Here’s The Real Reason BET Chopped Usher’s Lifetime Achievement Awards Speech and It’s Not What You Think.

On Sunday, Usher received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024 BET Awards.

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But what was supposed to be a momentous occasion turned into an incident mired in confusion due to most of the R&B crooner’s speech being “bleeped out” and hard to follow. And while many believed the silence was due to him using a plethora of profanity—what was actually the culprit was an alleged “audio malfunction,” according to BET.

“Due to an audio malfunction during the LIVE telecast, portions of his speech were inadvertently muted,” the network said in a statement to Billboard. “Celebrating global icon Usher on our stage with a star-studded tribute and having him accept his award with a heartfelt speech was an honor… We extend our sincere apologies to Usher as we couldn’t be more grateful for his participation in Culture’s Biggest Night.”

Later on, they posted the mostly unedited version of Usher’s speech on their YouTube and replayed the awards ceremony in its entirety with the speech shown in full on television. In watching it back, it doesn’t appear to that we missed too much except him reflecting on the absence of his father, his motivation to be a star at age thirteen and thanking more people including his mother, Kirk Franklin and others who helped mold him into the man and artist he is today.

But what was arguably the most head-scratching moment of all was when the “Good, Good” singer called out his ex-wife and the mother of his eldest sons Tameka Foster in reference to his “turning of a new leaf” and attempts at trying to make things a bit more cohesive between him, her and his new wife Jenn Goicoechea.

“I’m trying Tameka,” Usher said, which prompted a myriad of reactions on X/Twitter.

“Did usher just said “I’m trying Tameka” ???? Lmfaooo cut the camerasssss,” one user wrote.

“Not ‘I’m trying Tameka’ in front of the kids you got with the lady,” another said.

“I’m trying Tameka” need to go on a shirt. That’s about to be my Slack OOO message,” wrote another.