Kanye West Wanted to be Declared ‘Legally Dead’ for a Year: ‘Nobody Missing Me’ | Video

*Kanye West presented Sean “Diddy” Combs with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2022 BET Awards on Sunday. 

West was dressed incognito when he delivered his speech, during which he noted that he’s been on a “little hiatus,” EW reports. 

“I took a little hiatus. I said I wanted to declare myself legally dead for a year,” West said. “Nobody missing me. You know, I just want to be off the grid, [but] Puff is pretty persistent.”

The rapper continued, “This man has been through and survived a lot of stuff. Broke down a lot of doors so we could be standing. I know for me, that I could be here today… he broke down so many doors of classism, taste, swag. Puff, if I never told you, I love you. You’re my brother.”

READ MORE: BET Awards 2022 – List of Winners + Pics & Videos | LOOK

During his speech, West praised Combs for breaking the hip-hop mold. 

“Back then there was so many rules to hip-hop, and he broke all of them,” he said, adding that the mogul “understood contracts in a way a lot of us still don’t” and “understood money in a way a lot of us still don’t.”

“I go to him for advice to this day,” West continued. “He inspired so many of my choices. So many of my life choices. My wife choices.” Later, West and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds presented Combs the award. In his speech, Combs thanked “everyone who played a part in my life,” as well as late ex-girlfriend Kim Porter, who died in 2018 from lobar pneumonia at age 47.

“When I was a kid, I saw these images that were setting me up for failure, these images that were making me feel less than a dog,” he said. “I was like, ‘Man I’m not with that. I’m not with that.’ I closed my eyes and dreamed and saw what I had to do. We here for ourselves, we here for our ancestors, you feel me?” 

Watch Ye’s full speech via the YouTube clip above, and Diddy’s Lifetime Achievement moment below.

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