Snoop Dogg walked out as host of the MTV Video Music Awards for the first time Sunday night (Sept 27). Madonna had just finished her first VMAs performance in 23 years, and he told the Peacock Theater crowd "she ain't a virgin no more". All this following a CBS network 22 minutes late start because of the Dallas Cowboys vs Baltimore Ravens NFL football game, with the show back in Southern California for the first time since 2017.

The genre's actual trophies were handed out somewhere else. Cardi B and Kehlani won Best Hip-Hop for "Safe," and Bruno Mars won Best R&B for "I Just Might." Neither award was among the six of 23 competitive categories MTV presented on the air. Both joined Song of the Year, Best Album and Best K-Pop in the pile of results that reached fans through winners lists and social posts.

For anyone who tuned in for hip-hop, R&B and soul at the 2026 VMAs, Cardi and Kehlani took the rap category and Bruno took R&B. Snoop and Gunna supplied the West Coast and Atlanta presence onstage. The richest soul singing of the evening arrived inside a tribute to George Michael rather than in any competitive segment.

Kehlani Won Her Moon Person in the Rap Field

"Safe" comes from Cardi's Am I the Drama? and peaked at No. 3 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. It beat Don Toliver's "E85," Drake's "Janice STFU," Megan Thee Stallion's "Lover Girl," Travis Scott's "Dumbo" and Tyler, the Creator's "Sugar on My Tongue." That field put two Cactus Jack records and an OVO single against a duet built on a sung hook.

Kehlani's name appeared on two ballots this year. Her own single "Folded" won her Video of the Year and Best Female R&B/Pop Artist at the BET Awards in June, and it was nominated for Best R&B here and lost.

Cardi took Best Female Hip Hop Artist at that same June ceremony, and she has kept the album cycle moving with new visuals, including the Brooklyn video we rounded up in August. The partnership itself goes back to "Ring," the Kehlani feature on Invasion of Privacy in 2018. Eight years later the two collected an award for the sequel without either of them standing at a podium on national television.

Bruno Mars Took R&B From a Six-Record Field

The other Best R&B nominees, as MTV announced them, were Chris Brown's "It Depends/Obvious," Dave and Tems' "Raindance," Justin Bieber's "Yukon," Kehlani's "Folded" and Mariah the Scientist and Kali Uchis' "Is It a Crime." Of the six videos, Bruno's was the only one also nominated for Video of the Year, Best Direction and Best Editing.

His slot on the broadcast was a pre-recorded tour performance of "Dance With Me" built around an extended guitar solo and a closing vocal run. "I Just Might," the single that won him the category, was not part of the performance.

Mariah the Scientist's nomination deserves a line of its own. "Is It a Crime" was also up for Best Collaboration at the BET Awards in June, and it went home empty on both nights. The record still kept her name on two of the year's biggest ballots.

Snoop Hosted, and Gunna Arrived on a Country Record

Snoop came into the night as a 13-time VMAs nominee and three-time winner. His main-stage debut came in 1994 with "Murder Was the Case", and the show's return to Los Angeles gave his monologue its premise. He promised the room that "tonight is gonna be the biggest party the VMAs has ever seen," then ran through a guest list that included Madonna, Taylor Swift, Lisa, Bruno and "my girl" Raye.

In 2022, at the Prudential Center in Newark, he and Eminem performed "From the D 2 the LBC" as animated versions of their Bored Ape avatars before stepping out in person. Four years later MTV gave the 54-year-old the whole broadcast. The monologue stayed close to his brand, with a promise of his own weed for every winner in the room and a reminder that the show now sat in his city.

We flagged Gunna's slot when MTV added him to the performance lineup earlier this month, and it came inside Shaboozey's set. Shaboozey opened with "Cowgirl" before Gunna joined him for "High Noon," the first broadcast performance of the collaboration. The only Atlanta rapper on the bill delivered his verses on a country record.

The collaboration category offered the telecast its other chance at rap. "Chains & Whips," the Clipse and Kendrick Lamar record that won Best Collaboration at the BET Awards, was nominated here too. French Montana and Max B's "Ever Since U Left Me" and Teyana Taylor and Lucky Daye's "Hard Part" rounded out the rap and R&B entries. All three lost on the air to Madonna and Sabrina Carpenter's "Bring Your Love."

The Soul Came Through George Michael

MTV staged its tribute to George Michael a decade after his death, and it became the evening's longest stretch of soul singing. Sombr opened with "Faith" and "Father Figure," and Raye took "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)," Michael's 1987 duet with Aretha Franklin. Teddy Swims sang "Careless Whisper" under purple light before Adam Lambert closed on "Freedom! '90" with MNEK, MEEK and Saint Harison.

Raye had already sung twice by then. In her VMAs performance debut earlier in the show, the 28-year-old performed "I Will Overcome" and "Where Is My Husband!," the single that lost Song of the Year to BTS off the air. Her second turn put her voice on the half of a duet Michael originally built around the Queen of Soul.

Teddy Swims drew the most recognizable saxophone line in pop, and his rasp has carried a career that began with covers posted to YouTube before it reached arenas. On a night when the Best R&B winner appeared on tape, the two singers holding the stage for soul were a Londoner and a Georgian, both performing another man's catalog.

Kacey Musgraves' tribute to Dolly Parton brushed the same history from the other direction. Her song was "I Will Always Love You," the Parton composition Whitney Houston carried to the top of the charts in 1992 for The Bodyguard.

What the Telecast Chose to Show

The on-air results went to Madonna for Artist of the Year, Best Dance and Best Collaboration, to Lisa for Best Pop and to Sienna Spiro for Best New Artist. Swift closed the show with Video of the Year, and Madonna finished with seven wins overall. Swift's Best Direction win and the first Artist Director Honors moved her past Beyoncé to 32 career VMAs.

Pushing rap off the broadcast is not new for MTV. Last year Doechii's Best Hip-Hop win was posted to the VMAs' X account roughly 25 minutes after the show ended, so the category has now missed the telecast two years running. It happened in a year when our own read of the RIAA's midyear figures found rap and R&B growing slower than the rest of the business.

The fall calendar used to offer the culture its own stages. BET suspended both the BET Hip Hop Awards and the Soul Train Music Awards in 2025. Cardi, Kehlani and Bruno now hold Moon Persons that most of the television audience saw only as lines in a list. Next year's networks will decide where rap and R&B get a prime-time autumn stage.