Earlier today, Hip-Hop pioneer Busta Rhymes, born Trevor George Smith Jr., accepted the Black Entertainment Television (BET) Lifetime Achievement Award. Amidst the African-American Hip-Hop “culture’s biggest night”, which honoured “outstanding achievements in music, film, television, and sports”, the legendary NY rapper was presented the highly coveted award by Marlon Wayans and Swizz Beatz.
Notably, with this accomplishment, Rhymes joins some of the most influential entertainers, musicians and even actors including Sean “Diddy” Combs, Prince, Whitney Houston and Hollywood’s top-tier African American Actor Samuel L. Jackson.
Busta Rhymes’ win is a massive push to “The Leaders of the New School” and arrives after over 30 years of being in the rap game. The rapper, recognised for his flagrant choppa flow and hard-hitting rap records including his sprawling debut “The Coming” (1996), “When Disaster Strikes”, “Extinction Level Event: The Final World Front”, “Genesis” and more, has influenced emcees and record producers across generations.
After receiving one of the top-tier achievements in rap music, Rhymes reflected upon parenthood, the state of rap music and its impact on people’s lives and more during an affecting speech.
“My oldest child was a 3 year old in the ‘Woo-Hah!!’ video back in ’96. He’s 30. He’s right here. I went on, and I had five more kids after that. So, I got six beautiful children. Five out of the six of them is here, T’ziah, Mariah, Cacie, T’khi, Trillian and the young boss who’s home,” Rhymes said during his emotional speech.
“I see so many people in here that I’ve known and I’ve grown with for a long time, and y’all watched me grow, and I love y’all, and I know y’all love me. But I’m a real giver of love. Sometimes I know I might overwhelm you. I wanna hug you, and I won’t let you go. I shake your hand,” he added further.
Most notably, Rhymes confronted the controversial ‘rap beefs’ which still find its way into Hip-Hop music across the globe. Rhymes advised emcees to “stop these little petty beefs that we be doing.”
“Y’all messing up the bag. Y’all messing up the energy. I don’t like when I talk to these dudes that run these streaming platforms and they talking about, ‘You know, we turning the consumer off because there’s so much little this and little that going on with you rappers.’ We’re gonna stop that. We’re gonna love each other, and we gonna get to this money.”
Watch Rah Digga, Coi Leray, Swizz Beatz & more paying their tributes to Busta Rhymes here.
Related: Quavo & Offset unite to Remember Takeoff at the BET Awards
Listen to Busta Rhymes’ debut rap album ‘The Coming’ here via Spotify.
