The BET Awards aired this week, and with it came many stunning performances, notably a string of phenomenal tributes to Prince, who died on April 21 this year. After a number of fairly contentious performances, notably the highly-criticised choice of Madonna to lead the performance at the Billboard Music wards, BET responded with a full selection of covers, essentially turning the entire night into one big tribute.

Many of the performances were not made available for full viewing outside the US, but the good news is that all full videos from the BET Awards are now here for your viewing pleasure.

First came Erykah Badu, The Roots and Bilal giving it their all with heartwrenching covers of The Ballad of Dorothy Parker and The Beautiful Ones.

Stevie Wonder and Tori Kelly then performed Take Me With You, before Jennifer Hudson wowed with a truly stunning rendition of Purple Rain. Hudson also paid tribute to Prince’s fashion choice by wearing a hooded outfit reminiscent of his outfit at the People’s Choice Awards in 2005.

Janelle Monae was next, and much like Hudson, she honoured the late star’s fashion choices as well as his music, delivering a medley of Delirious, Kiss, Pop Life, and I Would Die 4 U in assless chaps, in tribute of the famous yellow jumpsuit Prince wore back at the 1991 MTV VMAs.

Maxwell performed his own new song, Lake By The Ocean, as well as Prince’s Nothing Compares 2 U:

Finally, Sheila E led a huge medley, featuring many of Prince’s collaborators, including members of his last band the New Power Generation, backup singers Shelby Johnson, Liv Warield, Lynn Mabry and Elisa Fiorello, Prince’s ex-wife, dancer Mayte Garcia, Jerome Benton and more. Speaking to Billboard about the emotional performance, Sheila noted, “I knew it was going to be very emotional on the first day of rehearsal. We were sound checking all of the instruments, which takes about two-three hours for setup. By the time we all got together, I said a prayer and then I knew we were going to sit there and cry. It took about 45 minutes to an hour for us to pull it together.

“It was the first time we’d been together as a family since all this happened. Everyone is still in disbelief; there’s been no closure yet. Saying goodbye to him just hasn’t happened yet. It’s hard.”

Image: Time

The BET Awards took place today, and one of the main events throughout the proceedings has been its continuous Prince tribute; yes, instead of one powerhouse performance, the ceremony is delivering a full series of tributes from a wide array of artists including The Roots, Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu, Bilal, Janelle Monae, Jennifer Hudson and more. Much like they did when Michael Jackson passed away (he died just days before the award’s 2009 airing), honouring the late legend continues through the entire night.

Dave Chappelle spoke about Prince just half an hour into the event. “On April 21, we got that news, and literally our hearts were broken,” he said. “I was 11 years old when Purple Rain came out, and by the time I was 20, Prince had changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol… We miss him dearly. And tonight we celebrate the rich legacy of this remarkable genius, who we are all so proud of.”

The musical tributes then began with Erykah Badu and Bilal, who performed equally beautiful versions of The Ballad of Dorothy Parker and The Beautiful Ones respectively, backed by The Roots. Next, Tori Kelly joined Stevie Wonder on stage for Take Me With You, and Jennifer Hudson sent shivers down everyone’s spine with her take on Purple Rain. Maxwell sang Nothing Compares 2 U as well as his own recent single Lake By The Ocean, updated the first line of NC2u lyrics from, “It’s been seven hours and fifteen days” to sixty-six days, the time since Prince’s passing. Meanwhile Janelle Monae took the her medley of Kiss, Pop Life and I Would Die 4 U even further, honouring Prince’s infamous 1991 VMAs outfit with assless pants of her own. Hudson similarly honouring Prince’s outfits by donning a white hooded suit for Purple Rain. Finally, Prince’s long time collaborator, drummer Sheila E led a final ten-minute medley (which was reportedly set to have been led by D’Angelo, who didn’t end up performing) through Housequake, Erotic City (the first song she and Prince recorded together), Let’s Work, U Got the Look and many more.

Unfortunately BET has not yet made the full performances available for international viewers. For now, you can watch short snippets of the performances here. We’ll post full versions when made officially available:

Image: Kevin Winter/Getty

Image: Kevin Winter/Getty

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Image: Kevin Winter/Getty/BET

What happens when you combine smooth, buttery neo-soul with hard-hitting rap? You get something awesome, like Money Over Love, Kendrick Lamar’s latest collaboration with singer-songwriter Bilal.

The collaboration will be featured on In Another Life, Bilal’s upcoming album, which is set to come out on June the 30th. (Pre-order here) Money Over Love begins with the cruisy dreamscape of layered electric guitar and drums that Bilal is so known for, as well as his own warbling vocals. The song is slowly building, but its direction is unapparent. At about 1.50 minutes in the sound drops out completely, only to be replaced by a slow snare and… Kendrick Lamar. His rapping is own point, spitting out lines faster than it should be humanly possible. He completely changes the tempo and carries the song out to its end.

To be honest the track on its own is not one of my favourites, without the change of tempo and introduction of Lamar it would most likely become a little repetitive. However the collaboration works. Lamar gives it that structure and energy that it really needed. Bilal and Lamar actually performed the song live in concert last month, but the studio version was officially premiered on BBC radio on June 15.

This isn’t the first time that Lamar has leant his searing vocals to another artist’s work. He’s done guest verses on some incredible tracks, including A$AP Rocky ft. Drake and 2 Chainz’ Fuckin Problems and ScHoolboy Q’s Birds & the Beez.

Check out the live premiere by Bilal and Kendrick below, if you can look past the slightly distracting dude bopping his hand to the left its actually an incredible performance.