2015 BET Honors Visionary Award Acceptance Speech

Well seeing that, I think I, maybe for one
Of the first times in my life
I understand how it
Is to feel humbled i want to say some "thank
You"s really quick thank God
For Stephen Hill, who is so sincerely
Good at exactly what he does
And gives so much and
Doesn't care about what Ghost somebody's
Driving or how big
Somebody's house is and brings the
Most awesome collection of
Classic, current, and futuristic black
Music every day so
Make some noise for Stephen
Hill to start this

So, since this is pre taped and the fact that
Adam Blackstone used to be my music director
I'm pretty sure he's not gonna start
The music on me if I go Chicago for a second
You know it was interesting when I went
And visited Minister Louis Farrakhan
And I just really wanted to
Expand so much more on
The things that I had been talking about over
The past couple years and
It was interesting or
Groundbreaking and really special for me to
See his reaction and his expression about my
Relationship with a woman not of color
And for us to
Focus on the idea of love and not
The idea of separation you know
At the barbershop and everything, I used to
Hear people talking about
"You know when an entertainer get on
Of course you know he gon' go and
Get a white girl and buy
Her all this and the white girl
Gon' go and get a rich
Black dude" But I want to say
That my wife has dated broke
Black dudes so it ain't got nothing
To do with the money

And it takes me back to a story
That she told me where her
Father, Robert Kardashian, walked out, and on
The side of his Bentley, they wrote
"Nigga lover" because Robert Kardashian
Was the genius
That put together the defense team
That got OJ off she had never
Seen her father curse, get mad, he
Was the most laid back human being and
He went so crazy and tried
To chase the people down, and she
Sat there crying and said, "Dad why
You going so crazy?" He said to her
"One day you may have a
Black child a beautiful, beautiful
Beautiful black
Child and it's gonna be hard
You're gonna see how hard it is"

So, true enough, we deal with racism
Because there are different races
Or the micro of
It is that we focus on the different
Races, as opposed to the macro
Which is the human race the bit
Of soundbytes that everyone loved from
Last year that got taken out
Of context or misunderstood did
Come from a place of saying part of
The reason why I'm not allowed
To be empowered is because of race
Because of people's perception of celebrity
Because all they want to present to young
Black men is the idea of
Making it to the league or making
It to be a rapper
But not the idea of becoming an owner and
They would do anything they can to
Make it seem like a truthful idea is
A stupid idea or a crazy idea

Harriet Tubman said she could have
Freed so many more
And I'm sorry mom if that
Was incorrect English harriet
Tubman could have freed more if they only
Knew they weren't free so
Don't think that because
We can afford this custom Balmain suit that
We're free and don't think that because
We can buy a $300
000 car that we're free and
Don't think that because
It's 3% of a gated community
That has colored people in
It that we're free it's the
Mentality, the slave mentality
Where we all eventually become slaves
To that car slaves to
The perception slaves to the
Idea of being cool

I thought it was so appropriate the
Way Wayne Brady kicked his whole
Shit off tonight for us to express
Ourselves our power, our oil
Since we don't own any oil our
Oil is our expression
Is our influence don't never let them
Take that away and when
We have the chance to express it and
Influence, don't only do it for us
Do it for the human race