Rapsody was on Cloud 9 after she was unexpectedly dubbed Lyricist of the Year at the 2020 BET Hip Hop Awards on Tuesday night (October 27).
Comedians DC Young Fly, Karlous Miller and Chico Bean of 85 South Show surprised the Snow Hill, North Carolina-bred MC with the honor, explaining, “I know you thought you were here to introduce your cypher, but in actuality, T.I. has given a fine set up for the Lyricist of the Year and I do believe, you are one of them.”
From there, Tip took over and announced she was in fact, the winner. Rap popped up and screamed, “I won a BET Award!? I thought I came here to do a cypher! YOOOOO!!!”
On the verge of tears, she added, “This my first award for anything. I ain’t gon’ cry because I’m tough, but I’m gonna tell you I’m happy it’s from BET. ‘Cause it means something that it’s from a Black network. And for Lyricist of the Year, the women don’t always get represented for that. So, I’m grateful.”
Before Rapsody wrapped up her speech, she made sure to thank her predecessors who helped pave the way for other women, including her idol and former Fugee Lauryn Hill.
“Thank God,” she added. “Jamla Records. Roc Nation. To all the women, MCs, spitters that came before me — Lauryn Hill, Queen Latifah, Lil Kim, MC Lyte, Foxy Brown, Missy Elliott, Jean Grae — we could go on and on. Yo, this is crazy.”
Rapsody fans are understandably thrilled for the EVE mastermind considering she was snubbed at the 2020 Grammy Awards in February. When the nominees were announced in November 2019, Rapsody was noticeably bothered, although she handled the snub with grace.
“Thank you for the LOVE you award me,” she wrote in an Instagram post. “I see you. The ones who lend me your ear, words, support. Every time. I rarely, if ever, show my cards or that I’m human when it comes to my music career. Feel like opening up some today, tho. Today…..disappointed. Yes. Frustrated…beyond. But, you have to tell yourself the good fight is never an easy one.”
Rapsody Reacts To Grammy Award Snub: 'Frustrated...Beyond'
Rapsody has released three studio albums during the course of her career, including the aforementioned EVE. The album arrived in August 2019 and received a perfect 5.0 rating from HipHopDX. The 16-track effort paid tribute to several powerful Black women who’ve influenced Rapsody throughout her life.
Revisit the project below.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. 2020 the year that keeps pandering
Look, a misogynist is angry a woman won. STFU!
How dare you use my name in vain…the nerve of you..
That album is shit. The label created a fake award to promote her. Be proud love. Same how u proud to help fuck over Colin kaepernick with the roc n jay-z ms. Woke hotep 2020
Like when they create a special award for the retarded kid. So that everyone gets to say they got an award
Ok I will create an album name dropping admired ppl. Clout chasing perfection
If token female was a person. I don’t even know one song
Look her up you won’t be disappointed
Rapsody is the best female rapper and if women respected themselves she would be at the top of the charts not cardi b or Megan or Nikki b4 she fell off.but she is not the dam lyricist of the year
Hotep comment excellence “if you women respected yourselves by behaving like us men say, then rapsody would be your fave. Because she covers up her titties like a good respectable hotep lady should. The rest of y’all b worthless hoes” love it mr. Hotep
“best female rapper” ?????????????????????????????????????????????
I feel that Rapsody’s recognition as a dope MC is long overdue.
Well deserved but she was still snubbed at the Grammys unfortunately. 2020 is wild
Woman always get repped stfu with this hip on your shoulder shit.. woman cards played out. You have privilege like no other
better late than never. Eve was a great album. It ain’t head nodding coke rap, it ain’t booty shaking Nicki or Meagan or Cardi. Well written, well produced, but mainstream awards are popularity contests and labels pay for those awards. Guess Hov wasn’t willing to cut a check to get his girl the recognition she deserved. I remember hearing Cardi on some interview saying she didn’t want to release albums with just a few radio hits and a bunch of filler. She wanted something people can listen all the way through and like it. Her example at the time was Teyana Taylor. She should be looking to Rapsody as well.
Sorry, but how is Conway The Machine not the lyricist of the year?
Because he is not very good
He’s not good. He’s average at best. But the bar has been set so low that him, Kendrick, and most of the top tier rappers get a pass for dropping average shit.
Benny better
I couldn’t agree more because the bet hip hop awards the bet awards and every awards is what’s wrong nowadays it ain’t
About the talent the lyricism and being authentic and original now it’s about who’s the most popular label your on who sounds like who how many Twitter and social media followers you got the real hip hop heads like myself know what time it is who the real mcs rep like Conway the whole Griselda fam Willie the kid crime apple flee lord smoke dza action Bronson meyhem Lauren I’m never watching this trash bet hip hop awards again I’m not feeling this bullshit one dimensional garbage they got now and why the fuck they took the whole concept of the cypher with dj premier is head scratching I’m getting ready to pull up old classic cyphers on youtube when the bet hip hop awards was dope before it fell off like tree branches
Since when does BET play music ? the only thing I see when I watch BET is reruns of the parkers.
well deserved award. That album went hard
The woman worshipping and pandering continues.
A rapper who doesn’t just have flows but wordplay, concepts, and punchlines actually won? Cool. Next time maybe we can have all the nominations fit those standards that way we can hopefully fix the other categories.
Congratulations to the Queen! Rapsody truly is one of the dopest lyricists today. Its been well overdue. Snubbed at the Grammys, not like that’s any surprise but even BET have snubbed her in the past. Her Album EVE should be Classic status and go down as one of the most important, influential, POSITIVE albums of all time, yeah I’m going there. You really gonna tell me artists like Cardi, Tekashi, Da baby, lil whoever and, well any so called “rapper” is more is a better lyricist than Rapsody!? Respect to Cardi tho, cuz even she said that Rapsody should get more recognition.
Queen, all Hail to the best lyricist!