Social media had a field day with Bow Wow during the performance of his cutesy classic "Like You" at the 2025 BET Awards last night -- the duet turned into a solo because Ciara was M-I-A onstage!!!
TMZ Hip Hop caught up with Bow Wow outside the Peacock Theater right after the awards ... the rap star started to blame himself for not having Ciara at his side, but tells us it was BET who didn't get their talent ducks in a row!!!
Ciara is there at #BetAwards and can’t stand that man Bow Wow so much that they had to use her voiceover of “Like You” while he performed.
Fans were confused and cracked jokes ... the elephant in the room is they're former flames and now that she's married to Russell Wilson, such a performance is beneath her.
Kevin Hartshowcased a masterclass of hosting abilities at the 2025 BET Awards -- an opinion shared by his celebrity peers in real-time!!!
TMZ Hip Hop was everywhere on the scene after the BET Awards let out in DTLA last night ... Deon Cole gave us his review of K. Hart's performance -- a rousing 10/10!!!
TMZ.com
Kevin Gates told us the hosting magic is all in the name, Tiny Harris and Jermaine Dupri felt this year's show was the best in a long time and Tamar Braxton thinks Kevin should return in 2026 ... it was a hit!!!
Kai Cenat made Wale go viral for all the wrong reasons at the 2025 BET Awards ... after the top Twitch streamer thought the rapper was simply a fan shaking his hand!!! 🤣
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Ahead of the show, Kai was filmed making his way through a parking garage when he encountered Wale and dapped him up, addressing him as "broski" and asking about the Nintendo Switch game in his hand.
Kai's fans in the chat immediately began to flag the impromptu celebrity linkup, but Kai didn't see it that way ... he pronounced his name "Wally" and asked his videographer, "What he do?!?" 🥴
The 2025 BET Awards were absolutely lit -- especially 'cause performers Snoop Dogg, Mariah Carey, Teyana Taylor and more absolutely crushed it onstage.
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Dive into our gallery for the juiciest highlights from L.A.'s Peacock Theater Monday night... Ashanti, Jennifer Hudson, T.I., and Bow Wow didn't just bring the house down -- they demolished it!
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While you're scrolling, don't miss the arrivals -- stars strutting their stuff and serving up red carpet realness that made it sizzle!
If your name wasn't Kendrick Lamar, good luck trying to find a 2025 BET Award with your name on it ... the "GNX" rapper took home virtually every category he was up for -- even beating himself at one point!!!
Kendrick nabbed the Album of the Year, Best Male Hip Hop Artist, Video and Director of the Year and Best Collaboration, beating out the likes of Drake, GloRilla, Tyler, The Creator, Anderson .Paak ... and he was there in person to accept his honors!!!
Some of the biggest artists skipping the BET Awards has been part of ongoing criticism in past years ... but that problem was solved last night with K. Dot, Snoop Dogg, Mariah Carey, Jamie Foxx, Keke Palmer, Leon Thomas, Tyler Perry and others all hitting the Peacock Theater in DTLA, in spite of the raging ICE protestsin the city.
Tyler Perry minced no words at the BET Awards Monday night ... taking the chance to rip into President Donald Trump's America for erasing Black history right before the country's eyes.
Here's what went down -- TP hit the stage and gave an impassioned speech following a sweet story about him and his son leaving footprints in the sand together.
In the speech, he likened the footprints to those his fellow Black Americans have left on the country through its history, while delivering a sobering warning ... "They are removing our books from libraries, they are removing our stories and our history, they are removing our names from government buildings. It’s as if someone wants to erase our footprints."
Jamie Foxx let the tears flow on stage at the 2025 BET Awards Monday night ... breaking down while accepting the Ultimate Icon Award and recalling his near-death experience in 2023.
The comedian and actor graciously accepted the trophy from Stevie Wonder and immediately got vulnerable ... noting he thought of his stroke and subsequent hospitalization when the "In Memoriam" tribute was playing -- 'cause just two years ago, he almost didn’t make it.
He debated ... "I was like man, that could have been me. But I don't know why I went through what I went through, but I know my second chance I'm not going turn down. I'm not going to turn down."
Doechii used her spotlight moment at the 2025 BET Awards to stick it to President Donald Trump … blaming him for wreaking havoc right outside the building!!!
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The Top Dawg Entertainment-signed rapper was awarded Best Female Hip Hop Artist on Monday night and launched into political blast on the podium … scolding “Trump’s ruthless attacks” and called out the government for masking the actions under the guise of “law and order.”
The comedian started off with a Diddy joke ... telling the crowd at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles they would be wise to avoid any after-parties where things get "slippery."
"No after parties...That's where s--t gets slippery" - Kevin Hart shuts down the idea of hitting any afterparties at the #BETAwardspic.twitter.com/3gIc2RuwX6
Kevin said we've all been learning a lot about folks recently and said other things to steer clear from include yachts, boats and pink stuff ... name-dropping Cardi and referencing the recent controversy involving her boyfriend, NFL player Stefon Diggs.
Hollywood's ready to give out more awards ... and the stars are turning heads as they show up for the 2025 BET Awards ... and we've got all the photos!!!
Kevin Hart is hosting Monday's live event from the Peacock Theater at L.A. Live in downtown Los Angeles ... and some of the early arrivals include Bow Wow, Terrence J, Skai Jackson and LeToya Luckett.
The 2025 BET Awards have the unlucky circumstance of being centered smack dab in downtown L.A. as the city's most aggressive ICE protests are happening, but the show must go on ... with close supervision from cops, of course!!!
A rep for BET tells TMZ Hip Hop ... the network will remain committed to the safety of their guests and staff for "culture’s biggest night" ... and is monitoring the situation and working closely with LAPD.
KNN News
There's a riot goin' on and we're not talking about the dearly departed Sly Stone.
Kendrick Lamar made his presence felt at the 2024 BET Hip Hop Awards -- without being present -- snagging up 8 of the night's top awards!!!
The event was hosted by Fat Joe and held at Drai's Beachclub & Nightclub in Las Vegas for the first time ... 2 Chainz, Soulja Boy, Lola Brooke, Bossman DLow, LightSkinKeisha and many more graced the carpet.
The predominately female-led Usher tribute at the 2024 BET Awards didn't win over some fans, but Mario thinks the women nailed it -- although, there's one thing he might've changed.
TMZ Hip Hop caught up with Mario in Bev. Hills, and the R&B star didn't see what the big ol' fuss was about, which leads us to believe he was not on social media during the show. Fans who were, voiced plenty of displeasure!
Teyana Taylor, Victoria Monét, Keke Palmer, Tinashe, Marsha Ambrosius and more singing starlets were all selected to cover various Usher hits -- and Donald Glover, AKA Childish Gambino, opened the medley as the only male performer.
Sexyy Red losing out to Tyla at the 2024 BET Awards caused a big stir online with fans, but if ya let Druski and DJ Drama tell it -- there were no losers that night!!!
TMZ Hip Hop chopped it up with both star personalities at LAX, where they were kidding around about all sorts of topics the day after the award show let out.
Ray J really was going through it at the BET Awards, and now we have the video to back it up -- it's a full meltdown, with him threatening to make things "ghetto" after security allegedly denied him re-entry to the show.
The footage, obtained by TMZ, shows Ray pacing around Sunday night outside the award show at the Peacock Theater in downtown Los Angeles ... and he's getting more and more animated.
Ray appears to be arguing with some security guards and he's overheard complaining about not being let inside the show ... and things escalate to the point where he rips off his shirt and declares, "I didn't bring the ghetto to BET yet, but I'm about to!!!"
