Michelle Obama made a surprise appearance at last night's BET Awards show, filming a brief speech to introduce Chance the Rapper, who was set to receive the event's Humanitarian Award for his work with kids in Chicago, the former first lady's hometown.

"Barack and I are so sorry that we can't be there tonight in person, but please know that we are with you in spirit. And we are so incredibly proud of you, Chance," she told the crowd. "In addition to making some really amazing music, Chance has been taking that big, bright spotlight that follows him around, and he's shining it on young people in our hometown of Chicago."

The crowd was clearly thrilled to see Obama, whose speech was presented by the CEO of BET, Debra Hill. As for the first lady, she seemed genuinely pleased to introduce the young star, whom she said she had known "since he was a wee little baby rapper."

Chance's community work focuses on funding for the public school system in the Windy City. In his acceptance speech, the 24-year-old acknowledged his youth, but in a humble manner:

I was gonna say it feels a little early to get something like this. But my God doesn’t make mistakes. And I like to think he’s putting this enormous pressure on me to see how I act. And I had plans to tell the world and everyone watching to make the world a better place. But my big homie Reese told me that we gotta work on ourselves before we change the world.

He went on to criticize the criminal justice system, particularly for imprisoning young people for marijuana use, while failing to imprison anyone for several recent high-profile police shootings.

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