‘New Edition Way’ Unveiled as Boston Salutes the Group During for the Culture Week

Boston honored New Edition on Saturday with the unveiling of ‘New Edition Way’ in Roxbury and a proclamation of ‘New Edition Day’ during For the Culture Week.

Saturday. Boston didn’t just throw a party — it changed the map. As part of For the Culture Week, the city renamed Dearborn Street as “New Edition Way” and proclaimed “New Edition Day,” anchoring a four decade story of melody, brotherhood and Black Boston pride to a specific corner in Roxbury.

Mayor Michelle Wu led the ceremony at Ambrose and Albany — steps from Orchard Gardens, the housing community where the group first found its blend. “And now I have the honor of officially declaring today New Edition Day,” she said as the crowd cheered.

All six members — Ralph Tresvant, Bobby Brown, Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ronnie DeVoe and Johnny Gill — returned for the honor as neighbors and families filled the block. Latoyia Edwards of NBC10 Boston emceed; a community block party at the Orchard Gardens Boys & Girls Club kept the celebration going.

So much has changed in our lives and the world these past four decades, but New Edition have remained a constant — a source for joy, romance, and the soundtrack of our lives, loves and heartbreak.

They've made it possible to get through some of the toughest times in our lives.… pic.twitter.com/0VOTL7FMfP

— Ayanna Pressley (@AyannaPressley) September 1, 2025

Onstage, the group credited the neighborhood for the discipline, style and support that carried them from talent shows to stadiums — and back to the corner where it began. “New Edition Way is the way life is for us and has been for us for a long time,” Brown said. Tresvant added, “Everything we learned … our attitude, our swag is from all of y’all, man. We got what we got from here.”

They also spoke to longevity. “One of the hardest things in this industry to do is to stay together,” Bell told the crowd. “We’ve been through so much together … and the thing that keeps bringing us back is we remember where we came from. Orchard Park Projects was the very beginning of New Edition.”

Gill offered a note of gratitude — and a reminder: “You’re looking at all six of us here … nothing lasts forever … while we’re here, we should learn to love on each other, appreciate each other, and know tomorrow’s not promised.” A final salute to the city followed: “There’s something about this place … we stick together, we rep together, and we’re always going to be one. One love to Boston.”

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley widened the frame, calling New Edition “a source for joy, romance, and the soundtrack of our lives, loves and heartbreak,” and reminding the city that Black history is American history. She congratulated the six members and longtime mentor Brooke Payne, and thanked the Orchard Park community, Mayor Wu and former Mayor Kim Janey for helping make the moment possible.

City paperwork matched the pride. The proclamation designates Aug. 30 as “New Edition Day” going forward; the honorary co-naming fixes “New Edition Way” on Dearborn Street; and the chosen corner — Ambrose and Albany — places the sign within walking distance of the group’s origin point. For neighbors who showed up with kids on their shoulders, that precision mattered.

It also tracks the arc. From “Candy Girl” in 1983 to solo careers, supergroups and reunions, New Edition wrote a playbook — tight harmonies, choreography, style — that still echoes in today’s pop and R&B. Putting their name on a street does more than celebrate six men; it tells the next crew exactly where excellence came from — and how close it still is.

BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards: T-Pain Gets President’s Award; ‘Not Like Us’ Wins Song of the Year

T-Pain

At the BMI R&B/Hip-Hop Awards at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles on Thursday, the spotlight shifted from celebrity to craft. The organization centered the people who decide whether a song lives on — the hook writer, the lyricist, the producer. T-Pain received the President’s Award, a formal nod to two decades of melodic language and digital vocal color that moved from controversy to common practice.

“Don’t let anyone dictate your time … Let yourself be your own time measurement,” he told the room — a plain credo from an artist whose once-debated sound is now shared grammar across rap and R&B.

The pipeline that powers today’s hits was front and center GloRilla accepted the Impact Award and — in a rare outcome — shared Songwriter of the Year with Tay Keith and Mike Dean after each co-wrote three of BMI’s 35 Most-Performed R&B/Hip-Hop Songs of the year. Those credits sketch three lanes: club-built anthems (“TGIF,” “Wanna Be,” “Yeah Glo!”), cross-format studio architecture (“One of the Girls,” “Popular,” “Type Shit”) and Memphis drum design made for scale (“First Person Shooter,” “Get It Sexyy,” “MELTDOWN”).

BMI named “Not Like Us” Song of the Year, crediting Kendrick Lamar along with the late Ray Charles, Sean Momberger and Sounwave. The organization said the track debuted at No. 1 on the Hot 100 in May 2024 and spent 53 consecutive weeks on the chart — reported as the longest-charting rap song in the survey’s history. However you feel about the feud behind it, the run shows songcraft meeting moment.

