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Swizz Beatz, D-Nice, Baron Davis & More Honored At Fifth Annual Culture Creators Awards

As the BET Awards approaches, some of the biggest names in the industry come together to celebrate black excellence, and this year the Culture Creators did it again with an afternoon dedicated to recognizing those who are making an impact for the culture.

Sponsored by Youtube, the event was held at the Beverly Hilton, and the afternoon opened doors to guests and honorees with a seated brunch and drinks curated by Ciroc and Deleon. Activations brought by Youtube, Lexus, Procter & Gamble, Coin Cloud and Ellis Isle created an afternoon to remember.

The seated breakfast brunch was led with powerful speeches from honorees and those closest to them. This year those honored were: ICON AWARD;Swizz Beatz, INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR; Derrick “D-Nice” Jones, BUSINESS; Baron Davis, FASHION; Zerina Akers, FILM/TV; Rikki Hughes; Magic Lemonade, FINANCE; George Wells, HEALTH & WELLNESS; Shanti Das; Silence the Shame, MEDIA; Cari Champion,YouTube’s Culture Creators Award; Jeff Robinson & Jeanine McClean of MBK Entertainment, SOCIAL JUSTICE; Stefani Brown-James; Collective PAC, SPORTS; JaVale McGee, TECHNOLOGY; Kudzi Chikumbu, Tik Tok.

While taking the stage to accept his Icon award, Swizz captivated the audience with his speech,

“We turned down hundreds of millions of dollars of money that wasn’t in our favor. We went with the company that allowed us to bring our friends, allowed us to bring our family, and still run the company and have ownership in that company,” Swizz Beatz said. “When people heard that me and Timb sold Verzuz, they didn’t really understand the concept of why we did that. You can own 100 percent of nothing and I don’t like that when it comes to our culture we can’t sell anything. They can sell everything but we can’t sell anything or we sold out. Nah, we sold in,” adding that as Triller makes plans to go public in the coming weeks, “all 43 artists are going public with us. It’s going to be the biggest creative IPO in history.”

BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – JUNE 26: Swizz Beatz (L) and D-Nice pose backstage during the 5th Annual Innovators & Leaders Awards Brunch hosted by Culture Creators at The Beverly Hilton on June 26, 2021 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Johnny Nunez/WireImage)

INNOVATOR OF THE YEAR award honoree DJ D-Nice also reflected on the past year with his trailblazing Club Quarantine which attracted the likes of Michelle Obama, Rihanna, Dwayne Wade, Bernie Sanders, and other notable names, bringing back a sense pf hope and community during a global pandemic.

“I’ll tell you a little secret about [Michelle Obama]. She was there because I called,” Nice said. “It goes back to being kind to people. That’s why a lot of those people were there, like Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.”