NEWS Kanye West Makes Surprise Appearance at BET Awards: Read the Full Transcript

Kanye West made a surprise appearance some three hours into the BET Awards on Sunday night to pay tribute to Sean “Diddy” Combs, the show’s recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award.

His speech followed an elaborate performance that spanned Combs’ entire career, featuring cameos by Mary J. Blige, Jodeci, Nas, Lil’ Kim, Busta Rhymes, the Lox, Bryson Tiller, Faith Evans, the Maverick City Choir — and Diddy himself, who dedicated the first half of his hit 1997 “I’ll Be Missing You,” to his longtime partner, actress Kim Porter, who died of a lung infection in 2018, via video footage that played while he performed; the second half of the song featured a video tribute to its original subject, Notorious B.I.G. Next came a powerful video speech from Jay-Z and an amusing one from Babyface — who recalled Diddy haltingly but successfully teaching himself to ski.

hen, West took the stage, wearing a grey leather Hood by Air jacket, a matching baseball cap, shades and a full black-stocking facial mask, similar to ones he wore in appearances and performances last year.

In his speech, West identified with the desire to change one’s name: Over the years, Combs has called himself Puff Daddy, P. Diddy, just Diddy and most recently, simply Love; last year West legally changed his name to “Ye.” He also spoke movingly of Combs’ influence on him, stressing that he considers him an artist — and it is easy the influence of Combs viewing his entire creative and business output as part of a whole.

Read West’s speech in full:

“How do we crown our kings? How do we appreciate our kings?,” he began. “To think how far we could just make if off of inspiration, to hear the way somebody chopped a sample in. Me and [friend] rushin’ to see who could get the Bad Boy mixtape and play back the original version of “Benjamins,” over and over, thinkin’ I was one of the Hit Men.

“I was signed to Puff without him knowing,” he laughed, adding “That statement is not legally binding!”

“To go to New York,” he continued. “And think that everybody had on leather jackets and new Tims every day…

“To see Puff in real life at the ‘Missing You’ video, just like me tapping free like a little kid — I just need to meet this man. This is my favorite artist. You see I’m saying favorite artist — everything, not specifically production, the trip. Back then there was so many rules to hip-hop and he broke all of them.

“Understood contracts in a way a lot of us still don’t. Understood money in a way a lot of us still don’t. I go to him for advice to this day. He inspired so many of my choices. So many of my life choices. My wife choices. And here we are. Thanks for that, Puff.