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“You have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your prince.”
Suffering through bad relationships to finally find the ideal romantic partner is a universal story that’s understood by men and women of every age, and of every generation. It’s at the heart of most Hallmark movies and a number of fairytales. And it’s a go-to subject for plenty of hit songs, including Rascal Flatts’ “Bless The Broken Road,” Foreigner’s “Waiting for a Girl Like You,” Garth Brooks’ “Unanswered Prayers” and Johnny Lee’s “Lookin’ for Love.”
It’s appropriate that when LOCASH strode down that same thematic lane, it took years for “Wrong Hearts” to find its right moment.
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“I always believe songs are on journeys, and they have their own timing,” LOCASH’s Preston Brust says. “And so here we are.”
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“Wrong Hearts” was created when the whole of society was (im)patiently waiting to move forward. They penned it in 2020, when the pandemic had forced musicians off the road. LOCASH was writing via Zoom nearly every day, and on this particular occasion, they connected on computer screens with Josh Thompson (“Drowns the Whiskey,” “One Margarita”) and Matt Dragstrem (“Mamaw’s House,” “What My World Spins Around”), who checked in from his third-floor writing room on Music Row. Either Dragstrem or Thompson had the “Wrong Hearts” title, but all four related to its inherent message.
“I been married 15 years,” LOCASH’s Chris Lucas notes. “Trust me, there was a lot of broken jukeboxes that didn’t play. There’s a lot of neon lights that flickered. You know, there’s all kinds of stuff we went through to get to where we’re at.”
The trick was to make that sentiment work for LOCASH’s rough-cut vocal sound.
“Josh was playing this vibe, almost like a ‘50s, ‘60s vibe – retro, but at the same time, cool again,” Lucas recalls. “We just started writing it, with a kind of ‘God Bless the Broken Road’ vibe, but a little edgier.”From the start, Dragstrem built a musical track to work from, centered around a strummed guitar part that held an Eagles/Poco sort of country-rock attitude. They dug straight into the chorus, setting their intent with the first lines: “All the wrong hearts/ All the wrong bars.”
“We’re chorus writers,” Brust says. “If that hook doesn’t feel really good, then we’re probably not even gonna chase a verse.”
They recounted empty whiskey glass and bad barroom choices, using short, breezy phrases. But midway through the chorus, they changed the phrasing and the melody, as the text got even darker.
“At that time, post-choruses were really in, so I think we thought of [that section] as a post-chorus,” Dragstrem says. “Then the more we were writing it, we were like, ‘Oh, this kind of feels like just a part of the chorus.’ Doing that front half of the chorus again might get a little old, so I remember I was trying to play with a different back half that kind of wrapped it nicely in a bow. I love the front half of the chorus, but I wanted that melody to be really special and be interesting every time you hear it.”
The back half started on “that highway to hell” – not intended as a nod to AC/DC, though they knew people would make that connection. That highway “led straight to your arms,” cruising into a new emotional light that carried through to a reprise of the “Wrong Hearts” hook at the chorus’ end.
With that section complete, they turned to the verses, using the opening stanza to recap the lonely prior wilderness. “Wastin’ my time,” “gettin’ used to the rain” – they used a conversational tone while recasting that period as drudgery. Then, the singer’s dream girl walks in “outta that neon blue” – it’s easy to picture her silhouetted in cigarette smoke with a Bud Light sign glowing behind her.
“That’s always the challenge for songwriters: to find new ways to say ‘the bar’ without saying ‘the bar,’” Dragstrem notes.
In verse two, the singer recognizes the former relationships were always doomed to fail, and he revels in the time he’s spending with his partner now “under midnight stars.” It was a mere coincidence that they’d placed a light source – the “neon blue” and the “midnight stars” – in each verse, though it fit “Wrong Hearts” well.
“There’s light at the end of the tunnel,” Lucas says. “Sometimes you can’t see it when you’re younger and you’re still trying to find love.”
To finish, they crafted a bridge that pulled the bar and the relationship together, raising a drink to their romance. They would also “raise one to…” – then comes the final chorus – “All the wrong hearts.” By celebrating those former romances, they framed the failed past as necessary for the victorious present.Dragstrem completed the instrumental part of the demo on his own, adhering to the country-rock motif, and Thompson sang the vocal for that version. LOCASH was enthusiastic about “Wrong Hearts,” but their label relationship at the time was, it turned out, nearing its end. They had two more singles, then moved on, eventually starting their own Galaxy Music Group.
As they worked on their first Galaxy album, LOCASH pulled “Wrong Hearts” off the pile and asked producer Jacob Rice (Jon Langston, Kidd G) to record the instrumental bed. Rice was up for the assignment.
“The way the melody sat over the chord progression was very cool to me,” he says.
He cut it at Saxman Studios around the end of 2023 with drummer Grady Saxman, bassist Devin Malone, guitarists Nathan Keeterle and Dave Flint, and steel guitarist Andy Ellison. Rice encouraged them to follow Dragstrem’s country-rock lead, with a specific alteration.
“One of the main things I told everybody in there was, ‘I don’t want this to be too light,’” Rice remembers.
“I wanted it to have a little bit of a toughness to it, a little bit of a masculine thing to it. The demo had a beachy kind of lighter vibe, I’d say, because it had nylon guitar [strings] going on, and it kind of leaned itself a little bit more [Kenny] Chesney, when Chesney was kind of doing his beach thing.”
If listeners dig deep, they’ll hear Ellison playing steel lines with elongated notes mid-chorus, handling a supporting role that would typically belong to a string section. Keeterle used a tremolo effect to apply a bubbly sound in the bridge, and Saxman slipped a maraca-sounding shaker into a quiet space before the chorus.
“That’s all musicianship,” Rice says. “A lot of that came from those guys just playing off each other.”LOCASH cut its vocals at a later date, working out their parts in the studio. Lucas took the primary lead on the chorus, while Brust dominated the verses. And before it was all over, Brust developed a bonus post-chorus that had the guys singing a background counter melody.
As previous single “Hometown Home” wound its way to No. 1 on Billboard‘s Country Airplay chart, a major programmer suggested “Wrong Hearts” was the obvious follow-up. They researched it through multiple avenues, and the feedback supported that advice. Galaxy released “Wrong Hearts” to country radio via PlayMPE on May 2. Interestingly, that phrase at the end of the bridge – “raise one to” – is being heard by some listeners as “raise one, too.” It takes “Wrong Hearts” even further, suggesting the guy is wanting to become a father – making him obvious wife material.
Thus, “Wrong Hearts” is even more utilitarian than they expected. Its journey so far is five years – long by typical standards – but the song has a shot at making a long-awaited connection, mirroring the story embedded in its easy-going melody.
“The right heart has been waiting for you all along,” Brust suggests. “You just got to get there.”
During JPEGMAFIA‘s rambunctious set at this year’s Governor’s Ball, I watched as a young teenager stumbled out of the crowd, caked in sweat and mud. His glasses were fogged up, tilted at an angle across the pointed frame of his nose. He correcte them and looked at me and my friend I brought along for the day.
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“Do NOT go in there,” he exclaimed, his face radiating the sort of joy that made me think he probably wanted me to ignore this warning.
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By “there,” the young teen meant the mosh pit that had inevitably formed in the middle of the audience, a staple of every JPEGMAFIA show. As Peggy’s set continued, I watched as young person after young person entered and exited the crowd in a dusty, sweaty and (in one case) bloody haze, all emanating the same joy. It was as if Peggy’s mosh pit was a sort of exfoliant, revealing a newfound aliveness underneath those daring enough to try it out.
This is the magic of JPEGMAFIA. Growing up, he was a ubiquitous presence in Baltimore’s punk scene, and in turn has constantly toed the line between rap and hardcore. His latest two albums, 2024’s I Lay Down My Life for You and 2023’s Scaring the Hoes with Danny Brown are the closest Peggy’s ever come to completely shattering that genre matrix. Both projects flip from jazz to metal to rap to punk to house to everything else so frenetically it can be nauseating — but like that notorious mosh pit, to embark upon these journeys leaves you fully awake by the end. You realize just how deep the rabbit hole goes in terms of how music can be deconstructed and reconstructed. In the world of JPEGMAFIA, there are no boundaries.
