's highlight: a salute to BMI Icon honoree Mariah Carey. Recognized for her "indelible influence ongenerations of music makers," Carey was feted in a tribute that featured producer Jermaine Dupri and included performances singers Karen Clark Sheard (who sang "Anytime You Need a Friend"), Joe ("We Belong Together"), Eric Benét ("One Sweet Day") and Fantasia ("Hero").
 
Both Drake and Lil Wayne tied with songwriter credits each on seven songs that rank among the year's most-performed tunes. Among the credits helping Drake claim his second consecutive songwriter of the year are the hits "Aston Martin Music," "Headlines," "Moment 4 Life" and "What's My Name?" Lil Wayne's credits include several co-writes with Drake (including "She Will") plus "6 Foot 7 Foot," "How to Love," "Look at Me Now" and "Motivation."

Sharing song of the year kudos with Minaj were the song's other co-writers, Ester Dean and Daniel "Kane Beatz" Johnson. And songwriter/producer Wansel was saluted for his work on hit songs by an array of acts, including Trey Songz, Drake, Minaj, Kelly Rowland and Britney Spears. EMI earned top publisher thanks to 17 songs, including "All of the Lights," "Aston Martin Music" and "Ni**as in Paris."