Sarkodie holds his BET Hip Hop Awards plaque at the BET ceremony
The future of the BET Hip Hop Awards and the Soul Train Music Awards is currently uncertain, as both shows have been put on hold.
In an interview with Billboard, BET CEO Scott Mills confirmed that the two major award shows will not return anytime soon.
He explained that the company is pausing the events while figuring out how to adapt to changes in the media and entertainment industry.
“So, for BET linear, we have suspended the Soul Train and Hip-Hop award shows. But we have a team that’s actively thinking about where those award shows might best live as the media climate continues to evolve. They aren’t gone,” Mills said.
The Soul Train Music Awards, which began in 1987, did not air in 2024, sparking concern among fans. BET gave no public explanation for skipping the show last year, and the official Soul Train social media pages have been inactive since March 2024.
The BET Hip Hop Awards, which launched in 2006 and usually airs in October, had been held every year until now. The Soul Train Awards typically air in November. While the company hasn’t made a final decision about the long-term future of the shows, Mills said they are being reimagined.
“I would say that it’s less about them being gone and more about our team having to reimagine them for this changing media landscape that we find ourselves in. I think what we’re going to see are more people taking franchises and saying, ‘This might have started on linear television, but now I’m going to move it to another space. Do I move it to streaming? Or to another platform?’” he explained.
Although the Hip Hop and Soul Train shows are on hold, BET will continue with other events such as the NAACP Image Awards and the Stellar Awards, which focus on gospel music.
Meanwhile, the BET Awards, which started in 2001, is also facing challenges. In June 2025, viewership among people aged 18 to 49 dropped by nearly half compared to the previous year. Mills believes the decline is due to more than just fewer people watching cable TV.
“Viewership was down. However, the cable ecosystem is smaller today than it was a year ago. That’s just the reality of it. It was an extraordinary show. And honestly, I attribute the viewership declines less to the shrinking cable ecosystem and more to the fact that we changed the night of the show,” he said.
Ghanaian artistes at the BET Hip Hop Awards
Sarkodie became the first Ghanaian artiste to win a BET Hip Hop Award in 2019, when some of the biggest names in rap music gathered in Atlanta for a jam-packed show.
The rapper beat the likes of Falz the Bahd Guy, Ghetts, Little Simz, Nasty C, and Tory Lanez to win the Best International Flow category.
Black Sherif followed in 2023 by also winning Best International Flow at the BET Hip Hop Awards held in Atlanta.
The Ghanaian music star beat off competition from AKA (South Africa), Central Cee (UK), Gazo (France), J Hus (UK), and K.O. (South Africa). Other nominees in the category included Sampa the Great (Zambia), Major RD (Brazil), and Tasha & Tracie (Brazil).
Meanwhile, you can watch GhanaWeb TV’s exclusive interview with the ‘queen’ of décor, making strides since Rawlings’ era
AK/MA
