FUSE TV - 2012 BET Hip Hop Awards: The 11 Best Moments

Last night's airing of the 2012 BET Hip Hop Awards already came with its share of drama, with footage surfacing of Gunplay and 50 Cent's crew going at it in the parking lot while nearby, Rick Ross and Young Jeezy peacocked for imagined supremacy.

But hey, stuff actually happened onstage too. If you missed the show, here are the 11 things you need to know to become an instant expert.

• Rick Ross performed "Hold Me Back" donning a fur coat, necklaces you can't afford and little else on top

• Rakim, the greatest rapper to ever pick up a mic (Editor's note: this is fact, not opinion), received the I Am Hip-Hop Award, BET's icon award. “He is the creator of a whole style of hip-hop,” said Common in a video montage

• Kendrick Lamar picked up Lyricist of the Year Award, beating out J. Cole, Nas, Kanye West and Jay-Z. No Gaga spotting, though

• A Tribe Called Quest performed "Award Tour" while Q-Tip asked the crowd to throw up an "L" in memory of deceased manager Chris Lighty

• Missy Elliott, clad in a giant V in tribute to Lighty's Violator Management, amped the crowd up with "Get Ur Freak On." Busta Rhymes would wear a similar jacket for "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See"

• Fat Joe and 50 Cent performed on the same stage on the same night and not swinging at each other

• A visibly shaken LL Cool J delivered a poignant eulogy to introduce the Chris Lighty tribute. "We lost somebody truly great in the music industry," said LL.

• 10 years after releasing his first album under the name Tity Boi, 2 Chainz won Best New Artist, proving that a name change in hip hop is an automatic career restart

• Diddy ad-libbed "Y'all can't multi-task" before assisting Future on the "Same Damn Time (Remix)"

• MGK, hooked by two wires, lowered from the rafters for "Wild Boy."

• The West Coast Cypher featuring Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, DJ Quik, E-40, Xzibit, Kurupt and YG crossed generations, reminded the world why E-40 is the greatest and allowed everyone to imagine what it must be like to hang out with DJ Quik for a night