“There’s no f—king rules, especially not in the music industry,” Peggy told me at his trailer just a few hours before his show. He’s sitting in front of a full length mirror, tackling his skincare routine. “Everything is f—king made up. All the contracts say we own you in all universes and then these n—as never been to Mars. They’re just saying s—t. You get me? They’re just saying s—t, I’m just saying s—t.”
I spoke with JPEGMAFIA about the Director’s Cut of his latest album, his haters, his thoughts on the state of rap and how it feels to be labeled an underground rapper while shooting for superstardom.
What inspired you to take a Directors Cut approach to I Lay Down My Life For You?
I looked up the word directors cut after I saw that Justice League, whatever, Snyder Directors Cut s—t, and I was like s—t, we need a directors cut in music. Because I do direct all these albums. I produce them, I mix them, all that s—t. So I was like, what can I do other than call it a deluxe? Cause you either do that for some old s—t or it’s just being lazy. So the deluxe or the directors cut for me was I just put the original album out. Cause I cut the fat off of it, so I put the original one back out. I love it and I got inspired from SZA cause she did Lana and she put a whole f—king new album at the front of that b—h and I’m just like, “Oh I didn’t know you could do that.”
Why choose these songs to be on the Directors Cut?
I’ve had ‘em around for so long I was like, “OK, these still go. I still like these…” So I put “Protect the Cross” and all that other s—t out.
“Protect the Cross” goes hard.
Oh, they hated that s—t. They was hating hard.
You have one lyric on “Protect The Cross” I really wanna touch on where you say: “2025, your politics is a gang sign.” Tell me more about your thoughts on politics at this moment, and how that bar came together?
When I say “your politics is a gang sign,” I meant it — because who you affiliate with now really says a lot about you. Trump has done more racist s—t in the last six months than I think Ronald Reagan did in his whole f—king career. John Oliver said this, but I’m gonna paraphrase him: If Ronald Reagan woke up from the dead and saw the racist s—t Trump did in the last six months, he would c-m so hard he’d die again. So It’s just like, if you wanna support that, that says a lot about you. But if you’re on the other side that also says a lot about you because the Democrats are a losing, f–ked party. They’re dismantled. So it really is a gang sign in the same way that gangs do that. It’s the same way.
Curious what the reception was to this album when it first came out? I know you’ve always had rock influences in your music, but there seems to be a lot more punk and noise energy in Lay Down My Life. Were people hating at first?
I mean yeah, because they just wanna hate — and some people just don’t like me, and they can’t admit it, so they be tryna pretend because they don’t like me the snares aren’t hitting as hard or somethin’. [I Lay Down My Life for You] got the same reception it always does. N—as hated in the beginning, and [then] they was like, “Oh wait this is actually good.” Yeah, f—k you. I get it.
That seems to be sort of a trend with your releases. How does that feel when that happens?
It happens every time. When I released Scaring the Hoes people were like, “This is an abomination to music.” Now they asking me for Scaring The Hoes 2. It’s so funny, when it comes out, n—as be hating.
I’m just theorizing, but maybe it’s like a risk-taker type thing?
I am a risk-taker! I’m one of the only risk-takers in rap! The rest of these motherf—kers literally do the same thing. Alchemist, Earl and them? They’ve been making the same f—king song for the last twenty f—king years. Nobody gives a s—t. I’m not them. I’m here to evolve, go farther, go harder and I’m gonna do my s—t. I’m not here to give people the bare minimum and have that just be okay, n—a. That’s not me. I’m not wasting my potential like those motherf—kers. I’m not like that. I’m maximizing my s—t. I’m 35 years old — and Tupac said when Black men turn 30, they lose their fire. I have no loss of fire. I’m hot as s—t.
These other motherf—kers, whatever. Y’all go do that boring ass s—t. I’m not with that. I’m here to take this s—t forward whether y’all like it or not y’all can kiss my Black ass. And they’re gonna pretend like I’m not doing what I’m doing, but I’ve been doing it! And I’ve been doing it so well that people have to hate. They try to take the title from me and they just can’t, because it’s me. You can’t imitate me. I’m me, It came from my brain. Keep imitating Earl, and making hyper-pop songs, whatever the f—k these n—as is doing. I’m gonna be doing my thing like I’ve been doing, ’cause clearly something is working.
