On November 6, the 2016 Soul Train Awards was held at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. However, the show hosted by Erkyah Badu, aired on television Sunday night celebrating the best in rap, hip-hop, R&B, and soul music.  

Beyonce commanded the night receiving four trophies, for Best R&B/Soul Female Artist, Song of the Year, Video of the Year, and Album of the Year for Lemonade. Best New Artist was won by Chicago native Chance The Rapper, while Best Dance Performance went to Kanye West and Teyana Taylor for his song Fade. Maxwell received an award for  Best R&B/Soul Male Artist, and Anderson .Paak won the Centric Certified Award. Best Collaboration went to Fat Joe and  Remy Ma feat. French Montana and Infared, for their song All The Way Up. This same song also won them the  Rhythm & Bars Award (Formerly Best Hip-Hop Song of the Year). Best Gospel/Inspirational Song was awarded to Kirk Franklin, for his song 123 Victory. The Ashford & Simpson Songwriter’s Award went to Andra Day, Jennifer Decilveo (Andra Day) who wrote the inspirational tune Rise Up.

The Soul Train Awards provided many of its viewers with nostalgia of the 90s with performances from artists Brandy Norwood and Dru Hill. According to time.com Brandy brought the ’90s Back at the Soul Train Awards’ Her highlighted performance, a nine-minute song medley opened with a evocative acapella version of Almost Doesn’t Count before shifting gears to include some of Brandy’s other greatest hits comprised of What About Us?, Full Moon, I Wanna Be Down and Top Of The World, which included a surprise appearance by Ma$e. Brandy was also the 2016 Lady Of Soul Recipient, making her the second annual Lady of Soul. She upheld that title when she gave a remarkable performance.

Other performers throughout the night included Yuna, Teddy Riley, who received the Legend Award, Eric Benét, Bobby Brown, Anderson .Paak, Doug E. Fresh, Ro James, and the hostess with the mostest Erykah Badu. “We didn’t get too deep into politics,” she says regarding the show, that was taped before Election Day. “It was strictly about music and letting it bring out whatever emotions each individual wanted to have. It’s about music doing what it does best because music is our politics. Music is our escape.”