BET Awards 2020: Public Enemy, Nas And Black Thought Open With Epic 'Fight The Power' Performance
Legendary hip hop group Public Enemy opened the 2020 BET Awards with a powerful performance of their 1989 classic “Fight the Power,” which was from the Oscar nominated Spike Lee film Do The Right Thing.
The song got an epic reboot with Nas and Black Thought from The Roots adding bars that honored George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
The legendary Chuck D opened the song with Nas taking over, rhyming in a wicker chair, clearly channeling Black Panther co-founder Huey Newton.
Flavor Flav also joined the performance with a red, green and black flag as the backdrop.
Black Thought blessed the mic with images of protests across the nation.
Opening the BET Awards with this song is particularly fitting considering Spike Lee recently created a short film in tribute to George Floyd, who died by the hands of police, similar to the fictional character Radio Raheem in Do The Right Thing.
George Floyd was killed on May 25 in Minneapolis after a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, 44, had his knee in the 46-year-old’s neck for more than eight minutes.
Breonna Taylor, 26, was shot by officers in her Louisville, Kentucky apartment on March 13 as they entered to serve a no-knock warrant. Her boyfriend thought officers were intruders and fired a shot as they entered. Taylor was shot eight times.
Watch the performance below:
BET has been covering every angle of the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and other social justice cases and the subsequent aftermath and protests. For our continuing coverage, click here.
