Top BET Awards Moments: Nicki Minaj vs. Iggy Azalea
Nicki Minaj appears to criticize up-and-comer in acceptance speech.
— -- The BET Awards, held Sunday at the Nokia Theatre, featured performances by some of entertainment’s biggest stars, humor from its host and reflections on iconic careers.
Here are four key moments from the show.
Nicki Minaj vs. Iggy Azaela
After winning her fifth straight award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, Nicki Minaj appeared to criticize up-and-coming performer Iggy Azalea.
"What I want the world to know about Nicki Minaj is, when you hear Nicki Minaj spit, Nicki Minaj wrote it,” she said, flipping her hair. “And no, no, no, no, no shade.”
Minaj later mentioned how she thought she was recently going to die -- but declined to call an ambulance because “it’s gonna be on TMZ.”
Chris Rock, Making People Laugh
Comedian Chris Rock, who hosted the show, poked fun at Jay Z and Donald Sterling during his opening speech.
“Solange hit the right rapper,” he said of the famed elevator fight between Jay Z and his sister-in-law.
“Jay’s a businessman now. He can’t just go punching girls in the face. He got a meeting with Nabisco in the morning.”
He also addressed Oprah Winfrey’s performance in “Lee Daniels’ the Butler.”
“Oprah Winfrey should have gotten an Oscar, because that acting job was amazing, because she had to act like she was poor,” Rock said. “There was one scene where she was stirring a pot of food for her man. You know they had to get specialists to help her with that.”
And Donald Sterling ... Rock sympathizes with the banished Los Angeles Clippers owner.
“What exactly did Donald Sterling say? 'I don’t want my woman around black basketball players.' Me neither!” he said.
Clippers player Chris Paul, sitting in the crowd, was seen laughing at the joke.
Later in the show, Rock passed out food from Roscoe’s House of Chicken and Waffles, playing off of Ellen DeGeneres’ pizza party at the Academy Awards.
'Happy' Night for Pharrell
The “Happy” run continues for Pharrell.
Pharrell’s hit won Video of the Year award.
“This song just became its own thing with the people, and I have to thank everybody that made videos and uploaded them," he said. "You turned it into a phenomenon, and it’s no longer my song so I feel like this award is not really mine. It’s the award that belongs to all the people.”
He also performed at the beginning of the show, sharing the stage with Missy Elliot.
Lionel Ritchie ... Um, Honored
Music icon Lionel Richie received the Lifetime Achievement award. Pharrell introduced Richie, with John Legend, Ledisi and Yolanda Adams performing a medley of Richie’s hits.
During his acceptance speech, Richie said he was forced to ignore the critics and skeptics.
“These are all the songs that they told me would ruin my career,” he said.
He also shared a piece of advice with the audience.
“Soul is a feeling, not a color,” he said. “Talent is a God-given gift and not a category. And out of the box is that magical place where talent, true talent goes to live and thrive and breathe. And may you never give that up as long as you’re in this business.”
The legend, himself, played “Easy Like Sunday Morning” and “All Night Long (All Night).”
Despite the magic of the performance, much of the conversation focused on a misspelled graphic identifying Richie as “Ritchie” -- causing #LionelRitchie to become a trending topic on Twitter.
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