Jamie Foxx Emotionally Accepts Ultimate Icon Honor At 2025 BET Awards
'I cannot even begin to express the love that I feel from everybody out there,' expressed the comedian to a standing ovation. 'I gotta be honest, when I saw the In Memoriam, I was like, man, it could have been me. I don't know why I went through what I went through, but I know my second chance, I'm not gonna turn down.'
He continued, 'And I promised, 'whatever reason you put this on me, I promise imma do right and imma do right in front of y'all. I know a lot of times when we get on, we forget about where we come from. When I did my special, it was in front of Black people. Black people was the one who said, 'I got you.''
The 'Unpredictable' singer continued to elaborate on his love for his Black audience and the BET network.
'I say this all the time, thank you to Black people and the Black award, because this is what really counts. A lot of people think like the Oscars is the biggest thing, and we got to quit thinking like that. And that's coming from a person who won an Oscar, I was nominated twice, but the Icon Award is the most important award because it comes from us.'
Ahead of the emotional acceptance speech, Foxx's musical collaborators, peers, and more united to honor him on stage with a medley of his fan-favorite records. Craig Robinson, Teddy Riley, Babyface, Ludacris, Jennifer Hudson, Tank, and others delivered 'Unpredictable,' 'Gold Digger,' and more.
Watch Jamie Foxx accept the Ultimate Icon Award at the 2025 BET Awards above, and watch his musical tribute below.
More from VIBE.com
Bow Wow Speaks On Ciara's Absence From "Like You" BET Awards Performance
Rocsi Diaz, AJ Calloway Apologize For Their Absence During '106 & Park' Reunion At 2025 BET Awards
Snoop Dogg Accepts Ultimate Icon Award At 2025 BET Awards
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Why all-Black rodeo events are 'so hot right now'
The nation's longest running Black rodeo is among a handful of events some say have seen a boost due to Beyonce's groundbreaking 2024 country album. USA TODAY This story has been updated. Call it the Beyoncé effect: One of America's biggest music superstars unleashed a stampede of excitement for Black rodeos across the country with her 2024 album "Cowboy Carter." Nowhere is that more obvious than in tiny Okmulgee, Oklahoma, home to the nation's oldest continuously operated Black rodeo. 'When Beyoncé released that country album, she told Black people it's okay to wear cowboy boots and cowboy hats,' said Danell Tipton, who now serves as arena director for multiple state rodeos, including what is now the Okmulgee Roy LeBlanc Invitational Rodeo. 'Black rodeoing is so hot right now, every event we go to," said Tipton, a former bull riding champ. "I haven't seen so many Black girls in cowboy hats and boots, ever. We've had our rodeos, but city slickers were never in tune with it. Now, it's like the floodgates opened.' On the weekend of August 9, the Okmulgee Roy LeBlanc Invitational Rodeo marked its 70 th year, the legacy of two dozen Black businessmen, farmers and ranchers frustrated with the second-class treatment accorded to Black rodeo competitors and their fans in the 1950s. Tipton has been going to the Okmulgee rodeo ever since he was a kid riding along with his family's roundup club, the Oklahoma City Paraders. The equestrian-minded community organization held weekend parades to precede Black rodeo competitions in rural outposts around the state, in places like Tatums, Clearview and Drumright. 'Okmulgee was always the last rodeo of the year,' he said. 'It was like our Super Bowl.' Situated 40 miles south of Tulsa, the Okmulgee Roy LeBlanc Invitational Rodeo is among the country's largest Black sporting events, according to event producer Kenneth LeBlanc. In 1956, LeBlanc's father Roy and grandfather Charles were among the founders of what was then called the Okmulgee County Roundup Club. 'Black people couldn't get into White rodeos,' said Marcous Friday, who has been the Okmulgee event's announcer for two decades. 'That's why they started the rodeo. Who would have thought that 70 years later, it's still going?' An old-school tradition Okmulgee was among a patchwork of Black rodeo circuit events that thrived in the 1950s and 1960s throughout the Texas Gulf Coast region and the area around Tulsa, according to Keith Ryan Cartwright, author of 'Black Cowboys of Rodeo: Unsung Heroes from Harlem to Hollywood and the American West.' 