Sunday night’s 2022 BET Award show was filled with plenty of key moments. None may have top the unexpected appearance that Kanye West during the show. It occurred during speeches for Diddy’s tribute set, which went down after Diddy led a tribute performance for himself with help from Jodeci, Mary J. Blige, The LOX, Lil’ Kim, Busta Rhymes, Bryson Tiller, and Faith Evans. After Babyface shared some words about Diddy, he welcomed Kanye West on stage to speak about Diddy who appeared in a heavy jacket and sunglasses over a dark face mask that seemed to be a bit hard for him to breathe in.
Kanye West with a surprise speech at the #BETAwards for Diddy’s tribute pic.twitter.com/DC6WJMS3aW
— Club Ambition (@_ClubAmbition) June 27, 2022
During his speech, Kanye explained his recent hiatus from the public eye, saying, “I took a little hiatus. I said I wanted to just, like, declare myself legally dead for a year.” He then noted that he made his way to the BET Awards stage because “Puff is pretty persistent.” Kanye did thank Diddy for being such a heavy influence on his life and artistry, but he did so in a very Kanye-esque way. “He inspired so many of my choices,” he said. “So many of my life choices. My wife choices. And here we are. Thanks for that, Puff.” Elsewhere, Kanye thanked Diddy for his knowledge about contracts and suggested some nitrous oxide “if anybody is stressed out.”
You can watch Kanye’s speech in the video above.