genre hiphop

On a night where there was plenty of catering to the 2000s, Playboi Carti brought the BET Awards back to 2025 and to the future of rap.

Carti hit the stage for his BET Awards performance debut on Monday night (June 9), which saw him flanked by a pair of black SUV trucks and his right-hand DJ Swamp Izzo as he laid his throaty flow over MUSIC hits “Like Weezy” and “Rather Lie.”

Rocking dark jeans with a colorful Bape zip-up jacket paying homage to Lil Wayne, Carti bounced around the stage as white smoke filled the Peacock Theater, while Gen Z fans of King Vamp finally felt seen.

Without an assist from his tourmate The Weeknd on the hook, Carti put a choir twist on “Rather Lie,” which felt as if it had undergone a gospel chorus makeover, giving the top five Billboard Hot 100 hit a renewed texture.

“I love y’all. Appreciate y’all,” the influential Atlanta rapper told the crowd before leaving the stage.

Carti was up for three BET Awards on Monday evening: collaboration of the year (“Timeless” with The Weeknd) and video of the year (“Timeless” and “Type Sh–” with Future, Metro Boomin and Travis Scott).

2025 has already been a busy campaign for Playboi Carti, who delivered his long-awaited chart-topping MUSIC album in March.

King Vamp is currently trekking across the stadiums of North America while opening for The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn Tour, which just wrapped up three nights in New Jersey before heading to Massachusetts and Minnesota later this week.

GloRilla put on a great two-song set at the 2025 BET Awards, as she was dressed like Michael Jackson in the “Smooth Criminal” video in the front and dressed as Prince at the 1991 MTV VMAs in the back.

The first song she performed was her hit single “Let Her Cook” as a kitchen crew cheffed up behind her and she put in some choreography work. She then took a quick intermission to do a tap dance number and finished the song before putting on a white fur coat to play the piano as Keyshia Cole sat down to perform her hit “Love” as a lead-in to Glo’s latest single “Typa,” which samples the record.

The Memphis rapper was nominated for four BET Awards going into the show, including album of the year for Glorious, which ended up going to Kendrick Lamar for GNX.

Big Glo recently performed in Philly at Roots Picnic, where she apparently willed a rainstorm into existence during her performance after reciting the line “It’s 7 p.m. Friday/ It’s 95 degrees” from her song “TGIF.”

She also recently received the Powerhouse Award at Billboard Women In Music 2025 back in March, where she shouted out all the beautiful ladies in the building in that amazing Memphis accent of hers.

You can watch the performance in part below.

Stevie Wonder surprised everyone at the 2025 BET Awards when he stepped out to honor his longtime friend Jamie Foxx.

During the 2025 BET Awards on Monday (June 9), Jamie Foxx was set to be honored with the Ultimate Icon Award. Throughout the night, it was teased that a “special guest” would appear onstage to give Foxx his award. That guest was none other than Stevie Wonder.

Babyface and Ludacris also popped out to pay tribute to the artistic titan, performing a cover of “Unpredictable” — the Billboard Hot 100 top 10 title track from Foxx’s 2005 album — while Tank tackled a cover of Ray Charles’ “Night Time is the Right Time.” Foxx famously portrayed Charles in the 2004 film Ray, for which he won the best actor Oscar. Jennifer Hudson then took the helm and bodied a soulful cover of “Gold Digger,” a 10-week Hot 100 No. 1 for Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Foxx back in 2005. T-Pain and Doug E. Fresh then popped out to close out the celebration with a rockin’ cover of the 2009 No. 2 Hot 100 hit “Blame It.” Through it all, Foxx could be seen laughing, nodding along and having a great time.

“Jamie, look at me!” Stevie joked at the end of the show before inviting Jamie to speak. “I remember seeing you the first time at a club, playing piano and singing, but I knew from the moment I heard you sing that you had so much more. I admire and celebrate your talent and your love — for blind people. I’m very happy to be here tonight to see you honored as you so very well deserve.”

During his acceptance speech, Foxx thanked all his friends and loved ones for showing up for him while he went through life-threatening medical complications back in 2023. He added that when he saw the “In Memorium” segment, it made him reflect on his own health scare.

“You can’t go through something like that and not testify,” Foxx concluded to a roar of applause. “A career that I could only thank God for.”