'A lot of Black rodeo cowboys got their start in one of those two areas,' said Cartwright, who now serves as assistant general manager of the Nashville Stampede, a pro bull riding team. 'Maybe they weren't from there, but they would migrate there in order to compete regularly.' Nearly an hour to the west, the Boley (Oklahoma) Rodeo is the oldest of all Black rodeos, dating back to 1903 – but with several interruptions along the way. Okmulgee has clung to its annual tradition like a bull rider refusing to be bucked off. 'This is the 70 th year, and there's no asterisk,' Cartwright said. 'They even found a way to have it in 2020." The 2025 event features more than 200 competitors, including dozens of calf ropers, team ropers, steer wrestlers and barrel racers. The atmosphere bears little resemblance to the big-money, corporate-sponsored spectacles broadcast on television. 'It's not some multimillion-dollar production,' Cartwright said. 'It's old-school.' 'When they come back to Black rodeo, there's a home for them' The rodeo's inaugural run was held north of town on leased land owned by the local White roundup club, Tipton said. When the club saw the event's success and significantly raised its rates the next year, the organizers of the budding Black rodeo decided it was time to find their own venue and bought 40 acres south of town, he said. That's where the Okmulgee Invitational rodeo was held until 1991, he said, when the all-Black event moved to the Bob Arrington Rodeo Arena, owned by the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. By that time Tipton was starting to compete himself, riding bulls and wrestling steers. In 1998, he was named the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association's bull riding and overall rookie of the year. Coming up in the pro ranks, Tipton said, fellow Black cowboys were a rare sight. Even now, he said, when he goes to events on the East or West coasts, 'they're like, 'Wow. Black cowboys.' They see White cowboys competing on TV every day.' Among the barriers, Tipton said, are finances and unfamiliarity with the logistical strategies necessary to qualify for the national finals, which are based on prize money won throughout the year. Competitors must navigate a network of seasonal events held across the country to finish among the top 15 qualifiers in their respective categories. 'There's so many Black cowboys who should be making tons of money,' Tipton said. 'A lot don't know the business side. So when they come back to Black rodeo, there's a home for them.' When he found success as a rookie and hit the pro circuit, Tipton said, he didn't return to the Black rodeo circuit for several years. But he always made sure to return for Okmulgee. 'The Jackie Robinson of rodeo' He wasn't the only one. Many of the Black rodeo greats throughout the years have frequented Okmulgee, among them Myrtis Dightman, often referred to as 'the Jackie Robinson of rodeo.' Dightman was among those featured during Beyoncé's Christmas Day halftime show during the Houston Texans' game against the Baltimore Ravens in December. 'He was the first African American to qualify for the National Finals Rodeo,' said Friday, the event announcer. 'He never won a world title, but he's the one who actually opened the doors for African American cowboys in rodeo today.' Dightman grew up on a ranch in Crockett, Texas, two hours north of Houston, where his father was a ranch hand and his mother helped work the fields, Cartwright said. He went to school when ranch work allowed, never learning to read. As a young man, Dightman found work as a rodeo clown and bullfighter but knew he had the skills to be an accomplished bull rider, Cartwright said. Like other Black rodeo hopefuls, he often wouldn't be allowed to ride until events were over. 'He quickly established himself not as a great Black bull rider but as a great bull rider,' Cartwright said. Eventually, the humble and well-liked Dightman would earn his way onto the circuit with other cowboys eager to compete against him. In the 1960s, Cartwright said, standards called for only two event judges, and all it took was one to poison a competitor's chances for success. 'It wasn't so egregious as to make them finish last,' he said. 