Silk Sonic, Diddy, Kendrick Lamar Highlight 2022 BET Awards Winners

 D'Mile and Bruno Mars of Silk Sonic accept Album of the Year for 'An Evening With Silk Sonic' onstage during the 2022 BET Awards at Microsoft Theater on June 26, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images for BET)

Sunday Silk Sonic slithered gracefully across the stage at Los Angeles' Microsoft Theater to take top honors at the 2022 BET Awards.

The funky R&B duo — composed of singer-songwriter Bruno Mars and rapper Anderson .Paak — took home Album of the Year honors. It was also named Best Group for the second year in a row and .Paak was honored as Video Director of the Year.

It was a triumphant outing for Silk Sonic on a night when some of hip-hop's biggest stars left the network's self-declared "Culture's Biggest Night" with nothing to show for it.

Leading nominees Doja Cat, with six nominations, Drake (4) and Ari Lennox (4) went home empty-handed.

Kendrick Lamar was the night's other big winner. The rapper won Best Male Hip-Hop Artist for the fifth time, overtaking Drake for the most wins in the category. "Family Ties" the video for the rap team-up with his cousin, Baby Keem, was named Video of the Year.

Other highlights included rapper and entrepreneur Diddy being given the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to music and Mary J. Blige receiving the BET Her Award.

Congrats to our favorite bad boy @diddy for receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award! #BETAwards #CulturesBiggestNight #BET pic.twitter.com/U6oRVVSmRH

— BET (@BET) June 27, 2022

The night was not without controversy.

While introducing the Best female R'n'B/pop artist singer Janelle Monae, stuck her middle finger in the air and gave a riveting speech about women's reproductive rights in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which protected a pregnant woman's right to have an abortion, Friday by the Supreme Court.

"These artists are making art on our own terms, owning our truths and expressing ourselves freely and unapologetically in a world that tries to control and police our bodies, my body and our decisions, my body," she said. "F—k you Supreme Court. I know we're celebrating us right now as we should. We absolutely deserve to celebrate — especially now we should celebrate our art by protecting our rights and our truths."

.⁦@JanelleMonae at #BETAwards: “Fuck you, Supreme Court.”⁩ pic.twitter.com/D5V5onpIcC

— Gerren Keith Gaynor (@MrGerrenalist) June 27, 2022

Monae received a standing ovation.

The complete list of winners follows:

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
An Evening with Silk Sonic – Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic

BEST COLLABORATION
Wizkid feat. Justin Bieber & Tems – “Essence”

BEST FEMALE R&B/POP ARTIST
Jazmine Sullivan

BEST MALE R&B/POP ARTIST
The Weeknd

BEST NEW ARTIST
Latto

BEST GROUP
Bruno Mars, Anderson .Paak, Silk Sonic

BEST FEMALE HIP HOP ARTIST
Megan Thee Stallion

BEST MALE HIP HOP ARTIST
Kendrick Lamar

DR. BOBBY JONES BEST GOSPEL/INSPIRATIONAL AWARD
Lil Baby and Kirk Franklin – “We Win”

BET HER AWARD
Mary J. Blige – “Good Morning Gorgeous”

BEST INTERNATIONAL ACT
Tems (Nigeria)

VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar – “Family Ties”

VIDEO DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR
Anderson .Paak a.k.a. Director .Paak

BEST MOVIE
King Richard

BEST ACTRESS
Zendaya

BEST ACTOR
Will Smith

YOUNGSTARS AWARD
Marsai Martin

SPORTSWOMAN OF THE YEAR
Naomi Osaka

SPORTSMAN OF THE YEAR
Stephen Curry

Brandy Enters Partnership With Motown, Teases Eighth Studio Album

One of R&B’s most enduring icons is teaming up with the record label credited with perfecting the art form.

Friday, Brandy, who had hinted at the deal in her social media posts during the previous month, announced she has partnered with Motown Records and plans to release a new album soon.