Going off that, how do you feel about the state of rap right now?
I think the state of rap is in the best state its been, ever. Because you have choices from everywhere. You can make any kind of rap you want. In the same way ‘90s rock was so big, Marilyn Manson got big. Rap is the No. 1 genre in the world, anybody can take off at any point off of one TikTok. It’s like a free-for-all. I like that s—t. I enjoy that s—t because it evens things out. I don’t have the same resources as some of these motherf—kers do so I gotta go off my talent.
Some of these motherf—kers come out here, and they just be havin’ pyro and they be sitting in they f—king room on stage and all this dumb ass s—t and I’m like, ‘I don’t wanna see all that s—t n—a, can you perform? And that’s my thing. I’m gonna come with the production. I’m gonna come with all that s—t…because that’s what I do. Same thing I did before I ever got in the music industry.
I said, you know what? F—k these n—as. I can do this better. And I got in the music industry and I got better than all the f—king underground. Now it’s time for me to take it farther. I don’t wanna be in the underground no more. These n—as suck. They’re boring and they’re losers.
How important is the live performance to you?
When I first came in, I knew it was important to be a good live performer because it would make me stand out. And I came from the hardcore scene in Baltimore so I was used to that kinda s—t. I’m always gonna have my energy, I’m always gonna do that but it’s not enough to carry you on forever. Eventually you got to, like, do some s—t that’s interesting. My set now is like some Batman Returns s—t. Fogged out, lights everywhere. There’s a podium, because I was watching the Democratic National Convention and I was like, “Damn this s—t look crazy. What is this set up? A podium? Three drapes, and just a motherf—ker talkin’ lookin important? I like that.” So I imitated that. I wanna keep evolving and growing, because I don’t like being an underground rapper.
Do you feel that definition doesn’t suit you anymore? Do people still try to put that on you?
They will try to put it on me, and that’s fine, I understand it. I just wanna blow past it so hard where you say it and you sound crazy. It’d be like calling Steve Lacy an underground rapper.
Why do you wanna blow past it?
Because I’m not a trust-fund kid and I actually come from the projects. So I want actual success. I’m not, like, avoiding it because my parents already had it. I don’t have the mindset that these other motherf—kers do. So I’m just like, “No, I wanna take it to the tippy-top, because I came from the bitty-bottom.”
You wanna be a superstar!
Yes, and If I don’t, fine, I’m fine being an underground rap legend, that’s cool. But while I’m alive and active I’m gonna do everything to take this s—t to the top and not the middle.
What do you see for the future of rap when it comes to fusing it with hardcore music?
I think a lot of people are gonna jump on that because what people are gonna do is they’re gonna realize what you guys are doing is boring as s—t. People yearn for something new, especially in rap. We’re yearning, we’re tired. We don’t wanna hear Drake complain about b—hes anymore. We don’t f—king care, he’s 40. We need something different. I’m here to try to provide and cultivate that as much as I can because rap fans are f—king bored. Their idea of doing something different is taking different sounding s—t and throwing trap drums on it, and that’s not what I’m here to do. I’m here to really f—k you up. You get what I’m saying? And If I’m not, I did not do my f—king job. Conscious rap has Nas, trap rap has Future, experimental rap is me. That’s it.
Do you feel there have been rappers that have come after you that have tried to bite your sound?
I’ve seen plenty of it, but then I see guys like Matt Proxy from Minneapolis. He came out of my influence and he shows love and respect, but for some reason some of these guys, they come at me like we beefing or something. Sometimes I tweet a lot and you think I’m your friend. I’m not your f—king friend and I don’t know you, and If you come up to me I’ll slap the s—t out of you. So leave me alone.
I see people d—k riding and copying, but they don’t wanna give homage, because it’s me and they’re offended by something I say or do. It’s the same reason you won’t see me on certain festivals because certain n—as don’t want me to be on that s—t. I’m the Real Deal Holyfield motherf—ker. Imitation don’t look good next to the real thing, do it?
