Names and Faces

FILE - In this May 7, 2008, file photo, Doug E. Fresh performs with Galactic at the seventh annual Jammy awards at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. Atlanta is set to host the taping of the BET Hip-Hop Awards, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014. Fresh will be honored with "I Am Hip-Hop Icon" awards for the achievements in his career. He's known for classic hits such as "La Di Da Di" and "The Show." (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow, File)
FILE - In this May 7, 2008, file photo, Doug E. Fresh performs with Galactic at the seventh annual Jammy awards at the Theater at Madison Square Garden in New York. Atlanta is set to host the taping of the BET Hip-Hop Awards, Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014. Fresh will be honored with "I Am Hip-Hop Icon" awards for the achievements in his career. He's known for classic hits such as "La Di Da Di" and "The Show." (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow, File)

• With a picture of his mother on a large screen behind him, Doug E Fresh struggled to complete his sentence. The rapper dubbed "The Human Beat Box" choked up and shed tears as he received the "I Am Hip-Hop Award" at the ninth BET Hip-Hop Awards on Saturday in Atlanta. Fresh eventually told the crowd that his mother, who had Alzheimer's disease, died five months ago. "I have to acknowledge her," Fresh said at the taped awards show at the Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center. "I want to thank this woman and hip-hop. If it wasn't for hip-hop, I don't know where I would be." He also thanked those who helped him throughout his career. The show airs Oct. 14. Fresh became known for imitating drums and creating special effects using his mouth and a microphone. After his speech, Fresh performed one of his hits, "La Di Da Di" with the show's host, Snoop Dogg. "He's the definition of moving the crowd," Ludcaris said during a video that paid homage to Fresh.

• Actress and civil-rights activist Ruby Dee was memorialized Saturday in poetry, dance and song at a packed Harlem cathedral where Alicia Keys sang; Wynton Marsalis performed a stirring trumpet solo; and well-wishes were sent from Sidney Poitier, Harry Belafonte and the White House. The three-hour celebration of Dee's life was held at Riverside Church in New York on Saturday. Dee died June 11 at age 91 and was called everything from a "small but mighty lady" to a "street fighter" to the "voice of our humanity." Her beloved husband Ossie Davis, whom she married in 1948, died in 2005. The Rev. James Forbes Jr. in his remarks said Davis had likely been waiting for her outside the pearly gates since then. The ceremony was both sad and funny, celebrating someone who was both "mommy" and an icon who faced down apartheid in South Africa. "This was an absolute celebration," actor Courtney B. Vance said afterward. Dee's long career earned her an Emmy, a Grammy, two Screen Actors Guild awards, the NAACP Image Award, Kennedy Center Honors, the National Medal of Art and the National Civil Rights Museum's Lifetime Achievement Award. Former New York City Mayor David Dinkins read a letter from Barack and Michelle Obama that praised her for an "extraordinary life" and for "throwing open the doors of opportunity."

A Section on 09/22/2014

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