Diddy’s 2022 BET Awards Lifetime Achievement Award Speech

This yr’s BET Awards honored music icon/Bad Boy enterprise mogul Diddy because the lifetime achievement award recipient. From his trailblazing musical efforts on behalf of hip-hop and R&B to his admirable work in empowering Black companies and entrepreneurs, Diddy checks off all of the containers for BET’s esteemed award.

On June 26, following his explosive tribute performance, Babyface and Kanye West offered Diddy along with his award, and in flip, the honoree used his emotional acceptance speech to present flowers to all of the individuals who have impressed him through the years, together with his mom, Janice Combs, his late companion Kim Porter, and even ex-girlfriend Cassie.

“I gotta thank each artist, each producer, each author, and each government I had the prospect to work with, thanks a lot,” he stated. “Thank you to all my followers who’ve been with me for over 25 years — I like y’all! . . . I do know I’m lacking a whole lot of names, so that is what I need to do . . . each single particular person, even when I did not say your title, that performed a component in my life, thanks, thanks, thanks.”

The music mogul additionally took a second to share his newest formidable dream. “We ain’t right here only for ourselves, we’re right here for our ancestors,” he began. “God put this message on my coronary heart to you and also you and also you. The time is now, the time is true now . . . I acquired this new dream, I acquired this dream of Black individuals being free. I acquired this dream of us controlling our personal future. This dream of us taking accountability and to cease killing one another. I acquired this dream of being wealthy and rich and residing on the identical block!”

He added: “I’ve this dream of us unifying, not simply speak on this stage, however us. We know our neighborhood and our allies — when you with us do not be silent. Put some cash within the sport, put some struggle within the sport, as a result of we’re at conflict, you’re feeling me? . . . the final shall be first and the primary shall be final. We gotta unify.” To conclude his speech, Diddy introduced $1 million donations to each Howard University and Jackson State University to help corridor of famer/coach Deion Sanders’s mission to uplift HBCU soccer.

In the music world, Diddy is finest identified for elevating the careers of legendary artists like The Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige, and Usher. The famed producer additionally labored with the likes of Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey, Lil Kim, his son King Combs, and dozens extra.

As a well-respected businessman, Diddy has innovated the blueprint round Black excellence with an empire that features profitable ventures like REVOLT, Ciroc, DeLeon tequila, Bad Boy Entertainment and his Sean John clothes line. With all his main contributions to the tradition, Diddy is greater than as a result of obtain BET’s lifetime achievement award.