• The way the tail end of the pre-show went completely left but in a good way with Master P promoting his cereal and Trick Daddy talking about cocaine and BBLs – I knew it was going to be an interesting night.

• Big Daddy Kane still being able to do synchronized dances is a testament to his youthfulness. 

• The entire night they saluted the living legends and the ones that are no longer here with us, which was great to see.

• Salute to Warren G coming with the black gloves in full regulator mode.

• Latto’s performance was grandiose, creative, and proved her artistry and stage presence.

• Coco Jones’ performance and award for best new artist really felt like a coronation of a new R&B legend.

• Boosie dancing to Davido’s performance was an instant meme.

• Great to see Offset and Quavo back together. RIP Takeoff.  

• Tyga with “Rack City” after Yoyo performing was nasty work.

• Ray J presenting an award with his wife and trolling people who are in his wife’s DMs proved to me that Ray J should be in the reality TV Hall of Fame. 

• Oh BET you pulled on my heart strings by bringing out all of the artists who did songs like the “Stanky Leg,” “Tootsie Roll” and of course “Crank That.”

• Salute to Master P running around the stage like a No Limit Soldier.

• Kid Capri and MC Lyte was the perfect way to give direction to the entire night.

• Beyoncé added to her 30 BET awards (no exaggeration) with a couple of wins.

• Busta Rhymes’ speech and performance was exactly what we needed to hear.

Rant: I purposefully waited to publish this article a week later to see the responses of the BET awards from cultural critics and how the audience responded.  One of the criticisms I saw again and again was that people were confused about why artists like Latto and Coco Jones were crying and super excited when they got their award, saying things like“it’s only a BET award.”  I was flabbergasted every time I heard this.  They should be excited for these awards because that means they are ascending on the way to do greater things in their career but more importantly that the BET Award should be treated with the same prestige as such as a Grammy or even a VMA. If the Black community doesn’t respect our own award show, how do we expect other communities to view it prestigiously?