Last night (Feb. 23), the 2015 BET Honors broadcasted celebrating the African Americans in art, music, theater, business and more making their individual stamp in their craft of choice. The eighth annual show was hosted by Wayne Brady – his second time doing a great job at the helm.

Alongside wife Kim Kardashian, Kanye West was presented with the Visionary Award by Damon Dash and his daughter Ava. Building the audience up with an 8-minute speech of his own, the former Roc-A-Fella CEO welcomed Ye to the stage. “My history with Kanye is I didn’t respect him as a rapper because I was around the greatest rappers,” he said.

While accepting his award, Kanye touched on racism in his own speech. “The micro of it is that we focus on the different races and the macro is that we don’t focus on the human race,” he said.

Highlights of the night of course included Yeezus’ performance with “Bound 2” collaborator Charlie Wilson for a performance on stage as well as a freestyle over “Yearning For Your Love.” He also later joined Usher, Dr. John W. Thompson and Wayne Brady for a jam session centering his famed “We Don’t Have The Answers” line.

The 2015 honoree list included: Usher, Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole (Director of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of African Art), Phylicia Rashad (Tony Award-winning actress) and John W. Thompson (Chairman of Microsoft and CEO of Virtual Instruments), and Kanye West.

Check out his tribute video, performances and speech on the following page.