The 43-year-old singer, songwriter, actress and model, who has sold over 40 million records worldwide, rushed to Instagram to share the news of her first major label record deal since 2012.

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A post shared by 4 e v e r b r a n d y ♠️💎🙏🏽 (@brandy)

“Thank you God for a dream come true! I’m so excited to announce my partnership with @motownrecords and the incomparable @theethiopiandream,” she wrote. “Thanks to my team and my beautiful fans for riding with me all these years.”

Motown Records CEO & Chairwoman Ethiopia Habtemariam said of the partnership in a statement, “Brandy is one of the most prolific voices in the history of music.”

She added, “Her contribution to R&B continues to influence newcomers and contemporaries around the world. We are ecstatic to welcome Brandy to the Motown family and eager to join her in making musical history.”

To celebrate the announcement, she released a performance of “Rather Be” from her seventh studio album “b7” as the finale to the COLORS SHOW — a performance and content series by Motown and COLORSxSTUDIOS celebrating Black Music Month that kicked off June 17 and has featured other Motown artists such as Ne-Yo, ELHAYE

The label and the artist teased an upcoming eighth studio album from the diva, who released “B7” independently in 2020. Critically lauded, the album was No. 1 on Billboard’s Independent Albums chart and peaked at No. 12 on the Billboard 200.

 

Patrick Adams, legendary disco producer, has died at age 72

Photo Credit: Red Bull Music Academy

Prolific music producer Patrick Adams, the driving force behind countless disco hits who helped shape the evolution of hip-hop, passed away Wednesday at the age of 72.

Adam's daughter Joi Sanchez announced the composer's death in a social media post.

"My father passed away earlier today at on his sleep at the golden age of 72 after living a life of music," she wrote. "Forever grateful for what I learned from him? Who I became because of who he was. I’m amazing because he was literally legendary."

A musical renaissance man, Adams earned 32 gold and platinum records during a career that began in the 1960s and spanned decades and genres.

Born in 1950, the New York City native got an early start in music. Already an accomplished songwriter, instrumentalist and budding engineer — he joined the Harlem band the Sparks as a 16-year-old. The group was signed to Curb/MGM and played shows with acts like the Commodores and Jerry Butler.

By 1970 Adams had been hired as the vice president of A&R for New York-based Perception/Today Records, after discovering and signing the teenage R&B trio Black Ivory in 1968. The group's first single, powered by the vocals of lead singer Leroy Burgess, peaked at No. 38 on Billboard's R&B chart in 1971.

His success as a manager was quickly eclipsed by his highly coveted work as a producer. Adams eventually started his own production company focused on dance — Patrick Adams Productions Music and went on to produce and arrange music for some of the biggest disco, R&B and hip-hop acts of the 70s and 80s.

#ripPatrickAdams One of my favorite #composer #producer #musicians and #people.

The world of music owes you so much. pic.twitter.com/WmDhZKGvhT

— Nile Rodgers (@nilerodgers) June 22, 2022

Gladys Knight, Candi Staton, Keith Sweat, Salt-N-Pepa, Eric B & Rakim, Loleatta Holloway, Sister Sledge and Eddie Kendricks, are just a few of the artists and icons who the arranger and composer elevated with his work. His songs have been heavily sampled by some of hip-hop's greatest rappers including Kanye West, Nas and Wu-Tang Clan.

In 2017 Red Bull Music Academy honored his work and its impact on the music industry with a celebration in New York that worked to shed more light on his then mostly overlooked legacy.

“You can tell a Nile Rodgers record a million miles away because it has an imprint that emanates from his guitar,” he told Red Bull Music Academy. “In my case I tried to avoid that. I didn’t want my records to sound the same. Whether that was a positive thing or a negative thing, I don’t know. But at the same time there is a signature in my music—sometimes it’s harmonic, and sometimes it’s just in the quirkiness of things. And sometimes you just don’t hear it until somebody points it out to you and asks, ‘Oh, he did that record too?’”