MARY J BLIGE AND JERMAINE DUPRI HONORED BY ASCAP

Mary J Blige, Jermaine Dupri, and Johnta Austin were the big winners at last month’s ASCAP Rhythm and Soul Music Awards which held on June 25th at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Blige, Dupri, and Austin each took him two awards with Blige snagging the highly coveted ASCAP Voice of Music Award. Sean Paul won reggae artist of the year while Yung Joc and Nitti won best rap song honors for “It’s Goin’ Down.”

The event was attended by Kandi Burress, Khao, Sammie, Tank, Keyshia Cole, Biz Markie, Play N Skillz, Polow Da Don, Rah Digga, Sylvia Rhone, Karen Clark Sheard, Tank, The Underdogs, Narada Michael Walden, Michelle Williams, Yung Berg, and others.

“Well it’s early on again, I’m just now cutting the tracks. And so I don’t want to be too ahead of myself but I hope it will be a wonderful experience because I love her. I truly love her and she knows it so she’ll ask for me and here I am. So I want to make magic with her and it’s quite easy to make magic with her cause she sings so good. All you got to do is love her. You say, ‘It’s okay, just open up your heart. Take your time.’ And over time, pow, it happens like lightning.You got to catch it so I’m the lightning catcher.”

On the red carpet, Narada Michael Walden shared that he’s working on Whitney Houston’s new album. He said,

Walden produced Houston’s smash, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.”