Cardi B, Leon Thomas & More Honored at Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players 2025: Best Photos

Cardi B, Leon Thomas, Wu-Tang Clan and more were honored at Billboard‘s 2025 R&B/Hip-Hop Power Players event Thursday night (Sept. 4) at Unveiled in New York.

Billboard cover stars Cardi B and Leon Thomas received the Impact of the Year Award and Breakthrough of the Year Award, respectively. After Billboard‘s executive director of R&B/hip-hop, Gail Mitchell introduced “everyone’s favorite mutt,” the “Mutt” hitmaker thanked God for helping him throughout his 22-year musical journey as well as Ty Dolla $ign, whose EZMNY Records Thomas is signed to, among others. “R&B still matters,” he said.

Cardi also expressed love for her genre. “New York is the home of hip-hop…. Hip-hop is a feeling. When I was growing up, I didn’t want to be the Shakiras and the J-Los and the R&B artists; I wanted to be like Trina and Lil Kim. I wanted to be like them,” she said before getting the party started by hollering, “Let’s play some hip-hop” and playing her latest single “Imaginary Playerz,” which samples Jay-Z’s 1997 track of the same name.

Joined by Raekwon The Chef and Cappadonna on stage, RZA thanked “the entire Billboard staff for thinking about us, appreciating our contribution to the culture” while being inducted into the Hip-Hop Hall of Fame. “It’s a wonderful validation. We came out in 1993, and since then, and Raekwon can tell you, I used to look at Billboard every week, right? We had dozens of songs and albums on that chart, and it made us feel special,” said RZA.

TDE CEO Anthony “Top Dawg” Tiffith was accompanied by the label’s co-presidents Anthony “Moosa” Tiffith Jr. and Terrence “Punch” Henderson while accepting the Executive of the Year Award. The room erupted when Tiffith claimed, “I feel like I should’ve won this three, four, five times.” And another trio took the stage shortly after, as Ravyn Lenae, GELO and Odeal won the R&B, Hip-Hop and African Rookie of the Year Awards, respectively.