N.O.R.E. has admitted that he was among the thousands of viewers who balled their eyes out during Busta Rhymes’ emotional acceptance speech at the 2023 BET Awards.
The Drink Champs co-host stopped by Trick Daddy‘s YouTube cooking show Bitch I Got My Pots, and reflected back to the moment in June when Busta was handed the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award, all while making fried snapper and grits.
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“That was hard,” N.O.R.E. told the “I’m a Thug” rhymer. “I teared up. I teared up. I wasn’t gonna say nothing till you said something, but I teared up. I still haven’t gotten on the phone with him to tell him that I didn’t appreciate him making me cry like a girl.”
Trick Daddy said he too became emotional at Busta’s moving speech, which found him tracing his career from his early days as a MC in East Flatbush, New York to the superstar we all know and love today.
At one point in the speech, Busta explained how he used to sneak his way into New York City recording studios where artists he admired were working and came carrying a slow-burning weed joint that would give him enough time to lay down some bars.
“I made sure that when my weed was moving around in that studio, I would quickly whip up a 16-bar verse before the weed came back to me,” he recalled. “And I was able to do that quick enough for them dudes to want to hear my verse. When they asked me what was I doing, I said, ‘Let me go in the booth and do it. I ain’t telling you my rhyme until you let me in the booth.’
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“I’d go in the booth and I’d spit, and come out the booth; they couldn’t hear the song without the ‘rah rah’ no more. I did that three, four times a week … By default, I pioneered the feature.”
Trick Daddy noted that particular part of the speech on his cooking show and said that showed Busta’s grit as a rapper, and his ability to carve his own path regardless of the obstacles. “He’s one of those dudes where if you’re a hater, you’re never supposed to like him,” Trick added.
During his acceptance speech, the Flipmode Squad leader also urged his rap peers to “stop these little petty beefs,” and called on OGs to set an example so the younger generation would want to follow them.
“We gon’ stop these little petty beefs that we be doing in rap. Y’all messing up the bag, y’all messing up the energy,” he said. “I don’t like when I talk to these dudes that run these streaming platforms and they be talking about we turning the consumer off … We gon’ stop that, we gon’ love each other and we gon’ get to this money.”
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Aside from his moving speech, Busta Rhymes also performed an electrifying medley of some of his greatest hits including “Scenario” and “Gimme Some More” alongside trusty hypeman Spliff Star.
Busta’s Lifetime Achievement Award comes after Diddy was honored with the same award last year. Past Lifetime Achievement Award recipients also include industry legends Whitney Houston, Prince, Queen Latifah, Anita Baker, Mary J. Blige, Samuel Jackson, Lionel Richie, New Edition and many others.
