When Busta Rhymes stepped onto the MTV Video Music Awards stage to just accept the inaugural Rock the Bells Visionary Award, he carried extra than simply his personal legacy with him. The hip-hop icon used his second within the highlight to honor Ananda Lewis, the beloved MTV VJ who handed away in June after a battle with breast most cancers.
On Sunday evening, because the Hip-Hop legend accepted his first MTV award in his 35-year profession, Busta saved issues quick, heartfelt, and private, using the second to not solely jokingly name out the community for taking three many years earlier than giving him an award but in addition honoring his household and fellow trailblazer, Ananda Lewis.
“Y’all know I often do these lengthy speeches, I’m not gonna do one right this moment. However subsequent time y’all take 35 years to offer me one in every of these, y’all gonna let me discuss so long as I would like!” Busta mentioned. “I need to thank — and I believe all of us must acknowledge — the unbelievable girl that beloved us very a lot after we got here to MTV in the course of the ’90s,” he mentioned. “An unbelievable girl that beloved me and she or he beloved us. She beloved the tradition; she lifted us up. I like her very a lot. I miss her very a lot. The late, nice, unbelievable royal empress Ananda Lewis. I need to choose up her mom, her father, her sister Lakshmi. The blessings don’t cease, so we don’t cease, child.”
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The heartfelt tribute was met with resounding applause, but in addition highlighted what MTV didn’t do—formally acknowledge the passing of one in every of its most necessary VJs.
Followers have been fast to note the omission, taking to social media to name out the community that Lewis helped form and outline within the late ’90s and early 2000s for disregarding one in every of its personal.
Lewis joined MTV in 1997 and rapidly turned a family title. Internet hosting Whole Request Reside and Sizzling Zone, she turned some of the recognizable faces on the community, interviewing megastars and introducing a technology to the music that outlined an period. She left MTV in 2010 to host her personal daytime present, The Ananda Lewis Present, and continued her work in tv and philanthropy.
In 2020, she revealed she had been identified with stage IV breast most cancers, a battle she fought privately for years earlier than passing at age 52 this previous summer season.
Given her deep imprint on MTV’s id and music tradition, many assumed the community would dedicate a tribute in the course of the VMAs, very similar to it has for different influential figures. As an alternative, the silence was deafening.
Whereas Busta Rhymes’ acknowledgment introduced Lewis again into the highlight, it additionally reignited frustration amongst followers. Social media rapidly lit up with disappointment that MTV didn’t carve out area in its personal program to honor Lewis.
“Busta mentioning Ananda Lewis brings me a lot pleasure cuz wtf do you imply MTV ain’t mentioned s—t about her passing when she gave that rattling community a lot? So many black artists throughout her time solely gave yall the time of day due to HER affect,” one fan wrote.
For a lot of viewers, Lewis’s absence underscored a broader sample of how cultural contributors, significantly Black girls, are sometimes ignored till another person forces the acknowledgment. However the omission speaks to a deeper lesson. Corporations might profit out of your expertise, your time, and your labor, however when you find yourself gone, they transfer on. For all of the years Lewis devoted to MTV, her impression was pushed apart the second it was inconvenient for the community’s programming. It’s a sobering reminder that irrespective of how loyal or useful you might be, establishments hardly ever present the identical loyalty in return.
Busta Rhymes’ tribute was a reminder that whereas company entities might neglect, the tradition doesn’t; and for the remainder of us, it’s a transparent name to guard your peace, get pleasure from your time, and know that your price can’t be measured by how an organization remembers you.
That is why it’s necessary to take your PTO, get pleasure from your life, and shield your well-being. As a result of when the lights dim, when the cameras minimize off, and when you find yourself not right here, the firms will maintain going—usually with out a lot as a thanks.
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Ananda Lewis By way of The Years: Remembering Her Life, Legacy, Magnificence, & Energy
