The 2024 BET Awards — hosted by Academy Award-nominated actress Taraji P. Henson — provided the big news of the weekend, with some of the biggest names across R&B, hip-hop, gospel and Afrobeats descending upon Los Angeles for the ceremony. Amid parodies of Kendrick Lamar ‘s “Not Like Us” and countless reminders to vote in the upcoming presidential election, Tyla (best new artist and best international act) and Victoria Monét (video of the year and the BET Her Award) took home two trophies each, Megan Thee Stallion opened the show with fiery medley of tracks from her new Megan LP, and Black country stars Shaboozey and Tanner Adell made their respective BET Awards debuts.
Of course, there was also that star-studded Usher tribute — featuring Monét, Teyana Taylor , Chlöe , Tinashe , Keke Palmer , Childish Gambino , Marsha Ambrosius , Summer Walker , Latto and Coco Jones — which had the entire crowd on its feet, as did Usher’s 15-minute acceptance speech for the lifetime achievement honor. While the BET Awards swallowed up most of the weekend’s discourse, there were still scores of new releases across R&B and hip-hop to sift through. With Fresh Picks , Billboard aims to highlight some of the best and most interesting new sounds across R&B and hip-hop — from Lucky Daye & RAYE ‘s emotional new duet to Flau’jae and Lil Wayne ‘s new collaboration.
Be sure to check out this week’s Fresh Picks in our Spotify playlist below. Freshest Find: Lucky Daye fea.