'All they had to do was rob them of a point here or there.' But spread over the course of a season, Cartwright said, these sprinklings of bias had their effect, depriving certain competitors of prize money and dropping them several places in the standings. He believes that happened to Dightman and others. Dightman realized that despite whatever slights he might face, he could still claw his way to the finals if he competed in enough events to earn sufficient prize money. He avoided Southern rodeos and instead hit events in Texas, Oklahoma, on the West Coast and throughout the Midwest and Rust Belt. 'He thought, there's always going to be a judge that isn't going to let me win an event, but if over the course of a season I go to more events than anyone else, all my 2 nd places and 4 th places will get me there,' Cartwright said. 'He hustled and was very methodical.' In 1967 and 1968, Dightman finished among the three or four top-ranked bull riders in the world. While he never won the sport's gold buckle, Dightman knew he had accomplished something special, Cartwright said. 'I can't stress enough how good he had to be to finish third at a time when our country was facing the racial animus it did,' he said. 'He said to me, 'I wanted to be a world champion but I never were a world champion, but I was a world champion as a man.' He wasn't bragging on himself. What he was saying was that he saw something that hadn't been done and he wanted to do it and did everything he could to do it. I just find him to be heroic.' Legends of the sport In February, Tipton and Friday teamed up to produce their second annual National Black Cowboy Rodeo Awards and Gala in Oklahoma City. 'We've honored all the old cowboys the last two years,' Tipton said. Dightman, now 90, was among them; so was Charles Sampson, the former kid from Watts, California, who with Dightman's mentorship became the first Black bull rider to win a rodeo world title, in 1982. Both have been among the luminaries who polished their craft at Okmulgee. 'Myrtis and Charlie are legends,' Cartwright said. 'Not just among Black cowboys. They're legendary rodeo cowboys, period.' Before a bull rider's bucking chute opens, there is someone there to tighten the rope he'll use to hold on to for the duration of the ride, and riders are notoriously picky about who gets to do it, Cartwright said. 'When Charlie won the world title in the 10 th round, Myrtis was there and Charlie had him pull his bull rope for him,' he said. 'For him to wave off the guy who would normally pull his rope and let Myrtis do it goes to show that Charlie understood the significance of his moment and that the road to that moment was paved by Myrtis.' It's on that foundation that today's young Black cowboys will build on when they compete this weekend in Okmulgee. 'Okmulgee originated at a time when it was needed,' Cartwright said. 'There was nowhere else for them to go. It's a historic event.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Save the Dates: Zatima Season 4, KPop Demon Hunters Sing-Along and More
The good news? It looks like Fatima survived her brush with death in the Season 3 finale of Tyler Perry's Zatima. The bad news? As you'll see in the just-released trailer for Season 4, her troubles are far from over. BET+ has set a Thursday, Sept. 11 premiere date for the first two episodes of Season 4, with two more episodes dropping every Thursday until the Oct. 9 finale. More from TVLine Love Con Revenge Trailer: Romance Scam Victims Get Help From The Tinder Swindler Star in Netflix Series Wednesday EPs Defend 'Impactful' Death in Episode 4: 'Not Everyone Is Going to Make It Out Alive' Wednesday's Stalker Is Revealed in Episode 2 - EPs Explain How the Show's Fandom Served as Inspiration 'In the aftermath of Zac's battle with his brother, Jeremiah, Zac decides it's best he keep his distance to maintain his sanity and his temper,' reads the season's official logline. 