It seems like you’re very aware of all of these things that are going on.
Everybody is. Everybody is. All artists are. When I was working with Ye, he was on his subreddit every day. Every day. Him and Bianca, every day, just looking at it. Everybody is. I’m not on my subreddit, but he was in there — because he was using it for, like, criticism and to be like, “Oh let me fix this.”
Do you think there’s still a lot of misunderstanding surrounding who JPEGMAFIA is?
People are kinda coming around, I see it a little bit. Because before it was literally just white teenagers projecting their insecurities on to me, and I was like, “Y’all realize I’m not a 15-year-old white boy in my house with my mom, right?” I’m a 35-year-old man and I run a business. I don’t mind, it’s not [about] being white. It’s the people that take that and try to remove my Blackness to make their little narratives sound better. It’s just like, that’s not real.
So now people are starting to realize that these motherf–kers are just hating. I’m not doing anything egregious right now. I’m not getting on Twitter to say anything crazy, and when I do get on Twitter to say something crazy it’s to promote an album. People just fall for it so well, you know?
But I see a lot of people turning the tide and being like, “Okay, maybe this n—a just likes to make music, and his personality is not a white teenage boy. Maybe he was born in 1989 and he might not think like me.”
P!nk was among the people watching at home on Sunday night helping to lift the 78th annual Tony Awards to their biggest broadcast audience since 2019. But the pop superstar seemed more keyed in on the action in her own living room than the best and brightest Broadway stars dancing and belting across the Radio […]
Despite the unconscionable runtime and the understandably solemn energy given the anti-ICE protests, as well as the passing of Sly Stone, the 2025 BET Awards tried their best to properly commemorate its 25th anniversary at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theatre on June 9. To celebrate, BET put together a terrific lineup of performers, including newcomers (Leon […]
Sharon Osbourne has revealed that she removed a band from the lineup of Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne’s highly anticipated Back to the Beginning concert, set to take place on July 5 at Villa Park in Birmingham, England.
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In a new interview with Metal Hammer, Osbourne explained that the removal followed a contentious dispute with the band’s manager, leading her to feel “the worst way I’ve felt in years.”
“I had a huge, huge to-do with a manager over this celebration for Ozzy and Sabbath,” Osbourne explained. “And it was probably the worst way I’ve felt in years. And I don’t care what this person says about me, thinks about it, because he doesn’t know me. And he’s now going around making up bulls— lies because I threw his band off the bill.”
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While speculation initially arose that the band in question was Iron Maiden after she clashed with Bruce Dickinson during the 2005 edition of Ozzfest, Osbourne swiftly dismissed this.
“Oh god, no. Ozzy only has respect for the guys in Maiden,” she said, clarifying that Ozzy was unaware of Dickinson’s behavior until after the incident. “I never told him, until the night that it happened when it was the last show, and he just looked at me and goes, ‘You’re terrible.’”
Speculation also briefly pointed toward Tool due to their name initially missing from promotional materials for the event’s global livestream. However, it was later confirmed that the omission was merely a design oversight, and Tool is still set to perform.
Osbourne emphasized her indifference to industry criticism, noting, “I don’t care what people say. Because do you know what? I don’t love them. I care about people who love me, what they say about me. You can’t care what an industry says, because you don’t love them, so how can it hurt you? It doesn’t.”
The Back to the Beginning concert is set to be an iconic moment in rock history, featuring the final live performances from both Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne.
In May, Ozzy spoke to Billy Morrison on their SiriusXM “Ozzy Speaks” show to break down what he’s doing to gear up for the July 5 Back to the Beginning show in his hometown.
“I haven’t done any physical work for the last seven, six and a half, seven years,” Ozzy said, promising that “by hook or by crook, I’m gonna make it [to the stage at Villa Park],” where Black Sabbath’s final gig will find them joined by an all-star roster that will also include Metallica, Mastodon, Anthrax, Pantera, Alice in Chains, Gojira, Slayer and a supergroup featuring members of Guns N’ Roses, the Smashing Pumpkins, Limp Bizkit, Judas Priest, Rage Against the Machine and many more.
