Lil Baby, Roddy Ricch, Taylor Swift win Apple Music Awards

NEW YORK — Rapper Lil Baby has been named artist of the year at the second annual Apple Music Awards.

The rapper, who topped the charts this year with his sophomore album “My Turn" and reached the No. 3 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart with his hit “The Bigger Picture," was hand-selected by the streaming service's global editorial team to win the title. The editorial team also named Taylor Swift songwriter of the year and Megan Thee Stallion breakthrough artist of the year.

Roddy Ricch, whose successful year included a Grammy win, No. 1 album and No. 1 song, won two Apple Music honours that were based on streaming data. His debut album, “Please Excuse Me for Being Antisocial," has been streamed more than 1.5 billion times on the platform and was named top album of the year. His smash hit “The Box" logged more than 460 million Apple Music streams and was crowned top song of the year.

Mesfin Fekadu, The Associated Press