Taraji P. Henson hosted the 2024 BET Awards, held at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday. The 53-year-old actress put on quite a show with seven costume changes, a savage jab at Donald Trump and a parody of Kendrick Lamar’s recent hit, Not Like Us.
Taraji mocks Donald Trump’s ‘black jobs’ comment
The Color Purple star took a dig at the former president for claiming that immigrants are “taking black jobs” during CNN’s presidential debate against Joe Biden. The presumptive GOP nominee faced strong criticism for citing data without any factual basis.
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“They’re taking black jobs now, and it could be 18, 19, even 20 million,” Trump said. “They’re taking black jobs, they’re taking Hispanic jobs, and you haven’t seen it yet, but you’re going to see something that’s going to be the worst in our history.”
During her opening monologue, Taraji took Trump to task for his false statements, saying, “[This is] A show that’s full of all-stars with black jobs. Whatever that means. But obviously, we know there’s a difference – thanks for the heads up, but we already knew that.”
Kendrick Lamar’s Drake diss track parody
After an energetic medley of Megan Thee Stallion’s popular tracks Hiss, Boa and Where Them Girls At, Taraji took the stage to perform a spoof of Not Like Us. The Empire star dressed up as Lamar at his Juneteenth show, The Pop Out: Kane and Friends.
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In an ironic twist, Taraji changed the lyrics of the famous diss track directed at Drake to This About Us in a reference to cultural solidarity. The Baby Boy actress garnered loud applause from the audience with her rendition of Lamar’s track. For the energetic performance, she was styled by veteran duo Wayman & Mika.
