Usher, LL COOL J honored at Black Music Action Coalition gala

Usher continues to rack up his awards, receiving the Quincy Jones Humanitarian Award at the Black Music Action Coalition gala on Thursday night. 

Bobby Brown presented him with the honor, noting he “didn’t hesitate” to help give Usher his flowers. “I’ve had the privilege of knowing Usher for a long time, and I can say that without a doubt, he’s definitely deserving of this award,” he said. 

Usher then accepted the award, saying he takes “whatever opportunity I have to be able to shed a light on, to be able to be a representation of growth that can help other people, to be at least a reference of what you can be in the event that you dream.”

“But what is a dream without action? What is knowledge without action?” he asked. “God’s word says in James 2:17, faith without action is dead.”

LL COOL J was also honored at the gala, receiving the Clarence Avant Trailblazer Award from attorney Benjamin Crump. In his speech, he shared the reason behind releasing his new album, The Force.

“The only reason that I really did it, one I gotta do it because I love it. But secondly, I just feel like I was tired of people feeling like hip-hop culture and our music as a whole is disposable,” he said. “And we’ve been trained as a culture to believe that if an artist goes away for a weekend, if they go on a vacation for 15 days, their career’s over … so my thing is, I just wanted to show these future generations and the young kids what’s possible.”

Kelly Rowland, Flavor Flav, Taraji. P Henson, Gunna and performers BJ the Chicago Kid and Anthony Hamilton were among the attendees of the night.

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