The 12 Greatest BET Hip Hop Awards Cyphers, Ranked

The BET Hip Hop Awards debuted in 2006, quickly earning credibility with help from the rap cyphers it would curate and air with each show. Those rap sessions became an annual tradition, showcasing up-and-coming stars, mixtape heavyweights, certified legends, professional thespians, and genre nomads. With each year, they offered trending moments and dazzling displays of lyricism and showmanship. They’ll be most notably missed by this year’s discontinuation.

With the BET Hip Hop Awards’ future hanging in the balance, Okayplayer looks back on the nearly 100 cyphers and plucks the 12 strongest entries.

12. Boris Kodjoe, Duane Martin, J.B. Smoove, Kevin Hart (as Chocolate Droppa), Nick Cannon, Nelly

Year: 2013

MVP: Chocolate Droppa

Best bar: “I’m better than all y’all, on top like a satellite / Matter fact none of y’all even had a wife / Y’all brought knives to a motherf**kin’ cannon fight” — Nick Cannon

Some may write off this Real Husbands of Hollywood cypher as a bit for cheap laughs. Yes, they got jokes — but this is no mockery. There’s something for everyone in this hysterical rhyme session, from Boris Kodjoe’s bilingual raps to Duane Martin’s breakaway suit riff to Nick Cannon going full battle mode and adding even more sons to his family tree. Once Kevin Hart starts body-rolling mid-rap, this thing officially hits peak hilarity.

11. Black Thought, Daveed Diggs, Lin-Manuel Miranda, ​​Renee Elise Goldsberry

Year: 2015

MVP: Renee Elise Goldsberry

Best bar: “Airborne with Amelia Earhart, walkin’ tightropes / Me and Pocahontas giving smallpox to white folks” —Renee

Elise GoldsberryThe cast of Hamilton linked with The Roots frontman to bring Broadway to BET. Yet this time, dead presidents became a footnote — these history lessons touch on Lin-Manuel’s Black and Puerto Rican upbringing, California lore, and an ancient Chinese text. Renee Elise Goldsberry’s celebration of iconic women, from Marie Curie to Sojourner Truth, deserves a standing ovation.

10. Lupe Fiasco, Papoose, Styles P

Year: 2006

MVP: Lupe Fiasco

Best bar: “They say the game has the belly of a beast / Blunts for fingers, hollow tips for teeth” —Lupe Fiasco

Three street-conscious MCs dropped deliciously distinct flows and flavors in the very first cypher to air during the storied award ceremony. Styles found a pocket to levy threats and shout out civil rights icons. Papoose pulled from his punchline pouch: a mixed bag of solid jabs (“I’ll have you looking at defeat like a foot doctor”) and regrettable whiffs (“He hop up, I clap him in his hip / You can call it ‘hip-hop’”). But Lupe’s extended personification of the streets set the lyrical bar high — and dared successors to rise to the challenge. Short but potent, this cypher paved the way for many to come.

9. Brandy, Erykah Badu, H.E.R., Teyana Taylor

Year: 2020

MVP: Erykah Badu

Best bar: “Breonna Taylor seemed intentional / Black queens with dreams, beautiful, exceptional / Say you wanna be down but still ain’t arrest them, though” —H.E.R.

Teyana Taylor was 4 years old when Brandy Norwood’s “I Wanna Be Down” dropped. H.E.R. was born three years later. Still, those two ’90s babies linked with ‘90s soul royalty — Brandy and Badu — for a cross-generational update that retained the classic track’s hook, sounding more like an A&R’ed rap remix than a cypher. Everyone understood the assignment on this group project, bringing empowerment, swagger, sexiness, and divine feminine energy. Can we get this on music streamers, pronto?

8. Artists: Buckshot, Crown Royyal, Joe Budden, Nicki Minaj

Year: 2009

MVP: Nicki Minaj

Best bar: “I might cock back to get even / It’s not a wet dream; you just gettin’ shot at while you sleepin’” —Joe Budden

Nicki Minaj seized one of her earliest major platform moments, dressing up her rhyme with the sharp one-liners and quirky aura that made her a star within a year. Those qualities were magnified alongside Tri-State traditionalists like Buckshot and pre-podcast Joe Budden. While the Boot Camp Clik leader held his own, Budden further cemented his role as music industry outsider and underground king with a self-mythologizing rap that was calm, collected, and cool as hell.

7. 2 Chainz, Busta Rhymes, Ludacris, Reek da Villian

Year: 2011

MVP: Busta Rhymes

Best bar: “Ludacris I made soccer moms rap / Albums, I drop eight like Octomom’s snatch” —Ludacris

Busta-Bus was two decades removed from his breakout verse on A Tribe Called Quest’s 1991 classic “Scenario” — one of hip-hop’s G.O.A.T. posse cuts — when he bodied this showcase in a similar manner. But instead of dungeon-dragon energy, he flashed a fly unc persona that exhibited slick punchlines and an animated delivery. Ludacris was set up to dominate — and he blacked out. Ditto for his former Disturbing Tha Peace signee 2 Chainz and Flipmode’s Reek da Villain. They all more than did their thing. And yet, as he did 20 years beforehand, Busta went off the planet, reminding the rap world that it was still the same scenario.

