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Johnny Gill reflects on insane year ahead of New Edition’s BET Award Lifetime Achievement honor

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Courtesy of BETThe 2017 BET Awards kick off this Sunday from L.A.’s Microsoft Theater, a ton of A-list talent is expected to perform and present trophies, including Mary J. Blige, DJ KhaledChris BrownMigos and Future.  

One of the honorees, Johnny Gill, along with his New Edition bandmates, will receive the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, which he says he just can’t believe.

“All the guys are truly excited that we’ve done this 34 years and to finally be acknowledged for the long history of work that we’ve been putting in…no words can explain or describe this,” he says.  

“This whole year has just been insane.” 

Insane sounds about right, as New Edition, who first burst onto the scene in 1983 with their debut album Candy Girl, experienced a whole new resurgence in popularity thanks to the release of their super-successful BET biopic, The New Edition Story.

Gill says of the biopic, “We were beyond surprised, because we had a feeling it would do well. But we just didn’t have an idea it would do what it did. Almost 30 million viewers. Unbelievable.” 

The host of the BET Awards is SNL’s Leslie Jones, who predicts that the gala will be “crazy,” is “looking forward to seeing” and meeting New Edition herself on Sunday.

“I’m looking forward to seeing all of the performers, actually, that they have on there,” she says.

As for the nominees, Beyoncé goes into the awards with the most nods: seven in all.  Bruno Mars has five nods, followed by SolangeChance the Rapper and Migos, who each have four.  

In addition, Chance the Rapper will receive the Humanitarian Award.  

Tune in to find out who wins at the BET Awards, live this Sunday, June 25 at 8 p.m. ET on BET. 

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