Source: Bennett Raglin / Getty
Last night the 2021 BET Hip Hop Awards aired after a live taping in Atlanta earlier this month.
The annual show celebrates the best and brightest in Hip Hop, honoring the most influential artists of the year and showcasing raw talent in cyphers throughout the show. This year, there were some pretty big wins and a couple of historical moments. Tyler, The Creator’s Call Me If You Get Lost won ‘Album of the Year’ and he delivered a heartfelt acceptance speech as BET honored him with the ‘Cultural Influence Award’. Icon Nelly was honored with the ‘I Am Hip Hop Award’ and performed a medley of his most popular hits to finish the night off right. After all the hate they received for their collaborative efforts on “WAP,” Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion won ‘Video of the Year,’ ‘Song of the Year,’ and ‘Best Collaboration’. Also, up-and-coming rapper Kid Kenn made history as the first openly gay male rapper to perform in a cypher.
“When my community sees me in the Cypher they’re going to gag,” Kenn told PAPER this week. “They’re going to be so excited because I know they’ve been waiting for me to literally do what I have to do for the community and that’s all I came to do: to represent and do the best I can do. I really feel like I was born for this. No pressure at all.”
Below, we gathered some of the best moments of the night. Please continue to check back for updates, as BET makes more footage available, and join us in congratulating all of this year’s winners.
1. Latto understood the assignment and spiced things up a bit with her performance of “Big Energy.”
See the official video for the new single here.