Quavo and Offset paid tribute to their late bandmate, Takeoff, with a surprise performance at the 2023 BET Awards.
The rappers — who founded the hip-hop trio Migos with Takeoff in 2008 before splitting in 2022— took to the awards show stage to perform the group’s hit song “Bad and Boujee” on Sunday, June 25, seven months after Takeoff was killed in a Texas shooting.
In addition to a graphic of a rocket launching and turning into the late music star, the pair ended the tribute by crossing their arms to form the letter “T” in honor of Takeoff. The emotional performance earned the duo a standing ovation from the crowd.
Quavo, 32, and Offset, 31, later took to Instagram to share behind-the-scenes photos and videos of their BET Awards appearance, with both musicians captioning their respective posts, “Do this s—t for the fam cuz this s—t bigger than me.”
Sunday’s performance came four months after the former bandmates reportedly got into a physical fight at the 2023 Grammy Awards. According to TMZ, an altercation broke out backstage after Quavo allegedly prevented Offset from joining him for the ceremony’s In Memoriam segment, during which he sang “Without You,” a song he wrote for Takeoff.
Offset seemingly denied the rumors via Twitter, writing on February 6, “What tf [it] look like fighting my brother [y’all] n—s is crazy.”
Takeoff (real name Kirshnik Khari Ball) died at the age of 28 in November 2022 following a shooting at a Texas bowling alley. At the time, TMZ reported that the Houston Police Department arrived on the scene to discover three people had been shot at a private party, at which Quavo was also in attendance. The Georgia native’s death was officially ruled a homicide by the Harris County Medical Examiner, according to documents obtained by Us Weekly.
Amid his loss, Offset honored the late “Open It Up” rapper by changing his Instagram profile picture to one of Takeoff. Offset’s wife, Cardi B, shared a clip of Takeoff discussing the importance of family in an interview via Twitter at the time.
“My dudes gave me this ring,” he told Complex Music in the 2022 video, referring to a ring featuring a photo of himself and his mother. “It’s always going to stay with me, too. I ain’t never going to take it off.”
Quavo, for his part, honored his nephew via Instagram by sharing some of their sweetest childhood photos alongside more recent snaps. He captioned the post with a series of emojis, including a rocket, broken heart, dove and infinity sign.
Takeoff was laid to rest during a November 2022 funeral service in Atlanta. Justin Bieber, Chloe Bailey and Drake were among the memorial’s celebrity attendees.
Quavo shared the eulogy he read at the service via Instagram. “It’s so hard to tell you Ima miss you because you [are] always with me and we did everything together,” the “Intentions” rapper wrote in the since-deleted post. “He never worried about titles, credit, or what man got the most shine, that wasn’t him. He didn’t care about none of that as along [sic] we brought it back home to the family!”
He continued: “Super quiet though, quietest in the room but paid attention to everything going on in the room, always been like that!!! Nothing ever really bothered Take and he didn’t bother anybody. He [was] the most unbothered person in the world. He never got mad, he never raised his voice, and when he did, he silenced the room because what Take said was law and he wasn’t changing his mind.”
The Migos member concluded his post by stating that his and Takeoff’s relationship was closer than being an uncle and nephew. “I knew you weren’t my brother cuz you are my sister’s son, so I couldn’t say brother,” he explained. “Now I finally get it … you are OUR angel.”