'Although his friends attempt to get him to make amends with his brother, Zac refuses and only wants to center his attention on his immediate family. Season four of Zatima is riddled with action, suspense and surprises as Zac and Fatima must contend with someone from the past who isn't happy about their happiness. Their friends face their own challenges while still supporting Zac and Fatima in their time of need.' Hit PLAY on the trailer above for your first look at Zatima Season 4. In other scheduling news… * A sing-along version of the hit Netflix movie KPop Demon Hunters will hit select theaters Saturday, Aug. 23 and Sunday, Aug 24; tickets go on sale Wednesday. * Vampirina: Teenage Vampire, a live-action series based on Disney Junior's animated Vampirina and the Vampirina Ballerina books, will premiere Friday, Sept. 12, on Disney Channel. All episodes will begin streaming on Wednesday, Oct. 15, on Disney+. Watch a trailer for the series below: * Downton Abbey Celebrates the Grand Finale, a one-hour special featuring cast interviews and a first look at the franchise's Sept. 21 theatrical release, will air Wednesday, Sept. 10 at 9/8c on NBC. Watch a teaser trailer for the special below: * Mr. Scorsese, a five-part Apple TV+ docuseries about Hollywood legend Martin Scorsese, will be available to stream on Friday, Oct. 17. Get a first look at the series, directed by Rebecca Miller, below: * Karen Pirie, starring Outlander's Lauren Lyle, will return for Season 2 on BritBox on Thursday, Oct. 2. Watch a trailer below: Best of TVLine 'Missing' Shows, Found! Get the Latest on Ahsoka, Monarch, P-Valley, Sugar, Anansi Boys and 25+ Others Yellowjackets Mysteries: An Up-to-Date List of the Series' Biggest Questions (and Answers?) The Emmys' Most Memorable Moments: Laughter, Tears, Historical Wins, 'The Big One' and More Solve the daily Crossword
Buzz Feed
3 hours ago
- Buzz Feed
Jasmine Guillory Defies Dating Stats With Romance Books
If you're a big fan of romance novels, then there's a pretty big chance that you've read or heard of Jasmine Guillory. Her debut novel, The Wedding Date, became an instant hit, and soon earned widespread acclaim on BookTok and morning shows while also topping several book lists. The Wedding Date turned into a series, which includes six books in total: The Wedding Date, The Proposal, The Wedding Party, Royal Holiday, Party of Two, and While We Were Dating.I've read all of them, and I love the mushy feeling they gave me, but The Proposal will always be my favorite. Jasmine has made me fall in love with her characters and the unique worlds they live in, time and time again. Jasmine has helped reclaim the romance spotlight for women, particularly Black women, and expanded what representation looks like when it comes to this genre by giving them permission to see themselves at the center of joyful, sexy, soft, and aspirational love stories. She's assisted in shifting the cultural lens in the genre so that it doesn't depict a narrow image of womanhood. Instead, it's become a space where Black women are seen, desired, and cherished. So, when I heard she was teaming up with Liquid I.V. to quench our thirst after writing such steamy scenes, I knew I had to chat with her about her writing and the complexities that come with it! Your protagonists are often professional, ambitious Black women. Was that a conscious response to maybe a lack of what you were already seeing in romance/fiction, or was it just something that you wanted to be the center focus of your stories? I love that you touched on the theory that Black stories don't sell because it's been proven wrong time and time again. But did it ever deter you from writing Black characters because that notion has been out in the world for so long, or did it only encourage you to write about them more? Romance often gets dismissed as "light" or "fluffy" — a genre that shouldn't be taken too seriously, but your books have weighty, emotional, and cultural undercurrents. What do you wish more people understood about not only writing love stories, but writing them well? You've said before that seeing Black women centered in love stories meant everything to you. What does "representation" actually look like to you, beyond just casting or characters? During the height of dating apps, Black women were viewed as the least desirable and were the least likely to be swiped on. So, can you tell me how you approached writing about Black romance, despite some of the negative realities Black women have experienced with dating? Okay, let's switch it up a bit. I'm going to give you a scenario, and I want you to give me book recommendations that you think would fit. Someone's going through a really bad breakup, which book or books should they immediately pick up? What would you recommend to fans of the "fake dating" trope? If one of your characters could walk off the page and give you dating advice, who would you choose and why? Lastly, why did you want to partner with Liquid I.V.? Thank you so much for chatting with me, Jasmine! You were such a delight.
