2021 BET AWARDS RECAP

2021 BET AWARDS RECAP

June 28, 2021

by Cara G

The B.E.T. Awards 2021 aired live on Sunday, June 27th. Taraji P. Henson led the culture’s biggest night that included Queen Latifah’s lifetime achievement award tribute, performances by H.E.R., Cardi B, Lil Nas X and an eye-watering tribute to the late D.M.X. featuring the Ruff Ryders family. Here’s our full B.E.T. Awards 2021 recap.

Henson played the role of many Black Queens throughout the “Year of the Black Woman” themed night. She dressed up and paid homage to notable women such as Issa Rae, Re. Maxine Waters, Erykah Badu, Tina Turner, and more!

Cardi B was the talk of the show after her stage performance with Migos. The New York native announced she was pregnant with baby number two to Migos group member, Offset. We can’t leave out the fact that she bounced around on stage and completely nailed her performance! This is Cardi B’s second time around doing performances while pregnant. The show must go on, right?

R&B singer H.E.R. had her Rockstar glasses on and left the crowd stunned after her performance. Let’s not forget her powerful speech where she mentioned, “This stage matters,” referring to the B.E.T. Awards show, as she recalled a time where she won an award in the country genre.

“I had the pleasure of being on the stage of a different genre, and they asked me: ‘What are you bringing to this stage? It’s a completely different world, you know — you come from R&B.’ And I said, ‘Well actually, R&B and soul music is a foundation of country music,’” she said, and the audience cheered. “There wouldn’t be a lot of those other genres if it was not for Black music. When they say ‘R&B is dead, R&B is not alive,’ I’m like, ‘It’s in everything.’”

We got a fierce medley of “Ladies First” and “U.N.I.T.Y.” for Queen Latifah’s Lifetime Achievement Award by Lil Kim, MC Lyte, Rapsody and Monie Love.

Queen Latifah emotionally took the stage to accept her award. “I want to thank B.E.T. for creating an outlet for beautiful Blackness to thrive, to shine. When we couldn’t get played on the radio in other places, we couldn’t get our videos played in other places, there was B.E.T. that allowed us to be in our fullness and to shine to this night, right here,” she stated.

Following the memorable moment, the Ruff Ryders, Swizz Beatz, Busta Rhymes, Method Man, Griselda, Lil Buck and Jon, The Lox, and Michael K. Williams lit up the stage to close out the night with an amazing tribute to the late D.M.X. Some of the songs included “Slipping,” “Where the Hood At?,” “Party Up,” “Ruff Ryders’ Anthem,” and more.

Here’ a complete list of last night’s winners:

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

Heaux Tales – Jazmine Sullivan

BEST COLLABORATION

Cardi B ft. Megan Thee Stallion – “WAP”

BEST FEMALE R&B/POP ARTIST

H.E.R.

BEST MALE R&B/POP ARTIST

Chris Brown

BEST NEW ARTIST

Giveon

BEST GROUP