Celebrating over 80 years of service to songwriters, composers, music publishers and businesses, BMI® is a global leader in music rights management, serving as an advocate for the value of music. BMI represents the public performance rights in over 22.4 million musical works created and owned by more than 1.4 million songwriters, composers, and music publishers.
Hitmaking producer, songwriter, and recording artist, RIOTUSA, earned “Top Producer” honors at the 2024 BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards for the second conseuctive year. The award arrives as the latest milestone in the young producer’s extraordinary career, after he produced on two of BMI’s “Most Performed Songs of the Year,” in “Barbie World” and “Princess Diana,” scored nine hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including four top tens, and received two nominations at the 2024 Grammy Awards. RIOTUSA is the main producer and creative partner for Ice Spice, producing each track on her new album Y2K, which recently debuted in the Top 20 of the Billboard 200, and features hits like “Did It First” ft. Central Cee and “Think U The Sh*t (Fart).”
“I am honored to win this award from BMI,” says RIOTUSA. “I want to continue pushing the drill sound into the mainstream. I’ve been blessed to have hits from a regional sound and bring it to huge heights. I want to also show my versatility and continue to show my different tastes and ear. My production makes you wanna dance, makes you wanna go crazy, with hard drums, catchy melodies, and rhythms that sometimes switch up out of nowhere. I want the industry to feel my production and understand I make what I like to hear, not what people tell me to make, that principle I want to leave behind for others after me. I look forward to the next year, when I will release my debut project and continue to create hits all over the world.”
In his short career, Riot has worked with many of the world’s biggest stars, spending multiple weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Producers chart in the process. He produced “Barbie World,” the Aqua-sampling theme song from Barbie, 2023’s top-grossing film, for Ice Spice and Nicki Minaj, which earned two nominations at the 2024 Grammy Awards. Riot worked with the two divas on the smash hit, “Princess Diana (Remix),” which landed at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and is currently No. 11 on Rhythm and No. 20 on Urban radio. In addition, he teamed up with Ice Spice and Taylor Swift to co-write the duo’s “Karma” remix, earning Ice Spice the biggest streaming debut for a female rapper in global Spotify history, and contributed to PinkPantheress’ “Boy’s a liar Pt. 2,” ft. Ice Spice, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 – the highest charting single for either artist at the time. Earlier, Riot helped Ice Spice become one of the decade’s biggest breakout stars, producing hits like the GOLD-certified “Munch (Feelin U),” Urban Radio chart-topper “In Ha Mood.
“RIOT has played a role in shaping a new wave of drill music that crossed over to new heights that we have never seen before,” says James Rosemond, Jr., RIOTUSA’s manager. “He has influenced both mainstream and underground music. I’ve known he was gonna be great since the beginning: when I heard his early productions for Ice Spice, like ‘No Clarity’ and ‘Munch,’ I knew he had a unique style and that he would become one of the greats of the new era.”
Throughout the BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards, which occurred last night, September 5, 2024, BMI saluted the songwriters, producers and music publishers of the past year’s 35 most-performed R&B/Hip-Hop songs from BMI’s repertoire of more than 22.4 million musical works. Babyface and SZA received the evening’s top honors, while producers like Metro Boomin and Jahaan Sweet also earned prestigious awards.
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© 2024, Seth "Digital Crates" Barmash. All rights reserved.
