Ms. Lauryn Hill received his well-deserved flowers at the 2026 BET Awards.
At the show, Hill was honored with the Living Legend Icon Award.
Introduced by hip-hop icon Ice Cube, the massive 20-minute tribute featured a powerhouse lineup of performers. Nas, SZA, Doja Cat, Lizzo, Queen Latifah, Common, Doechii, Tems, Rapsody, and Tierra Whack, alongside a special appearance by The War and Treaty.”
”I do this because I love y’all. You know?” Hill said during her speech. ” And I do this because I want you to have everything that I experienced.”
The “Lost Ones” rapper spoke about the tremendous influence of her parents.
“I had wonderful parents who loved on me, poured into me, and protected me,” said Hill. “And once I realized that not everybody got to have that experience, I felt like it was my duty, my responsibility to share as much love and to pour into [as] much people as I possibly could. Music was a way for me to do that.”
“I fight for y’all. Everybody may not know about it, but I fight for y’all. Fighting for y’all is me fighting for myself,” Hill continued. “It’s me fighting for my children. It’s me fighting for my parents. It’s me fighting for my grandparents. And it’s me fighting for my community, alright? I have a desire to make music as well as I can to communicate with people as good as I can. And I want people to know that that’s what we do. I want people to know that that’s what we can do.”
The acclaimed singer then sought to empower the next generation of artists.
WE HOLD DIFFERENT GIFTS
Hill said, “We hold different gifts. Someone else’s gifting might be fashion. It might be hair. Might be consoling someone. It might be this microphone. But that gifting is very important because somebody out there needs your gift. So don’t sell your gift short.”
“All of our differences, all of our uniqueness, that’s the beauty, y’all. We don’t have to sound the same,” And we don’t have to look the same,” she continued. “We don’t have to be the same. I’m an artist here, but you know what? I’m a mother. My son John celebrates his 23rd birthday today, and he gave us permission to do this.”