Watch Brandy, Erykah Badu, Teyana Taylor, & H.E.R.’s Great BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher
Every year, BET holds its annual Hip-Hop Awards, and every year, the Cyphers are the best part. Ever since the show began airing a little more than a decade ago, the highlights have come in the little vignettes were rappers — some up-and-coming, some established stars, some leftfield picks — take a few seconds to flex in a circle. Last night, BET aired this year’s edition of the Hip-Hop Awards. Like virtually every other awards show this year, this one was done remotely, which took a lot of the immediacy out of the cyphers. But they still happened, and there was one truly great Cypher.
Erykah Badu has been doing parodic versions of the Hip-Hop Awards Cyphers when she’s hosted the Soul Train awards a few times, and she jumped in an actual Hip-Hop Awards Cypher in 2015. Last night, though, she was one of four R&B singers in a pretty great one. Badu, Brandy, Teyana Taylor, and H.E.R. all flipped Brandy’s 1994 hit “I Wanna Be Down.” None of them are rappers by trade, but all of them handled their business. Here’s that video:
There was also one billed as a political cypher, and it featured Polo G, Chika, Jack Harlow, Flawless Real Talk, and Rapsody. Here’s that one:
The show also featured a wild-card reggae cypher, something that I’m pretty sure has never happened before. This one featured Beenie Man, Bounty Killer, Koffee, Shenseea, and Skip Marley. Here it is:
If you’re interested, you can watch more videos from last night’s show here.