Doechii Defends Protesting Ruthless ICE Deportations During BET Awards

Doechii isn’t confining her creative purpose to just the recording studio or a tour stage. She exhibited as much at the 2025 Grammy Awards, where she shared encouraging words with Black women while accepting the award for Best Rap Album. She spoke out again at the 2025 BET Awards, when she used her Best Female Hip-Hop Artist award acceptance speech to criticize the ruthless deportations being carried out by ICE under the Trump administration and other global injustices.

“I was born to do this,” Doechii recently told British Vogue. While some artists might resist speaking out for fear of how their words may be received, the rapper is embracing the power that comes with using the platform she has. “I’m not that desensitized, and it felt right,” she said. “I felt like I needed to use that moment, and they were live, so it wasn’t shit they could do about it.”

Doechii’s BET Awards speech quickly became one of the most viral and memorable moments of the evening. She set the tone for the ceremony at the top of the show as the first artist to accept an award that night. “As much as I am honored by this award, I do want to address what’s happening right now outside of the building,” she said at the podium. “There are ruthless attacks that are creating fear and chaos in our communities in the name of law and order. Trump is using military forces to stop a protest.”

She continued: “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. What type of government is that? People are being swept up and torn from their families. 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 people, for trans people, for the people in Gaza. We all deserve to live in hope and not in fear. And I hope we stand together, my brothers and my sisters, against hate – and we protest against it.”

Doechii’s perspective makes her artistry all the more special. Lady Gaga told British Vogue that she “fell in love with her music and her raw, deeply personal perspective. The power in her words, her vulnerability, the way she rhymes with this wild mix of audacity and emotional precision,” adding, “it struck me to the core.”