The BET Awards are always one of the year’s biggest nights in entertainment, and the 2017 awards were no exception. Look below for some of the evening’s biggest moments.
Remy Ma’s award for Best Female Rapper was well-deserved, with her hit “All The Way Up” climbing the charts and her diss song “ShETHER” taking chinks in Nicki Minaj’s armor. For her acceptance speech, she shouted out longtime riders like Fat Joe and Papoose, along with the inmates at the facility where she served prison time. “It’s hard, but you can do it. You can make mistakes and come back,” she said. It seemed that she would accept the award without taking any more shots at Nicki, but she closed her speech with a quick set of bars aimed at her foe. The Best Female Hip-Hop Artist Award has officially been revived.
Big Sean had a standout performance, performing a medley of heaters from his album I Decided in front of a dark, minimal backdrop while utilizing special effects and backup dancers. He closed out his performance with an unheard freestyle that spoke about police brutality and shouted out Tee Grizzley and Detroit Public Schools. Sean continues to rise, and this performance was a reminder that he can hold his own with anyone in the biz.
It’s been a while since Xscape has been on the charts, but the 90s R&B quartet had one of the best performances of the night, performing their hits “Understanding” and “Who Can I Run To” with stunning showcases of their vocals – and looking amazing, to boot. New singers had plenty of opportunities to take notes from the R&B legends.
Blackish co-star Yara Sahidi was honored as the BET Rising Star, and she gracefully accepted the award with a speech that honored the birthday of police brutality victim Tamir Rice and gave kudos to BET for the station’s dedication to respecting and honoring the culture in ways that other channels and companies refuse to.
Kendrick Lamar stole the show during Future’s performance, nailing just about every syllable of his verse from the “Mask Off” remix. The verse received a mixed response when it was released a few weeks ago, but his rendition of the verse at the BET Awards was another example of Kung Fu Kenny’s one-of-a-kind talent.
Chance the Rapper was honored with the Humanitarian Award for his work with the Chicago Public School system, with a presentation that started with comments from Common and ended with a moving thank you video from former First Lady Michelle Obama. Chance gave a speech that spoke on behalf of victims of police brutality, children in Chicago schools, and more. He admitted that he was overwhelmed by getting the award at the young age of 24, but as he said, “God doesn’t make mistakes.”
New Edition received the Lifetime Achievement Award on Sunday night, and they took over a large portion of the show. First, the actors who portrayed them in the BET biopic tore down the stage with a collection of the group’s hits. Then, the iconic group members themselves showed the young’n’s how it’s done with a crowd-pleasing performance of their own.