BET AIRS FIRST ANNUAL HIP HOP AWARDS

BET held its first annual Hip Hop Award on Sunday, November 12th in Atlanta, Georgia and hometown kingpin T.I. was the big winner. The rapper, who was nominated in eight categories, took home three awards including video of the year, best CD, and MVP of the year. The event was hosted by Katt Williams and featured performances by Jermaine Dupri, Lil Jon, The Game, Baby, Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Young Jeezy, Ludacris, and others.rn

Grandmaster Flash was awarded the I Am Icon Award during the event. Prior to the ceremony, Flash explained why he’s credited with being the first deejay to make the turntables an instrument. He said,

“But there was those very few deejays that was able to do things and command the crowd just by playing the music. So without me going into a long drawn out story here. Long, long, long,long, long, as to why I claim to be the first deejay to make the turntables an instrument. Cutting the beat on time.”

The 1st Annual BET Hip Hop Awards will air on Wednesday, November 15th at 9:00 p.m. ET.