6. Big K.R.I.T., B.o.B, Kendrick Lamar, Tech N9ne, Machine Gun Kelly

Year: 2011

MVP: Kendrick Lamar

Best bar: “What are your plans? To win a Grammy? / Sweet taste of victory, like Oprah’s punani?” —Kendrick Lamar

This cypher represented the blog era in a nutshell — an ethernet connection between rappers representing Atlanta, Cleveland, Compton, Kansas City, and Mississippi. It’s easy to hear the differences in their styles, influences, and drawls. Everyone killed it, but Kendrick Lamar is the star of the show, and his ambitions of becoming rap’s top rhymer are apparent in his crowd-pleasing quotables and understated delivery with just enough eruptions to keep you hanging onto his every word.

5. Black Thought, Eminem, Mos Def (now Yasiin Bey)

Year: 2009

MVP: Eminem

Best bar: “I’m a f**kin’ cross between Osama / Dahmer / Obama / And Dalai Lama” —Eminem

The term “backpack rap” still meant something when these three totems of the subgenre linked up over a simple breakbeat. The artist then known as Mos Def gave an aural tour of Brooklyn, a then-underrated Black Thought demanded his respect, and Slim Shady dropped twisted internal rhymes and lyrics as only he could: one second threatening to murder a marsupial, the next spilling about a NSFW pic he swears he sent to Taylor Swift.

4. Ace Hood, Fabolous, Jadakiss, Juelz Santana

Year: 2008

MVP: Fabolous

Best bar: “So get your little money, you isn’t a threat / When we was making it rain, you wasn’t drizzlin’ yet” —Fabolous

What would happen if you throw the guy who made “Bugatti” into the ring with some of New York City’s most lethal wordsmiths? Well, that’s the magic of the BET cypher, and the sickos curating these sets just had to find out for themselves. Fortunately, Ace Hood held his own as leadoff batter while Kiss cleared the bases. But Fab and Dipset’s own Juelz Santana went bar-for-bar with top-tier bravado raps. Loso eked out a win with an efficient verse and immaculate rhyming of former Alaska governor “Sarah Palin” and “parasailin’.’”

3. Big Sean, Common, CyHi the Prynce, Ye, Pusha T

Year: 2010

MVP: Big Sean

Best bar: “Whoever told you sky’s the limit is looking dumb/’Cause I’m 22 and I’m moonwalking on the sun” —Big Sean

True to the ethos of Yeezy’s Rosewood era, G.O.O.D. Music’s sluggers pulled up to this cypher in matching tailored suits, looking and sounding like hip-hop’s freshest crew. And pound-for-pound, this one is among the most well-balanced, unquestionably dope lyrical displays in the show’s history. Everyone brought their A-game — including bars that resurfaced on Finally Famous and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy — but Motown’s own Big Sean stunted hardest. Flaunting apex punchline efficiency, he layered quippy build-up bars atop climactic one-liners with a feline’s agility and a comic’s instinct for timing. Get those jokes off all you want, but anyone who can spit bars like, “They having a kissing fight, and I’m Don King/And everyone know I’m coming soon, like LeBron’s ring” and steal attention from rap legends is definitely an all-star. Maybe not LeBron, but who doesn’t love watching Kyrie Irving embarrass defenders?

2. Ab-Soul, Isaiah Rashad, Jay Rock, Kendrick Lamar, ScHoolboy

Year: 2013

MVP: Kendrick Lamar

Best bar: “Nothing was the same since they dropped ‘Control’ / and tucked a sensitive rapper back in his pajama clothes” —Kendrick Lamar

It was the high-five heard around the hip-hop world — an exclamation point on a sparring session that had already seen more highs than a crackhouse. Mobb Deep’s “Shook Ones” instrumental served up the vibes but none of the TDE spitters were scared of the moment. Soul declared his crew’s war readiness, ScHoolboy floated with street slang, and newcomer Isaiah Rashad nearly stole the show by sizing up his contemporaries. And then Kendrick happened. Rapping for two minutes straight, K-Dot kept the competitive energy he’d exhibited on “Control” months earlier, this time seemingly singling out Drake with a reference to the Toronto rapper’s latest album title. The hand slap with Q that followed was so crisp and well-timed, but the bars kept coming. His closing salvo — an enunciation of “King Kendrick” — had never sounded so believable, and his repeat appearances at the Hip-Hop Award festivities played a major role in his coronation.

1. Crooked I, Eminem, Joell Ortiz, Joe Budden, Royce da 5’9”, Yelawolf

Year: 2011

MVP: Eminem

Best bar: “Think my bread is her paper to burn / So I lock her out, and now she doubt David is Stern” —Joe Budden

The greatest cypher of all is like hip-hop Minesweeper: You could fast-forward to virtually any timestamp and land on an explosive quotable from the Shady Records crew (dubbed Shady 2.0). Yelawolf flipping a Peter Piper tongue twister. Joe Budden pouring out a little liquor for Amy Winehouse. Joell Ortiz clowning skinny jeans. Royce shooting his shot at Rihanna. Eminem played class clown throughout, before launching into an insane sequence of punchlines and extended metaphors more bizarre than his D-12 homie. When it came to the Hip-Hop Awards cyphers, Slaughterhouse and Shady were perennial kings of the court. Salute.