(upbeat music) - Music is about, like,
it heal, it can heal.
That's what I feel about the arts,
like, you can change your life.
You can inspire life, you can save a life through music,
through art, and it's definitely a mood enhancer.
You know, you going through broken heart,
you know what to listen to,
you go for your Mary stash, you know. (laughing)
Or your Jazmine Sullivan, if you want key up his car,
bust out his windows, I mean, you can always find a song
that will match the soundtrack of your life.
Hi, it's Taraji P. Henson,
your host for this year's BET Awards,
and right now we're gonna get into some of my all time
favorite songs and videos, so let's go.
♪ Done seen it all, been through it all, yo ♪
DJ, you will get fired if you don't play Lil' Kim's verse,
if you cut it off and you mix in
and you do not play Lil' Kim's verse,
we gonna have a problem.
We gonna have a problem.
When I go to the club and you play that,
that's what I'm waiting for.
Every female in the building is waiting for her verse.
Do not short us.
Let me tell you something about Mobb Deep, man, true MCs.
That's real hip hop right there. (laughing)
I remember I got a chance to see them live, on a fluke.
I just happened to be in DC,
and I went to a friend of mine who had a club,
and I went and I'll be damned if they weren't there,
and I was just like this.
(laughing) I was so starstruck because, you know,
that's a certain time and period in my life, you know.
That's when I liked them bad boys.
Back then, that's all we had, was the bad boys.
Those were our idols, you know, that was the bad boys.
Let's be as rough as we can.
For me, it was the Kim of it all,
'cause she could hang with the best of them,
and she gave the girls a voice in an all male world.
I think she knows, but she meant so much to us back then,
even still to this day,
'cause if it wasn't for Kim,
it would be no, you name them.
She's the one, and when she hit the, this right here, what!
A wrap. (laughing)
She was the first Black woman
that looked like a rockstar on the cover of "Rolling Stone".
I'd never seen that before, not in my era.
That was big to me, she was like this on that floor,
with them contacts and that blue hair,
and I was like. (laughing)
She is the mother of all the female hip-hop,
like, well, you know, I just gotta say
'cause she was the one that was made mainstream.
She gave us dreams and hopes
and made every Black girl, every young girl
around the world wanna rap.
You cannot be in the game and not give her her props.
You just cannot.
(upbeat music)
- You know, I love music.
And every time I hear something hot-
- You know, Mary is your hype man.
I don't care what you're going through,
she's going to sing to lift you higher.
Whether it's she going to glow you up,
whether she going to tell you ain't no more hateration,
she tired of drama (laughing),
whatever it is, she gonna make you feel it,
and this song right here,
it just makes you just wanna dance.
And it's just telling you, no matter what,
I'm gonna be fine, no matter what.
When I walk past the mirror, blow yourself a kiss,
feel good about yourself.
You know, this was a uplifting song.
And another reason why this song is special to me
is because this is where me and her
got really, really close because this song
is actually in the film that we worked on together.
"I Can Do Bad All By Myself".
She has become, like, one of my closest, dearest friends,
confidante, cheerleader, we cheer each other on,
bring each other up, cry on each other's shoulder.
Just somebody that understands the struggle
of being an entertainer in the business.
You know, we know Mary for her fashion,
but she killed it with this chiffon dress and this hat.
It makes me just wanna dance
and dance all my troubles away.
It makes me feel good.
It makes me forget about my troubles. (laughing)
It just puts me in a good place,
you know, especially being a Black woman.
It's just good to have someone who understands.
My family don't always understand, you know what I mean?
My friends may not always understand,
so it's always good to have someone who gets it
and she does, better not say nothing about my Mary.
I just remember when it first came out,
I think I was training for something,
for a film or something, and I just remember
I would always play this song when I was in the gym
'cause it just put me in the mood to work out,
to go get it, to feel good about myself.
When I left the gym, I would blast it
really, really loud. (laughing)
Again, I think Mary has a way of
tapping into all of our souls with her music.
She has a way of singing and like, you know,
she may be singing about a personal experience of her own,
but it's our personal experience.
For some reason, she puts my pain
into perfect words and it helps.
It helps, you know, her music is gospel.
You know, it really is.
It's very spiritual, her music.
(upbeat music)
♪ Uh ♪
This song just, it just makes me feel sexy.
It just makes me wanna call my girls and say,
"Put your fly shit on and meet me somewhere,
I don't know, girl, just meet me." (laughing)
"Just meet me and let's just be fly." (laughing)
When I'm like, girl, this my theme song.
It just make me feel like I'm that bitch,
I don't know, (laughing) I can't, that's the only way
I can put it, it just make me feel like I'm the shit,
you know what I mean?
Like, it just make me wanna flex and, you know,
like, get gully in the club, it's just one of them turn ups.
Meet me on my day out. (laughing)
Wale, you know, I might be a little biased
'cause he's my homie and everything.
But I just think he, I have a soft spot
and a special place in my heart for, like, true MCs
and poets because it's sexy to me.
It just is, a man who know his way
around some words is sexy.
And he just makes me proud 'cause he's a homie.
So anything Wale doing, he got my ear,
he got my money, he got my support.
I'm just proud of him 'cause I know the streets,
and he come from, I come from those certain streets,
so it just feels good to see, you know,
representation from the city.
It's just Black excellence at its best,
like it's rich.
It's like, it's smart, it's rich.
It's modern, it's fashion.
It's sexy, it's Black excellence.
I mean, what else can I say?
That's Black excellence right there.
It's so rich and luxurious. (laughing)
Sexy, I mean, it's a bop, baby.
It's a bop, it's just one of them songs that make you feel.
Music is supposed to make you feel like something,
and if it doesn't, what are we doing?
I think I heard it in the, I was in the car,
and I was like, what?
So I pulled over or stopped somewhere
so I could take a picture of the screen
so I won't forget it.
Oh yeah, that's like that song I heard. (laughing)
I just wanna thank you guys for hanging in there with me
and going through my personal playlist.
My hot playlist, I think my playlist is pretty good.
(laughing) Thank you guys so much.