Davido, Ludacris and Organized Noize headline the 2026 class being honored June 1 in Atlanta.
The Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame has announced its 2026 class of inductees, and the list covers a lot of ground. Davido, Ludacris, Organized Noize, Bishop Paul S. Morton, Jack the Rapper, and the late Honorable Maynard H. Jackson will be honored at the annual induction ceremony on Monday, June 1, 2026, in Atlanta. The event marks the organization’s Black Music Month induction, a tradition the Walk of Fame has built into one of the more meaningful annual celebrations in the industry.
The ceremony will take place at the Walk of Fame’s home in historic downtown Atlanta, at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Northside Drive, adjacent to Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Each inductee receives a Crown Jewel of Excellence emblem that is permanently installed at that location, where it joins the emblems of every previous class.
What the BMEWOF actually represents
The Black Music & Entertainment Walk of Fame was founded by Catherine Brewton, Demmette Guidry, and Michael T. Mauldin as a joint initiative of the Black American Music Association and the Black American Music Foundation. The institution was built around a specific idea: that the contributions of Black artists, executives, and cultural leaders deserved a permanent, physical home that reflected both their excellence and their broader impact on the world.
Atlanta was not an arbitrary choice. The city has functioned as a center of Black music and entertainment for decades, and the Walk of Fame leans into that history directly. The location near Mercedes-Benz Stadium puts it in the middle of a part of the city that carries enormous cultural weight, and the permanent nature of the Crown Jewel installations means the record only grows with each passing year.
The 2026 inductees and why they matter
The six honorees represent different corners of Black music and cultural life, which is consistent with how the Walk of Fame has approached its selections since its founding.
Davido brings a global dimension to this year’s class. The Nigerian Afrobeats artist has spent the better part of a decade building one of the largest audiences in African popular music, and his influence on how Afrobeats travels internationally is well documented. His induction signals that the Walk of Fame is tracking Black music as a worldwide phenomenon, not just an American one.
Ludacris represents Atlanta directly. The rapper built his career in this city and remained connected to it through his music, his business work, and his presence in the community. Having his Crown Jewel installed near Mercedes-Benz Stadium carries a particular resonance given his history with the city.
Organized Noize, the production collective behind some of the most important records in Southern hip-hop history, shaped the sound of an entire region. Their work with OutKast and Goodie Mob in the 1990s helped establish Atlanta as a creative force in rap that the rest of the industry could not ignore.
Bishop Paul S. Morton represents the gospel tradition that runs through Black music as deeply as any other genre. His influence spans decades and extends well beyond the church into the broader conversation about how Black spiritual music connects to culture at large.
Jack the Rapper, born Jack Gibson, was a radio pioneer and the founder of the Jack the Rapper Family Affair convention, which became a critical gathering point for Black music professionals starting in the 1970s. His induction acknowledges the infrastructure side of the industry, the people who built the platforms that artists depended on.
The Honorable Maynard H. Jackson, Atlanta’s first Black mayor, represents a different kind of induction. His legacy is civic, but his impact on Atlanta’s cultural and economic development created conditions that allowed the city’s music industry to grow into what it became.
A growing permanent record
Previous inductees include Prince, James Brown, Beyoncé, OutKast, Missy Elliott, Lauryn Hill, Quincy Jones, Mary J. Blige, Usher, Stevie Wonder, and dozens of others whose work spans gospel, hip-hop, R&B, and beyond. The 2026 class adds six more names to a list that functions as an ongoing archive of Black creative achievement, installed permanently in stone in the city that has long been its cultural capital.
Media credentials for the June 1 ceremony are available through the Walk of Fame’s official application portal.