The producer’s chair took a bow, too. Sounwave earned Producer of the Year for a stretch that includes Lamar’s “Euphoria,” “6:16 in LA” and “Not Like Us,” plus high-profile pop work — credits on Taylor Swift’s Lover and Midnights and Beyoncé’s The Lion King: The Gift and Cowboy Carter. Same architect, different buildings.

On the business side, Sony Music Publishing was named Publisher of the Year, representing 23 of the year’s most-performed titles, including “Agora Hills,” “Not Like Us,” “MILLION DOLLAR BABY,” “Mmhmm,” “On My Mama” and “Saturn.” Even in a creator-first era, placement, licensing and long-tail stewardship still determine how far a song travels.

The show balanced established names with next-ups. BigXthaPlug opened with “The Largest” and his BMI-winning “Mmhmm,” followed by BossMan Dlow with “Mr Pot Scraper” and “Get In With Me.” A Know Them Now segment introduced Eli Derby (“Cadillac Dream”), TA Thomas (“Preach”) and Lekan (“Always”). BMI’s Mike Steinberg, EVP and Chief Revenue & Creative Officer, and Catherine Brewton, Vice President, Creative, Atlanta, hosted the private event at the Fairmont Century Plaza.

Taken together, the night argued for a simple order: honor the craft and the culture stays healthy. T-Pain’s toolkit is now the toolkit. GloRilla’s pen, Tay Keith’s stomp and Mike Dean’s engineering show how regional feel, studio detail and melody keep reshaping the mainstream. Sounwave’s trophy underscores the point — producers aren’t background credits, they’re architects.

Key honors
President’s Award: T-Pain
Impact Award: GloRilla
Songwriter of the Year (tie): GloRilla; Mike Dean; Tay Keith
Song of the Year: “Not Like Us” — Kendrick Lamar, Ray Charles, Sean Momberger, Sounwave
Producer of the Year: Sounwave
Publisher of the Year: Sony Music Publishing
Also recognized among top producers: Carter Lang; Metro Boomin; Sean Momberger; MTech

Billboard Ranks Drake, Beyoncé as Top R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of 21st Century

Billboard’s quarter-century recap puts Drake first and Beyoncé second, reflecting cumulative R&B/hip-hop chart performance from 2000 through 2024. (Superthrowbackparty illustration)

In a year when Beyoncé bent stadiums around the world to her will and Kendrick Lamar owned the headlines with “Not Like Us,” Billboard’s receipts say something simpler: over the first 25 years of this century, Drake stacked the most chart points. The trade’s 2000–24 recap names him the No. 1 R&B/hip-hop act of the 21st century — a data-only verdict built from weekly “Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs” and “Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.”

The numbers that power his case are blunt. Inside the 2000–24 window, Drake posted a record 30 No. 1 songs on the R&B/hip-hop songs chart and 15 No. 1 albums on the R&B/hip-hop albums chart, alongside a torrent of top-10 entries that kept him in constant rotation. He did it despite arriving late — he didn’t reach Billboard’s charts until 2009 — which makes the margin feel even more modern: singles that live forever on playlists, features that blur lines between rap, R&B and pop, and projects built to stream long after release.

Beyoncé lands at No. 2 — proof that two different blueprints shaped the era. Drake optimized for the feed: relentless singles, features, and algorithm-proof hooks. Beyoncé recentered the album as an event, from “Dangerously in Love” to “Renaissance,” turning surprise drops, world-building visuals and stadium scale into the new normal. Same scoreboard, different paths.

Billboard’s top tier for 2000–24 also includes The Weeknd, Chris Brown, Usher, Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, Rihanna, Eminem and Alicia Keys — a two-generation snapshot that stretches from the ringtone era to the streaming-services age. Kendrick Lamar, who dominated 2024–25 by any cultural measure, does not appear in this top 10 snapshot. That isn’t a referendum on artistry; it’s how cumulative, week-by-week scoring favors catalogs with longer runways inside the period.

Methodology matters. In 2012, Billboard rewired its genre charts to fold in digital sales and streaming alongside airplay — a rule set that boosted crossover smashes and has been debated ever since. Fans can argue philosophy; the charts track behavior. By the late 2010s, R&B/hip-hop had already become America’s most-consumed music. Within that ecosystem, Drake’s playlist-native strategy was rocket fuel, and Beyoncé’s album-first statements kept ambition at the center of pop.

Read as a time capsule, the list isn’t about “greatest ever.” It documents how Black music became the operating system of pop this century — from Usher’s “Confessions” to The Weeknd’s “Starboy,” from Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” to Drake’s “God’s Plan.” If you want the culture war, social media has you covered. If you want the scoreboard, this one says Drake. And it says the era — albums, singles, tours, memes, playlists — belongs to the whole ecosystem that got him there.

Billboard’s top 10 R&B/hip-hop artists of the 21st century (2000–24)

1. Drake
2. Beyoncé
3. The Weeknd
4. Chris Brown
5. Usher
6. Lil Wayne
7. Jay-Z
8. Rihanna
9. Eminem
10. Alicia Keys