Popular gospel singer and founding pastor of Hill City Church in California, Deitrick Haddon, has criticized BET for giving secular rapper GloRilla the Dr. Bobby Jones Best Gospel/Inspirational Award at the 2025 BET Awards on Monday, arguing gospel is not her “space.”
The annual award, which was first handed out in 2001 and named after famed gospel singer and television host Bobby Jones, is usually given to an urban contemporary gospel artist based on sales and overall quality of their content. The 25-year-old GloRilla, whose real name is Gloria Hallelujah Woods, received the 2025 award for her song, “Rain Down on Me,” featuring gospel stars Kirk Franklin and Maverick City Music.
Both Franklin and members of Maverick City Music joined the rapper on the stage as she awkwardly accepted the award in a genre she isn’t known for.
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“First of all, I want to thank God because this is a gospel award, huh. This my first BET Award, even though I’ve been here three years to get nominated six times. It’s a blessing to get the Gospel Award first because I owe it all to God,” she said in her acceptance speech, revealing that she was initially afraid to ask Franklin to feature on the song because of her reputation as an artist.
She is well-known for her explicit and raunchy rap style and frequently uses strong language about sex and hustling in her music.
“I ain’t going to lie. I was kind of scared to ask him for a feature on this song because y’all know how I be rapping, but I was like, ‘Oh my god’ When he said yes, I was so excited. I had this song in the ball for so long,” she explained.
In a statement shared on Instagram Tuesday, Haddon argued, without mentioning her by name, that while giving GloRilla the Dr. Bobby Jones Best Gospel/Inspirational Award may have been a ratings boon for BET, it was a black eye for the gospel music industry.
“No disrespect to the artist, but that’s not the space she’s in, and it makes it discouraging, disappointing, and it takes the wind out of all of it. And we wonder why gospel music is dying. It’s because we’re doing things like that,” Haddon said.
He criticized the black entertainment network for habitually giving the award to the same people. While Haddon himself has won the award a few times, Franklin holds the record for the most Dr. Bobby Jones Best Gospel/Inspirational Award with seven.
“We’re tired. Nobody will say this, but I will. We’re tired of seeing the same people celebrated year after year like there is nobody else in gospel music,” Haddon said. “Nobody else is working. You cannot just give it to one person as if they’re the one that’s keeping it going. No. We’re done with that. … Last night was a great win for the ratings of BET … but it was not a win for the gospel music industry. We gotta do better.”
Haddon suggested that BET involve more people who know the gospel music industry in selecting the award recipient.
“In order to have something different, you have to do something different. So we need people in the room that know gospel music, that’s in the trenches of gospel music, that’s advocating for the genre as a whole and not one particular person,” Haddon argued.
Other Christians who watched GloRilla receive the Dr. Bobby Jones Best Gospel/Inspirational Award on Monday, like Jodie Walton III, president of Bridging the Gap Urban Ministries, also questioned the selection.
“Black internet seems to be pretty chatty about GloRilla winning the Dr. Bobby Jones Best Gospel/ Inspirational Award at the 2025 BET Awards. And I get why, but here’s the thing … Gospel is simply a genre of music based on content to the music industry,” he said in a statement on X.
“When Christians hear the term ‘gospel music,’ we automatically tie its eternal implications to it. But people who aren’t wholly in the faith often just see it as music to uplift and encourage people. So by that definition, I understand why she won,” Walton said.
“Is it right? I don’t know if that’s the right question. Do I agree with it? No. Namely because of Dr. Jones’ name tied to it. And because his name is tied to it, there is a certain caliber of artist that should be winning this award.”
Still, Walton noted that it wasn’t the first time a secular artist was being recognized for producing gospel/inspirational music. Rapper Snoop Dogg was nominated for a Stellar Award three times in 2019 for CD of the Year, Contemporary CD of the Year and Special Event CD of the Year for his hit studio album Bible of Love.
“Don’t forget … Snoop was nominated for a Stellar Award when he produced a gospel album, lol,” he quipped before hoping out loud that GloRilla’s Dr. Bobby Jones Best Gospel/Inspirational Award might draw her closer to Jesus.
“I will say though that after hearing her debut album, I hope that this moment is something that push her towards, or dare I say, closer, to Christ,” he wrote.
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