Busta Rhymes fights back tears as he accepts BET Lifetime Achievement Award

“Gimme Some More” rapper Busta Rhymes was overcome with emotion on Sunday at the BET Awards as he accepted his lifetime achievement award, and fully embraced the emotional moment in a healthy way.

“So, I’m gonna wear it on my sleeve. I do wanna cry,” he began to cheers from the audience. “My oldest child was a 3-year-old in the ‘Woo-Hah!!’ video back in ’96. He’s 30. He’s right here,” he continued, pointing out how five of his children were in the audience celebrating with him.

Addressing the audience full of peers, he gushed, "I see so many people in here that I've known and I've grown with for a long time, and y'all watched me grow, and I love y'all, and I know y'all love me. But I'm a real giver of love. Sometimes I know I might overwhelm you. I wanna hug you, and I won't let you go. I shake your hand."

He then went into detail about how he managed to carve a solo career for himself after his group Leaders of the New School broke up.

"I knew all of the receptionists that worked at the studios, and I would call them — ‘Who's working in there tonight?’ And they would tell me, and I would go to this little weed spot," he revealed, noting that he brought weed to the studios.

"I would act like I was working in those studio rooms the night before and I forgot something in there. 'Y’all, I left my rhyme book. I gotta get something. I gotta look for something. Good to see y'all. Can I come through?'" he continued.

After offering the rappers in studio weed, he revealed, “When they asked me what was I doing, I said, ‘Let me go in the booth and do it.’ I ain't telling you my rhyme until you let me in the booth, and I go in the booth and I spit."

When his verses were wanted on the final track, he would advise his professional team, “"Yo, send that invoice for five grand, send that one for 10 grand, send that one for 15 grand. $30-40,000 a week, I ain't got to split it up with nobody in the group. I liked that. Long story short, by default, I pioneered the feature."

He then made sure to address some issues within the rap and hip hop community that he feels is a distraction and takes away from all of the love in the community.

“We gonna stop these little petty beefs that we be doing in rap,” he said. “Y’all messing up the bag. Y’all messing up the energy.”

“I don’t like when I talk to these dudes that run these streaming platforms and (they’re) talking about, ‘You know, we turning the consumer off because there’s so much little this and little that going on with you rappers.’ We’re gonna stop that. We’re gonna love each other, and we gonna get to this money.”

After giving props and major shout outs to current artists like  Ice Spice, Coi Leray, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Wu-Tang Clan and Nas, he finished off his speech with a galvanizing reminder.

“We’re gonna stop this narrative like we don’t love each other, this divide thing. It’s corny. It’s tired. It’s whack.”

Although the “Pass the Courvoisier” rapper seems to be all about the positive vibes these days,  he is definitely speaking from a place of experience, as he has a history of beefing with other hip hop artists, and also getting involved in multiple acts of violence.

Busta Rhymes and Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson hopped on the same track, "Hail Mary," in 2015,  but they'd be embroiled in an Instagram feud three years later. According to the NME, 50 Cent began the beef by sharing a now-deleted, September 2018 Instagram post with the caption, "And the award for the strongest neck in hip-hop goes to Busa Bus."

Rhymes then clapped back with his own Instagram dis, telling 50 Cent that he looked like he was "smellin' s**t like yo bandana stink you rancid face lookin' a** m*****f*****," claiming that the rapper had a "tight button face," and asking why he was starting a feud with him.

The two kept at it, with the G-Unit rapper uploading an image of a bloody Rhymes, an injury from when he fell on stage in 2014. He also photoshopped a photo of his head on a naked man's body. 

Apart from beefs, there’s been violence. In 2007, “The Masked Singer” performer was arrested and charged with misdemeanor assault for reportedly beating up his former driver over a financial argument, Billboard reported. One year later, Rhymes pleaded guilty to both assault charges, according to XXL, and got sentenced to three years' probation. 

In 2009, the New York Post reported Rhymes was forced to pay $75,000 to a fan who claimed that the rapper threw multiple bottles of water at him and whose bodyguard had allegedly punched him in the face.