The present, held June ninth at L.A.’s Peacock Theater, got here amid heightened tensions throughout town as ICE raids shook immigrant neighborhoods. Protests had erupted in response to the sweeps, and feelings have been working excessive—even close to the award present venue.

After profitable Best Female Hip Hop Artist, Doechii stepped to the mic and didn’t draw back from the second. She addressed the unrest immediately, denouncing the worry ways getting used below Trump’s immigration insurance policies. “There are ruthless attacks that are creating fear and chaos in our communities in the name of law and order,” she stated throughout her speech. “Trump is using military forces to stop a protest, and I want y’all to consider what kind of government it appears to be when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us.”

Her voice didn’t tremble as she laid out her issues. “People are being swept up and torn from their families,” she continued, earlier than increasing her message of solidarity: “I feel it’s my responsibility as an artist to use this moment to speak up for all oppressed people, for Black people, for Latino, for trans people, for the people in Gaza.”

Later, in her British Vogue cowl story, Doechii defined why talking out in that second mattered. “I’m not that desensitized, and it felt right,” she stated. “I was born to do this.”

The speech rapidly went viral, with followers applauding her braveness and calling the second a defining one in her profession.