Burna Boy
screenshot of Burna Boy's performance

BET Awards: Burna Boy's #EndSARS tribute, Erykah/Brandy cypher, Pop Smoke tribute, more

The 2020 BET Hip Hop Awards were last night (10/27), and among the performers was Burna Boy, who used his performance to show support for the #EndSARS movement in Nigeria and to give a powerful tribute to the innocent lives taken by Nigerian police. He performed “Monsters You Made” off his excellent new album Twice As Tall, with help from Coldplay’s Chris Martin (who’s also on the album version) and an ace live band. At one point, he performed in front of footage of protesters in the streets, his band wore shirts that read “#StopPoliceBrutality,” and he ended the performance with him, his band, and others standing with their fists raised, as Burna Boy gave a monologue listing the names of victims of police brutality. Watch below.

Other highlights of of the BET Awards included the “Ladies First” cypher, with Erykah Badu, Brandy, Teyana Taylor, and H.E.R. freestyling over the beat to Brandy’s 1994 single “I Wanna Be Down”; Quavo paying tribute to the late Pop Smoke with performances of “Shake The Room” and “Aim for the Moon”; Cordae, Lil Bibby, and G Herbo speaking about the late Juice WRLD; a reggae cypher with Beenie Man, Bounty Killa, Skip Marley, Koffee, and Shenseea; City Girls performing “Kitty Talk” (aka a censored version of “Pussy Talk”) and “Jobs”; Polo G, Rapsody, Chika, Jack Harlow, and Flawless Real Talk teaming up for a political cypher; Lil Baby and 42 Dugg performing “We Paid!”; Ade’, Buddy, Flo Milli, and Deante Hitchcock in the “hot new crew” cypher; and more.

Megan Thee Stallion took home three awards: hip-hop artist of the year, best collaboration (for “Savage” with Beyonce) and hustler of the year. (Beyonce also won best featured verse for “Savage.”) Roddy Ricch took home song of the year and hip-hop album of the year; the late Pop Smoke won best new hip-hop artist; Rapsody won lyricist of the year; Hit-Boy won producer of the year; Stormzy won best international flow; and more.

Watch the aforementioned highlights below…

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