Offset Says His 2023 BET Awards Tribute to Takeoff With Quavo ‘Cleared My Soul’
The surprise Migos set at last week’s 2023 BET Awards was something the culture, and the surviving members, really needed. At least according to Offset, who explained in a recent video how his first onstage performance in over a year with bandmate Quavo came together as a tribute to their fallen third member, Takeoff.
The pair performed their breakthrough Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 hit “Bad and Boujee” and danced to Take’s verse from “Hotel Lobby” — from Quavo and Takeoff’s 2022 spin-off project, Unc & Phew — for the crowd as an image of Takeoff filled the screen behind them. “We did a BET performance man it was iconic, it cleared my soul,” Offset said in the clip of the homage to Take (born Kirshnik Khari Ball), who was gunned down at a Houston bowling alley in November.
Offset said he and Quavo pulled the whole thing together in less than 16 hours after landing on a flight from Paris at 9 p.m. and getting right to work on their first performance together since Takeoff’s death. “And we do that because we some real stars,” he explained while repeatedly lighting up a smoldering blunt. “We do this music. We the greatest group to ever touch the mic. RIP my brother Take. We did it for my brother Take. Me and Quay, stood tall, brother-to-brother… and I appreciate everyone for supporting [us]. It was a movie, it was a vibe. We needed that for the culture.”
The unannounced June 25 performance about an hour into the broadcast was preceded by the image of a giant rocket on the two screens behind the stage as Offset and Quavo walked into the spotlight surrounded by smoke and lasers for their first joint performance in more than a year.
Check out Offset’s video below.
Gil Kaufman
Billboard
