Kai Cenat’s Big 2025 BET Awards Night: Meeting Kendrick Lamar, Not Knowing Wale And More

Key Takeaways

• Kai Cenat’s live stream at the 2025 BET Awards captured viral moments with Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg and more.
• Wale confronted Cenat after the streamer failed to recognize him during his live stream.
• The moment sparked an online debate about generational gaps in Hip Hop recognition and respect.

The 2025 BET Awards was a huge night for the culture, and nobody — maybe nobody — had a better time than Kai Cenat. The internet star streamed his entire evening, which included crossing paths with nearly every celebrity in attendance, presenting onstage alongside Druski and Kevin Hart, and finding himself at the center of a few viral moments.

Cenat’s night began on the red carpet, where he chatted with Ultimate Icon honorees Kirk Franklin and Snoop Dogg. He also linked up Lil Wayne’s daughter Reginae Carter, Keke Palmer, Ciara, Moneybagg Yo and Young Thug — and that’s just scratching the surface. Watch the full clip below.

Kai Cenat Met Kendrick Lamar At The 2025 BET Awards

Another highlight of the evening arrived with the Twitch streamer’s quick backstage run-in with Kendrick Lamar, just after the Compton emcee clinched Album of the Year. “How [are] you doing, bro? You good?” he asked the pgLang founder, who was smiling ear to ear after snagging not one but five trophies that night.

Especially considering Cenat’s ties to Drake — he’s set to direct the Toronto hitmaker’s “SOMEBODY LOVES ME” video — and all the reactions still echoing from 2024’s biggest rap beef, the internet obviously ate their brief BET exchange right up.

Moments later, the Cenat and Druski took the stage with Hart to introduce Playboi Carti as a performer. “This is a moment for me to elevate my brothers,” the Grammy Award-winning comedian told his co-presenters backstage. “This ain’t for me to shine; this is for y’all to shine, so I’ma step back. I’ma let y’all put on.”

Kai Cenat’s Awkward Exchange With Wale

Elsewhere that night, Cenat bumped into Wale in a parking garage of the Peacock Theater. The “Lotus Flower Bomb” hitmaker was playing his Nintendo Switch when the New York native approached and asked what he was playing. Shortly after their run-in, Cenat told his viewers afterward that he genuinely had no idea who he’d just met and that he was just trying to be polite.

After his viewers reacted to the moment, filling him in on Walle’s identity, Cenat hilariously mispronounced his name as “Wally.” He said, “Oh my God, that was somebody crazy. The whole chat knows him. What [does] he do?”

Wale, to his credit, addressed it later when he saw Cenat talking with Snoop Dogg. “That s**t making me look crazy now, just letting you know,” he said, referring to the viral hallway moment. “I mean, they [are] running with it, but we’ll talk later.”