Taraji P. Henson hosted the 2024 Bet Awards, held at Los Angeles’ Peacock Theater on Sunday. The 53-year-old actress gave quite a show with seven outfit changes, a brutal 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 roasted the former President for claiming that immigrants are “taking Black jobs” during CNN’s presidential debate against Joe Biden. The presumptive GOP nominee faced severe backlash for citing data without any factual basis.
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“They’re taking Black jobs now, and it could be 18, it could be 19 and even 20 million people. They’re taking Black jobs, and 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,” Trump said.
During her opening monologue, Taraji called out Trump for his false statement, saying, “[This is] a show packed full of all-stars with Black jobs. Whatever that means. But clearly, we know there’s a difference – thanks for the info, but we already knew it.”
Kendrick Lamar’s Drake diss track parody
Following Megan Thee Stallion’s energetic medley of her popular tracks, Hiss, Boa, and Where Them Girls At, Taraji took the stage to perform a spoof of Not Like Us. The Empire star was dressed as Lamar at his Juneteenth show, The Pop Out: Ken and Friends.
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In an ironic twist, Taraji changed the lyrics of the famed diss track directed at Drake to This About Us as a reference to cultural solidarity. The Baby Boy actress drew loud cheers from the audience with her rendition of Lamar’s track. For the energetic performance, she was styled by the legendary duo Wayman and Micah.