More often than not, awards shows work to keep the outside world outside, their objective to create a kind of safe space for the self-absorption that keeps Hollywood running.
Not the BET Awards.
Broadcast live Sunday night from the Microsoft Theater in downtown Los Angeles, the cable network's 15th-anniversary blowout felt proudly connected to reality from the get-go, beginning with a fierce performance by rapper Kendrick Lamar, who stood atop a bombed-out police car to deliver his song "Alright" as tattered American flags waved around him.