BET Experience 2015 | Full coverage

More often than not, awards shows work to keep the outside world outside, their objective to create a kind of safe space for the self-absorption that keeps Hollywood running.

If you missed the spectacle of the BET Awards, which aired live Sunday night from Microsoft Theater, it was one of the network’s best-produced telecasts -- and one that was powerful and electrifying enough to blow away its many peers.

By the time the BET Awards went live from the Microsoft Theater at L.A.

Launched in 2001, the BET Awards paved the way for the network to launch other programs that celebrate black achievement.

Held at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.

Janet Jackson accepted the Ultimate Icon: Music Dance Visual Award at the 2015 BET Awards.

Diddy took a tumble at the 2015 BET Awards while celebrating the 20th anniversary of his record label company, Bad Boy Records.

How sad that Ice Cube, MC Ren and DJ Yella can reunite in 2015 to perform N.W.A’s best-known (and unprintable) anti-police anthem and have so much new footage of brutality against young people of color to project onstage.

In an industry rife with rules and expectations, Janelle Monae and Erykah Badu purposefully stand out.

At the end of a week full of celebratory moments -- Supreme Court decisions affirming marriage equality, public housing and affordable healthcare and the removal of Confederate flags in pockets of the South -- political commentator Marc Lamont Hill cautioned a panel audience Saturday night at the Los Angeles Convention Center not to rejoice just yet.

Nicki Minaj has come a long way since her last headlining tour.

The BET Experience has never lacked for ambition.

Depending on what you wanted to spend, the three-day BET Experience at L.A.

Will Smith sweetly paid tribute to Jada Pinkett Smith, his wife of 20 years, during BET’s “Black Girls Rock” special.

BET will honor Janet Jackson with a newly instated achievement honor during its annual awards show on Sunday, the network announced on Tuesday.

Before Nicki Minaj, Kendrick Lamar, Ice Cube, Miguel and the Roots headline the 2015 BET Experience at L.A.