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She ended the speech by giving a shoutout to her "loves" and exclaiming, "Happy Pride!"
Queen Latifah got the spotlight at Sunday's BET Awards, where the icon was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Following an introduction from MC Lyte, a performance from MC Lyte alongside Lil' Kim, Monie Love and Rapsody and a pretaped video featuring Jada Pinkett Smith, Lee Daniels, Mary J. Blige and Megan Thee Stallion, Latifah hit the stage and thanked her "sisters in the name of rap" for all their support.
With her father by her side and a photo of her late mother in her hands, Latifah was clearly emotional as she gave her speech.
"I am so extremely moved, I don't even know what to say," she began, getting choked up. "Let me just say that I wanna thank God because God designed this whole thing to be this way. There's no way that I could have had the parents that I was born to, my father, my mother, who instilled so much in me."
"My family, I love you, my siblings, my best friends who die or die with me, whether my face is lying in the dirt of flying in the skies, they know me and they there for me," she continued, before taking a beat to thank BET itself.
"I wanna thank BET for creating an outlet for beautiful Blackness to thrive, to shine," she said, "when we couldn't get played on the radio in other places, we couldn't get our videos played in other places, there was BET that allowed us to be in our fullness and to shine to this night right now, right here."
Celebrating everyone in the room with her, she told them all, "Be Black, Black is beautiful" -- and added, "I've always celebrated the woman because I was raised by a strong Black woman, raised by a father who loves women. We can't live without each other."
Looking to the other women on stage with her, she added, "I wanted to celebrate us because I know together we stand stronger than when we tear each other apart. I've seen enough of that, so respect to all the female emcees on the stage tonight."
She went on to thank her team, producing partner Shakim Compere and the fans for "supporting every crazy ass thing I've done through the years." Latifah ended her speech by giving a shoutout to "Eboni, my love, Rebel, my love," before exclaiming "Peace" and "Happy Pride!"
Watch the powerful BET tributes to Latifah above and below!
