Kanye West Makes Surprise Appearance at BET Awards 2022 to Honor Diddy, References Kim Kardashian Marriage

Kanye West is in the building!

The 45-year-old rapper made a surprise appearance at the 2022 BET Awards on Sunday night (June 26) at the Microsoft Theater.

Wearing a full face covering, baseball hat, and sunglasses, Kanye hit the stage to present pal Sean “Diddy” Combs with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

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“How do we crown our kings? How do we appreciate our kings? To think how far we could just make it off of inspiration,” Kanye said at the beginning of his speech. “This is my favorite artist. You see what I’m saying? Favorite artist. Everything. Not specifically production, the drip. You know back then it was so many rules to hip hop. He broke all of them. Broke down all the doors.”

“I go to him for advice to this day. He inspires so many of my choices, so many of my life choices. My wife choices,” Kanye said with a laugh, referencing how he and Diddy both married women named “Kim” (aka Kim Kardashian and Kim Porter, respectively).

Kanye added, “You know, I took a little hiatus. I said, I just want to declare myself legally dead for a year. I just want to be off the grid and Puff is pretty persistent, but I had to think, bro, it’s like, people get amnesia. Like I should never have Puff have to ever call more than one time. Any of us in this room if Puff ever need us, we need to jump and be there.”

“This man has been through [and] survived a lot of stuff and broke down a lot of doors so we can be standing,” Kanye continued. “He broke down so many doors of classism, taste, swag. Puff, if I never told you I love you, you’re my brother.”

If you missed it, Kanye got a special shout-out from Kim in honor of Father’s Day.