BET Awards 2018: Show payes tribute to 'Black Panther,' Childish Gambino, more

The BET Awards kicked off on Sunday with a tribute to “The Black Panther,” during a performance of the song “Win” by Jay Rock featuring one of the stars of the Marvel film, Michael B. Jordan.
Host Jamie Foxx started the show by presenting Jordan with a stuffed panther toy and walked through the crowd greeting other artists including Childish Gambino and LL Cool J as Rock performed.
Foxx even persuaded Jordan to come up on stage to recite a line from the film, which later won the best movie trophy.
DJ Khaled was the leading nominee with six at Sunday’s show. He won the first award he was up for, best collaboration for his song "Wild Thoughts" with Rihanna and Bryson Tiller.

Later on in the show, Foxx said he wouldn't make a joke about Childish Gambino’s new single, “This Is America,” but that didn’t stop Foxx from bringing Gambino on stage during Sunday’s show.
Foxx then said that everyone begged him to write a joke about the single, but he said that song was not to be joked about, saying the song “stopped me in my tracks.”
He eventually got Gambino, aka “Atlanta” actor Donald Glover, to come up on stage and sing a few lines with him.
Glover praised one of his co-writers on “Atlanta,” Lena Waithe, and Issa Rae during his time on stage.

Legendary singer Anita Baker was honored at the Awards, which also featured performances by Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dogg and Migos.
Baker, who dominated the R&B charts from the early ‘80s to mid-90s with smooth songs like “Sweet Love” and “Giving You the Best That I Got,” received the Lifetime Achievement Award. She has won eight Grammy Awards.
Cardi B, who is pregnant and did not attend the show, was nominated twice for the top prize — video of the year — with the songs “Bodak Yellow” and “Finesse Remix” with Bruno Mars. She had a strong chance of picking up best female hip-hop artist, an award Remy Ma won last year, ending Minaj’s seven-year winning streak in the category.
Drake was also a double nominee for video of the year with “God’s Plan” and “Walk It Talk It” with Migos. Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” was also nonminated.
SZA was nominated for four awards, including best new artist, which she won, and best female R&B/pop artist, pitting her against Beyonce, Rihanna, H.E.R. and Kehlani. 
Other performers included Miguel, J. Cole, Janelle Monae, 2 Chainz, Big Sean, H.E.R., Daniel Caesar, Yolanda Adams, Ledisi and newcomer Ella Mai, whose R&B hit “Boo’d Up” continues to climb the pop charts.
The BET Awards normally hands its Humanitarian Award to one person, but six individuals received the honor Sunday. Dubbed “Humanitarian Heroes,” the network awarded James Shaw Jr., who wrestled an assault-style rifle away from a gunman in a Tennessee Waffle House in April; Anthony Borges, the 15-year-old student who was shot five times and is credited with saving the lives of at least 20 other students during the February mass shooting at Florida high school Marjory Stoneman Douglas; Mamoudou Gassama, who scaled an apartment building to save a child dangling from a balcony last month in Paris; Naomi Wadler, the 11-year-old who gave a memorable and influential speech at March for Our Lives; Justin Blackman, the only student to walk out of his high school in North Carolina during the nationwide student walkout to protest gun violence in March and journalist and activist Shaun King.