The BET Awards is always a fun time for Black America. We get a chance to see our culture’s biggest stars in the same place at the same time. It’s one of the only times where parents and children can sit together and appreciate generations of music in 3-4 hours of epic performances. The tributes are always great and the antics that occur during the show itself are normally hilarious. And let’s not forget that BET Awards weekend has been dubbed the “Black Family Reunion” on Twitter. It’s the time where black folks from all over hop on the hashtag and rip on the happenings at the award show.

LOS ANGELES, CA – JUNE 27: Musician Prince accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award during the 2010 BET Awards held at the Shrine Auditorium on June 27, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

However, I noticed something about the BET Awards over the past few years. It seems as if death seems to forever loom over the award show. It started when Michael Jackson passed away and they had to readjust the whole award show to honor him in a few days. It seems like every year since then has had either a high profile black celebrity death before the show or a celebrity death that was the main headline from the show (ex. Chris Brown in 2010). Just look at the list that I compiled.

2009: Michael Jackson’s death
2010: Chris Brown Tribute to MJ
2011: Heavy D
2012: Donna Summer, Whitney Houston, Don Cornelius
2015: BB King, Andrae Crouch
2016: Prince
2017: Prodigy

Now, I personally believe that this is a sad coincidence. Death is a part of life. However, there are some people that try to tie this into some sort of Illuminati conspiracy. The Illuminati conspiracy nuts are especially running rampant about Prodigy’s murder. Calm down people! Not everything is a secret plot for world domination. Stop worrying about conspiracies and let’s face whatever Donald Trump and his compromised cabinet has in store for the country. How about keeping vigilant in the light of all these police brutality cases around the country?

Rest in peace to all these icons that have passed away the past few years and I look forward to the BET Awards this Sunday at 8 PM!