ASCAP Celebrates Its 17th Annual Rhythm & Soul Music Awards in Los Angeles; 50 Cent Picks up Awards for Songwriter of the Year, Top R&B/Hip-Hop Song, and Top Rap Song

Business Wire, June 29, 2004

Publisher of the Year honors were presented by ASCAP CEO John LoFrumento to EMI Music Publishing/EMI Jobete Music Publishing for their 20 award-winning songs: "Baby Boy," "Beautiful," "Can't Let You Go," "Crazy In Love," "Excuse Me Miss," "Fabulous," "Frontin'," "Get Busy," "Gossip Folks," "How You Gonna Act Like That,"

"I Can," "I Know What You Want," "I Wish I Wasn't," "Into You," "P.I.M.P.," "Rain On Me," "Right Thurr (Remix)," "Stand Up," "The Jump Off," "Wanksta," and for EMI/Jobete's "Into You." This marks the eleventh year that EMI has been named ASCAP's Rhythm & Soul Publisher of the Year.

Top Soundtrack Song of the Year honors went to "Shake Ya Tailfeather," from Bad Boys II, written by Jayson "Koko" Bridges, Murphy Lee, Nelly and Varick "Smitty" Smith and published by BMG Songs, Inc., Bubo Music, D2 Pro Publishing, Hitco South, Jackie Frost Music, Koko's Basement, New Columbia Pictures Music, Inc., That's Whats Up Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, and Young Dude Publishing.

Sean Paul was named ASCAP Reggae Artist of the Year, and was honored for his award-winning songs "Baby Boy" and "Get Busy."

For a complete list of winners, go to: http://www.ascap.com/eventsawards/awards/rsawards/2004/ completewinners.html (Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field. You may also need to remove an extra space in the URL if one exists.)

The music of ASCAP members has been the dominant force on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot 200 charts in 2003 occupying 88% of Hot Rap Singles, 81% of Hot R&B Airplay and 81% of Hot 100 Airplay. ASCAP members continue to sweep the top categories at major awards shows including 80% of Soul Train Awards, 69% of Vibe Awards, and they dominated the R&B and Hip-Hop categories at this year's Grammy Awards.

2004 marks the 90th anniversary of the founding of ASCAP. As the world's largest Performing Rights Organization, ASCAP has over 180,000 composer, lyricist and music publisher members representing all genres of music. ASCAP is committed to protecting the rights of its members by licensing and collecting royalties for the public performance of their copyrighted works, and then distributing these fees to the Society's members based on performances. ASCAP's Board of Directors is made up solely of writers and publishers, elected by the membership every two years.