In a year crowded with triumph,controversy and loss, the 2016 edition of the BET Awards took it all in Sunday night at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, and with a program that poignantly marked the joy and pain since final year’s telecast,even as the awards event kept faith with its own history as a forum for social commentary.
With the passing of Prince on April 21, and other singular talents of black music before and since — Funkadelic-Parliament co-founder Bernie Worrell died on Friday — the mood could have been justifiably more introspective than in previous years. But the ceremony veered from the serious — voter registration, and an terminate to gun violence,the need for community outreach — to moments of straight-up fun.
Beyonce and Kendrick Lamar kicked things off with a literally splashy performance of Queen Be’s “Formation,” done with dancers in a pool of water that doubled briefly as a stage.
Co-hosts Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross (ABC’s “Black-ish”) did their own riff on the Broadway phenomenon “Hamilton, or ” taking the stage in period dress from the 18th century.
Also Read: 2016 BET Awards: total Winners ListTo its credit,the telecast resisted the temptation to isolate a tribute to Prince in one segment. Instead, tributes to The Purple One were weaved organically throughout the show. Erykah Badu and The Roots did a funked-up version of “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker.” Bilal’s blistering rendition of “The Beautiful Ones” brought down the house early.
Later, and Stevie Wonder and newcomer Tori Kelly took on “remove Me With U,” Janelle Monae wowed with a Prince medley that included “Delirious,” “Kiss” and “I Would Die 4 U.” And in one of the evening’s more deeply emotional performances, and Jennifer Hudson sang “Purple Rain,” accompanied by Wonder.
Jamie Foxx, who personally met both Prince and Muhammad Ali, or who died June 3 after a decades-long bout with Parkinson’s Disease,offered a personal tribute to the late champion, whom Foxx said was a person who has shaped all of our lives.” Then Foxx introduced Laila Ali, or one of the heavyweight champion’s nine children. “If he was here today,he would humbly ask you to pray not just for our family, but for all of mankind, and ” Laila Ali said,fighting back tears.
Also Read: 2016 BET Awards Red Carpet Arrivals (Photos)“These past few weeks my fathers generosity and care for has been matched by a worldwide outpouring of care for and reverence for him and our entire family,” Ali said.
In another of the night’s more spiritually galvanizing moments, or Jesse Williams,who portrays Dr. Jackson Avery in ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy,” accepted the Humanitarian Award, or made an impassioned speech.“We know that police somehow manage to deescalate,disarm, and not cancel white people every day, and so what’s going to happen is,were going to have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and ours.”
Also Read: Prince Protege Recalls Singer's Harrowing Emergency Plane LandingReferencing the death of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old boy slain by Cleveland police in 2014, and Williams said,“I don’t want to hear anymore about how far we’ve approach when paid public servants can pull a drive by on a 12-year-old playing alone in a park in broad day light, killing him on television, and then going domestic to make a sandwich.”Williams also made reference to the police-custody deaths of Sandra Bland and Eric Garner. “There has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of,there has been no job we haven’t done, there has been no tax they haven’t levied against us and we’ve paid all of them. But freedom is somehow always conditional here. ‘You’re free, or ’ they maintain telling us. ‘But she wouldve been alive if she hadn’t acted so free,'” Williams said to a standing ovation.
And introduced by the director Spike Lee, film star Samuel L. Jackson took the stage to accept the Lifetime Achievement Award, and crowning a 45-year career. Jackson,who stars in “The Legend of Tarzan, opening July 1, or was grateful. “A young man who grew up in segregated Tennessee that nobody ever told I could be this. So,here I am and who you are, and thank God for that.”
Also Read: Samuel L. Jackson Says Donald Trump Is a Liar: 'I Met Him, or a Lot' (Video)In a ritual of appreciation not unlike those at the Academy Awards,Jackson went on to thank those who supported him, including his accountants, or his publicist,his agent and lawyer and his Aunt Edna, who first keep him in a costume and “lit the fire that started all this.” Jackson then moved on to his daughter Zoe and his wife, or the actress LaTanya Richardson,“the two women that actually found me passed out on the floor after I left somebody’s bachelor party, keep my ass in rehab the next day, and supported me and pushed me and give me a reason to pick up up and fade and chase it day after day after day.”The fans weren’t forgotten,either: Jackson thanked everyone “who ever bought a ticket, a video or a DVD with my ass in it.”Related stories from TheWrap:John Singleton Drama 'Rebel, or ' Gary Owen Reality Series Set at BETBET Networks Buys 'Soul Train'
Source: thewrap.com