carey. it celebrates the contributions of african-american greats tonight on b.e.t. joining me now from los angeles is the mrbinson. thank you for being here. >> thank you, joy. congratulations on your show. >> you received a lot of awards. you have been kennedy center nominee, grammy living legend award. what makes this special that's coming up tonight? >> well, especially for me because barry gordy is my best friend. he's getting the award. i'm very happy that i was there to present it to him. and when he gets an award i think all the awards that he could possibly get are long overdue because he changed the face of the world with music. and then aretha franklin happens to be my longest living friend. i have known aretha since i was 8 years old. it was just a wonderful night. and i was very happy to be a part of that. >> yeah. barry gordy, aretha, you were talking about a time when there was so much civil up heaval. was it it like making music in that turbulent time of the civil rights era? >> i think it was just something so beautiful to see what music could do. during that time we were trying to pass legi