Viewers were left unimpressed during the BET Awards over the weekend after Usher’s acceptance speech was heavily censored.
The former Super Bowl headliner was awarded the Lifetime Achievement prize as part of Sunday night’s ceremony, but when it came to accepting his award, the Burn singer had censors reaching for the mute button pretty much immediately.
“By the way, I should caution you that I like to talk and I have a way with words,” he said at the beginning of his speech, which aired live on the US network BET.
And while viewers watching it live may not have been able to make out much of the speech, we’re happy to report that one audience member caught the whole thing on film, so we now know exactly what it is he said that wound up being cut.
“I’m sorry I’m cursing, this is how I really feel,” he told the crowd at one point during his speech. “At one point it got really thick, and motherfuckers wasn’t fucking with me. I get it, I understand, sometimes you gotta go through some shit to get to something.”
Later in the speech, he turned his attention to his male role models, saying (via Vibe): “They’re solid, and it ain’t about a motherfucking hit record. They’re solid, and they’re going to always have my back. And I will always have theirs.”
Usher’s speech reportedly ran for almost 15 minutes in total, with the chart-topping singer also scooping Best Male R&B/Pop Artist earlier in the night.
The ceremony also marked the musical comeback of Will Smith, who premiered his new single You Can Make It with a performance at the BET Awards.