“I’ve got this trainer guy who helps people get back to normal,” he said of the intense training he’s undergoing following a rough several years that included spinal surgery and a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. “It’s hard going, but he’s convinced that he can pull it off for me. I’m giving it everything I’ve got.”
Kirk Franklin closed the 2025 BET Awards by performing a medley of hits featuring Tamar Braxton, Muni Long, Jamal Roberts and Salt from Salt-N-Pepa after he received an Ultimate Icon Award. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “I never felt the love of a mother or a […]
06/10/2025
From Lil Wayne and Playboi Carti to Kirk Franklin, the stars showed up in a big way during Culture’s Biggest Night.
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Kendrick Lamar was the top winner at the 2025 BET Awards, which aired live on BET from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on Monday (June 9). Kevin Hart hosted the show for the second time.
Lamar won five awards – album of the year for GNX, best collaboration for “Luther” with SZA, best male hip hop artist (for a record-extending eighth time), video of the year for “Not Like Us” and video director of the year in tandem with Dave Free.
Lamar had won album of the year seven years ago for DAMN. Lamar and Beyoncé are the only artists to win twice in that category, which was introduced in 2017. Bey won for Lemonade and Renaissance.
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GNX, which is a leading Grammy candidate for album of the year in 2026, beat three albums that won Grammys in February – Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter (album of the year and best country album), Chris Brown’s 11:11 Deluxe (best R&B album) and Doechii’s Alligator Bites Never Heal (best rap album).
SZA and Chris Brown each won two awards. SZA won best female R&B/pop artist for the third year in a row as well as the aforementioned award for best collaboration. SZA is just the third artist to win best female R&B/pop artist three or more times. Beyoncé leads with 10 wins in the category. Alicia Keys also won three times.
Brown won best male R&B/pop artist for a record-extending eighth time. In addition, his “Residuals” won the Viewer’s Choice Award. It’s Brown’s fourth win in that category, a total equaled or surpassed only by Beyoncé with five wins and Lil Wayne also with four wins.
Luther Vandross was remembered by fans in two categories: Not only did “Luther” win best collaboration, but the documentary Luther: Never Too Much won best movie. This is the second year in a row that a film about a music legend has won in that category. Bob Marley: One Love won last year.
Doechii won best female hip hop artist. It was her first BET Award. She proceeded to give an impassioned speech in support of protesters outside the venue protesting ICE crackdowns.
Leon Thomas won best new artist. He’s the first male artist to win in the category since Giveon four years ago. Thomas won a Grammy in 2024 for co-writing SZA’s “Snooze,” which was voted best R&B song. As a result, he will probably not be eligible to compete for best new artist at the 2026 Grammys. Thomas also performed his hit “Mutt” on the show.
GloRilla’s “Rain Down on Me” (featuring Kirk Franklin and Maverick City Music) won the Dr. Bobby Jones Best Gospel/Inspirational Award. It’s the record-extending eighth win in the category for Franklin, the second for Maverick City Music and the first for GloRilla.
Future & Metro Boomin took best group. It’s the third year in a row that a collaboration of two solo stars has won that award. The last groups to win were Migos and Silk Sonic.
Summer Walker’s “Heart of a Woman” won the BET Her award. The song reached No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot R&B Songs chart in December 2024.
Blue Ivy Carter won the Young Stars Award for the second year in a row. BET rules allow multiple wins in this category. Marsai Martin won five times. Yara Shahidi and Keke Palmer also won it twice.
Denzel Washington won best actor for a record-extending fifth time. Cynthia Erivo won best actress for the first time.
Basketball star Angel Reese won sportswoman of the year for the third year in a row. Football star Jalen Hurts won sportsman of the year for the second time in three years.
Drake was shut out, despite going into the ceremony with six nods. The Weeknd was also shut out. He went 0-4.
There were special tributes to three legendary artists who died in the past year – Quincy Jones, Roberta Flack and Angie Stone. Luke James, Miles Caton and Lucky Daye performed Jones’ 1990 hit “The Secret Garden (Sweet Seduction Suite).” Andra Day sang Flack’s 1973 classic “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” Brittney Spencer sang Stone’s 1999 hit “No More Rain (In This Cloud).” The multiple In Memoriam segments included Cissy Houston, James Earl Jones, Tito Jackson, Roy Ayers, Frankie Beverly and poet Nikki Giovanni.
