Prince’s legacy to be honored at BET Awards

Hosts Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson literally made us all LOL when they fused Desiigner’s “Panda” and O.T. Genasis’ “Cut It” into their own quirky but hilarious “Hamilton” remake for their opening act.

Sheila E., jamming on the drums and guitar, singing and dancing without shoes, closed the three-hour-plus show at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles with “Let’s Work”, “A Love Bizarre”, “The Glamorous Life”, “America” and more.

Almost two months after the tragic passing of the legendary performer, a star-studded line-up of R&B performers, including Jennifer Hudson, Stevie Wonder, the Roots and Sheila E., came together at the awards to pay their respects to the “Purple Rain” singer. She was joined on stage by multiple performers who worked with Prince, including his ex-wife Mayte Garcia.

Dave Chappelle introduced The Roots and Erykah Badu, who kicked things off as they sang funky Sign o’ the Times number “The Ballad of Dorothy Parker,” and were followed by Bilal, who nailed “The Beautiful Ones” complete with Prince’s falsetto and writhing around on stage. If the musician is big enough, like our dearly-departed Prince, than the quality of the tribute itself might come in to question, like Madonna’s ill-fated attempt at “Nothing Compares 2 U” last month at the Billboard Music Awards.

Though the BET Awards were heavy on honoring the icon who died on April 21, the show went from Prince to political throughout the night.

Social activism was a theme of the night, with Humanitarian Award victor, Jesse Williams of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, dedicating his award to black women “who have spent their lives dedicated to nurturing everyone before themselves” and calling for change.

Since Beyoncé had to perform and dip, Mama Tina accepted awards on her behalf.

Drake led the list of entertainers with an impressive nine nominations including “Best Male Hip Hop Artist, ‘ “Video of the Year, ‘ and ‘Best Collaboration” for his hit “Where Ya At” with fellow hip hop artist Future”. Jackson said. “Don’t get tricked like they got tricked in London!”

Ali died June 3 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.