50 Cent took the Best New Artist and Best Male
Artist due to the success of his 5x platinum album, Get Rich or Die Trying,
at Tuesday’s BET Awards show.
Missy Elliot snagged Best Female Artist, while
Grandmaster Flash led a tribute to the late Jam Master Jay by an allstar cast
of DJ’s that included Premier, Kid Capri and Jazzy Jeff.
James Brown snagged a Lifetime Achievement Award,
while Ervin "Magic" Johnson received the Humanitarian Award.
Foxy Brown and Puff Daddy appeared in a live interview after the show,
shelving overt disagreements over Foxy’s much delayed album behind.
One small incident took place during the otherwise
calm awards show. Shortly after Snoop Dogg arrived, ten men were detained for
possible federal weapons violations outside the Kodak Theatre.
Police refused to confirm if the men were working
for Snoop, only saying that an investigation was underway.
Deputy Chief Mike Hillman told CBS 2 News that
LAPD officers ordered the men out of three vehicles, recovered various weapons
and an armored vehicle.
"The vehicle itself, we believe, is either
under contract or possibly owned by an ex-convicted felon. At this point, I’m
not at liberty to discuss who that might be," he said.
"As the investigation continued on there
were several other vehicles that were involved in traveling with this particular
vehicle. It appeared they dropped off several people at this event."
Snoop went on to win an award for Best Collaboration,
for his hit song "Beautiful," which features Pharrell Williams.
Other hiphop acts to win big included Common,
who won for the "Love of My Life" collaboration with songbird Erykah
Badu, while Queen Latifah won Best Actress for her two smash movies this year,
"Chicago" and "Bringin’ Down the House."