As previously announced, Kirk Franklin, Mariah Carey, Snoop Dogg and Jamie Foxx were named BET Ultimate Icons. Astonishingly, it’s Carey’s first BET Award.
Connie Orlando — evp of specials, music programming and music strategy at BET — served as the executive producer for BET Awards 2025, with Jamal Noisette, svp of tentpoles and music community engagement, for BET. Jesse Collins Entertainment was the production company for the show, with Jesse Collins, Dionne Harmon and Jeannae Rouzan-Clay also serving as executive producers.
At Monday’s (June 9) 2025 BET Awards, Snoop Dogg stood at the mountaintop while accepting the Ultimate Icon Award with his wife and Dr. Dre at his side while looking out into a room of some of the biggest names in R&B and hip-hop.
Coming toward the end of the show, Dre kicked off the Snoop tribute by giving a speech that both praised his frequent collaborator — whom he called “one of the most prolific artists in hip-hop” — and lovingly joked at his expense. “Every time I turn on the TV, he’s trying to sell something,” the producer quipped as Snoop laughed in the audience.
When he got onstage to accept the prize, Snoop squeezed in a retaliatory dig at Dre, thanking him in jest “for allowing me the opportunity to ghostwrite for you on ‘Deep Cover’ and ‘Nuthin’ But a G Thang’” — references to some of the duo’s earliest collaborations.
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Most of the rest of Snoop’s speech — for which he was joined onstage by wife Shante Broadus, to whom he’s been married since 1997 — struck a more serious tone. Shouting out his teachers, all of the “MCs I battled along the way,” his family at Death Row Records and former groupmates Warren G and the late Nate Dogg, Snoop also praised his children and 10 grandchildren — “my greatest inspiration,” as he called them — as well as his “beautiful wife.”
“This is why I’m so rock solid,” he said, referring to Broadus. “This is why I’m able to deal with all the things I’m able to deal with — when I’ve got God in my life and I’ve got a queen in my life. She’s always been my everything.”
Before switching gears to perform some of his most iconic songs, the rapper ended his remarks by sharing his ideas of what the title of Icon means to him. “The work speaks for you,” he told the crowd gathered at Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. “Hip-hop, it gave me a voice. It gave me a purpose. It gave me a way out and a way in … Being an icon, it ain’t about fame. It’s about legacy. It’s about what you build, what you leave behind and who you lift up along the way.”
Snoop was one of four artists presented with an Ultimate Icon Award on Monday night. Mariah Carey, Jamie Foxx and Kirk Franklin — each of whom the Doggfather personally shouted out during his speech — also took home the same honor, making for emotional moments throughout the four-hour ceremony.
After a quick commercial break, Snoop sealed his Ultimate Icon status by delivering a high-energy medley of his hits, including “Unsung Heroes,” Billboard Hot 100 topper “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and “Nuthin’ But a ‘G’ Thang.” A few familiar faces also joined him, his backup dancers and his accompanying orchestra on stage, with Charlie Wilson helping to perform The Gap Band’s “Outstanding,” and Warren G and Kurupt assisting in closing out the medley with “Ain’t No Fun (If the Homies Can’t Have None).”
The BET Awards were hosted this year by Kevin Hart and honored some of 2025’s biggest feats in pop culture. Kendrick Lamar — who took home album of the year for GNX along with four other prizes — was the top nominee, earning 10 nods.
The presentation of Ultimate Icon to Snoop follows more than 30 years of climbing his way up the hip-hop ranks, notching 45 entries on the Hot 100 and three No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200 in the process. He’s also paved the way as a media personality and as the now-owner of his first label home, Death Row Records, which he acquired in 2022.
Snoop’s latest album, Iz It a Crime?, dropped May 15.
Andra Day honored Roberta Flack with a beautiful tribute performance of “Killing Me Softly With His Song” at the 2025 BET Awards on Monday night (June 9). Accompanied by a small string section and a few backup singers, Day’s lilting vocals echoed throughout the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live for her affecting cover. “Andra Day […]
