BET Awards show honors Busta Rhymes, hip-hop’s 50 years and pays tribute to Takeoff and Tina Turner

By MARIA SHERMAN
AP Music Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The 2023 BET Awards are celebrating 50 years of hip-hop with tributes to the genre’s earliest voices, late legends, and new talent during a performance-packed show that consistently felt like a party. Busta Rhymes took home the Lifetime Achievement Award with a star-studded tribute performance. The night’s biggest surprise was a rare public performance by Quavo and Offset, the surviving members of Migos, who did a rendition of “Bad and Boujee” in front of an image of Takeoff, who died in a shooting last November. DJ Kid Capri walked the audience through rap classics honoring not just East and West rap but also the styles of Miami, Atlanta and Jamaica, live from Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles.