Missy Elliott cries, Druski C-walks and Jermaine Dupri calls on Black creators to take control at Culture Creators brunch

The 10th annual Culture Creators Innovators & Leaders Awards Brunch brought prayer, performance, humor and a clear reminder to protect Black creative spaces during BET Awards week.

The Culture Creators brunch opened with a prayer.

Before the performances, the speeches, and star-studded honorees, gospel artist Erica Campbell helped set the tone for a room that felt part industry event, part family reunion and part Sunday service. It was fitting for an afternoon built around honoring the people who not only participate in culture but also shape it.

Held during BET Awards week, the 10th annual Culture Creators Innovators & Leaders Awards Brunch brought together power players across music, television, film, comedy, fashion, sports and media to celebrate Black creatives whose work has moved the culture forward. Missy Elliott received the Amazon Music Visionary Icon Award, joining a class of honorees that included Druski, Jermaine Dupri, Suzanne de Passe and Janelle James.

Inside the room, the celebration lived up to the occasion. Chandon and Sir Davis were among the sponsors, with an open bar and photo activations giving the afternoon the polish of a BET weekend staple. In the ladies’ room, The Lip Bar added a beauty touch, offering makeup stations and grab-and-go lip oils and lip liners for guests.

But the real activations were onstage, where the honorees turned their acceptance speeches into moments of reflection, gratitude, jokes and, in some cases, a call to action.

Elliott brought the room from laughter to tears in a matter of minutes.

Reflecting on what it means to be called a visionary, the rapper/producer pointed back to the creative choices that once looked unusual but have since become part of her legacy.

“When you are a visionary, you see these things and even if they are years ahead, you look back and be like, ‘Dang, this makes so much sense now,’” she told the room, joking that even the inflatable suit from her “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” era “makes so much sense” now.

The Virginia native also got candid about how her solo career began. Elliott said she never planned to become an artist and credited Sylvia Rhone with pushing her to record one album in exchange for the opportunity to eventually launch her own label. “I didn’t wanna be an artist,” she said, explaining that one album turned into two, then three, then four and eventually a career that helped reshape the sound and visuals of hip-hop and R&B.

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“I never take this for granted,” Elliott said, becoming emotional. “I be so full in my heart because you don’t know where I come from. I don’t do a lot of interviews, so people don’t know my story. I’m a lot stronger on the outside.”

Dupri: “We got to control ours”

The So So Def founder’s remarks gave the afternoon one of its clearest themes: Black creators have to document their work, own their stories and control their narratives.

After receiving his award from Jimmy Jam, Dupri said he recently saw Tyler, the Creator questioning why there are not more demos, videos or behind-the-scenes footage of him working on major projects like Usher’s “Confessions” or Mariah Carey’s “The Emancipation of Mimi.”

Dupri said that, for years, he did not document the process because he was still wrestling with pressure and self-doubt. “Every time, I kept thinking I might not do it right,” he said, adding that he feared people would criticize him if the process was recorded before the success was proven.

“For the longest, I was locked into that cycle of not really believing who I am,” he said. “I done did it so many times. I am who I am, and I am who I think I am.”

That confidence became a broader message for the room. Dupri urged Black creators and executives to take ownership of their stories, platforms and cultural power.

“When y’all see me on the internet and I say something, I’m just speaking for us as Black people,” he said. “We gotta take our stuff back and do what we gotta do with it. Control it.”

Dupri pointed to Druski as an example of someone who controls his own narrative. The Atlanta producer told the room that even people who feel disconnected from the internet have to learn to use it with intention. “We got to control ours. Even if you’re old and you don’t understand the internet, learn control.”

He also ended with a charge that felt especially fitting during BET Awards week: when Black-centered events bring out rooms filled with cultural heavyweights, people need to show up.

“Get fly, go to that [event] and make some noise,” Dupri said.

Snoop on Druski: “The best comedians make you think too”

Druski’s Innovator of the Year honor gave the room one of its funniest cross-generational moments, as Snoop Dogg presented the award and praised him for using comedy to push culture forward.

“Comedy ain’t just about making people laugh,” Snoop told the crowd. “The best comedians make you think too, and that’s exactly what my guy Druski does.”

Snoop praised Druski for being willing to push the envelope, whether he is calling out politics, exposing hypocrisy in the industry or finding humor in conversations “a lot of folks are scared” to touch, including the Black church. He said voices like Druski’s help challenge the status quo and keep culture moving forward.

When Druski took the stage, he kept the energy loose. The comedian C-walked into his big moment, then immediately turned the room into a family shoutout.

“I gotta get ghetto real quick,” he joked, before acknowledging his mother, grandmother, aunt, cousin and other loved ones in the audience.

Then, setting the jokes aside, Druski used his speech to encourage aspiring creators to take their work seriously.

“Take a chance on yourself, manifest your dreams, be serious about this stuff,” he said. “All the people from social media, I know a lot of y’all wanna do this stuff and I know a lot of y’all wanna achieve these things. Make sure you’re honest. Make sure you are following your goals. Make sure you write everything down and manifest.”

Janelle James also used her acceptance speech to name what made the room feel different.

“It feels even more special to win and be honored by your own people,” James said. “Not only to be honored, but just to be in a room with Black people. I just love it. It makes me very happy.”

Then, in true Janelle James fashion, she pivoted from sincerity to a joke.

“Everything I say isn’t a joke,” she said, before looking around at the lineup of honorees and teasing Dupri for suggesting people did not know who he was.

“Like, you’re Janet Jackson’s ex-boyfriend,” she joked. “Believe in yourself.”

The afternoon also made room for the next generation.

JayDon, one of Amazon Music’s 2026 Artists to Watch, performed his Amazon Music Original cover of Aaliyah’s “One in a Million.” The selection was especially fitting in a room honoring Elliott, who helped shape Aaliyah’s futuristic R&B sound alongside Timbaland.

JayDon followed the cover with his own song, “Lullaby,” delivering one of the brunch’s standout vocal performances. His dancing also won over the room, and at one point, he moved into the audience and serenaded Campbell as guests cheered him on.

By the time he finished, the room was on its feet.

TheGrio also spoke with Suzanne de Passe, who was honored as Culture Creators’ 2026 TV/Film Icon Honoree. For de Passe, the recognition felt especially meaningful because of the word at the center of the organization’s name.

“The fact that the word culture is in there — it’s not competitive, it’s an honor,” de Passe told theGrio.

A pioneering Motown executive and producer, de Passe played a key role in the early story of The Jackson 5 and Michael Jackson. Asked what it has been like to watch new generations discover Jackson’s work, de Passe said it reminds her of seeing young audiences experience him in real time.

“I absolutely love it because it reminds me of watching young people see him for the first time when we were on our first concert tour,” she said. “I see on the Internet little kids doing ‘Thriller’ and stuff. It’s adorable.”

That sense of legacy ran through the entire afternoon. Culture Creators was not simply honoring fame or visibility. It was honoring the people who built lanes, protected stories, took creative risks and made room for others to follow.

From Elliott’s tears to Dupri’s charge to Druski’s C-walk, the brunch offered a reminder that Black culture is not an abstract idea. It is a room. It is a memory. It is a strategy. It is a song. It is a joke. It is a prayer. And, as Dupri told the crowd, it is something worth showing up for, getting fly for and making noise about.