BET celebrated the past year’s biggest musical artists and accomplishments at the 25th annual BET Awards on Monday (Jun. 9) at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles.
Kendrick Lamar took home the most wins during the ceremony including Best Hip Hop Male Artist, Album Of The Year for GNX, Video Of The Year for “Not Like Us”, and Video Director of The Year with Dave Free. For a record-extended eighth time, K.Dot won Best Collaboration for his “Luther” collaboration with SZA.
Both SZA and Chris Brown won two awards this year. The latter won Best R&B/Pop Male Artist and voted the Viewer’s Choice Award, while SZA took home Best Female R&B/Pop Artist and Best Collaboration (“Luther” w/ Kendrick Lamar).
Doechii won Best Female Hip Hop Artist, Summer Walker was honored the BET Her award and Future and Metro Boomin was crowned Best Group. Elsewhere, Leon Thomas was named Best New Artist, Blue Ivy Carter received the Young Stars Award, and GloRilla was awarded the Dr. Bobby Jones Best Gospel/Inspirational Award for her “Rain Down On Me” collaboration with Kirk Franklin and Maverick City Music.
Snoop Dogg, Mariah Carey, Jaime Foxx and Kirk Franklin all received The Ultimate Icon Award.
Hosted by Kevin Hart, the ceremony included numerous live performances and tributes throughout the night from Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, and Playboi Carti, to Teyana Taylor, Leon Thomas, and GloRilla alongside Keyshia Cole
Ashanti, Bow Wow, Amerie, Jim Jones and Keyshia Cole performed during a 106 & Park Reunion , while Babyface, Ludacris, Jennifer Hudson, Tank and more honored Jaime Foxx with their tribute performance.
Some of music’s recent lost ones were remembered throughout the evening including Brittney Spencer’s performance of Angie Stone’s “No More Rain, Andra Day’s rendition of Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly”, and Lucky Daye, Luke James and Miles Canton honoring Quincy Jones with their take on the classic ballad, “Secret Garden”.