Flow kicked off the summer with a major competition where one lucky customer could win an all-expenses paid trip for two to the BET Awards in Los Angeles to be part of the much-loved BET Experience. Eleanor McKnight was that lucky winner who was jetted off to LA VIP-style courtesy of Flow and BET.

Persons from all over the world were treated to three days of endless entertainment at L.A. LIVE with concerts from a few of the industry's finest such as Snoop Dogg, Ne-Yo, Ice Cube, and others. However, Friday night went to Nicki Minaj, while Kendrick Lamar took Saturday night's concert ahead of the headline acts.

Third staging

Now in its third year, the BET Experience at L.A. Live Music Festival is an alliance between BET Networks and AEG Live, the developer/operator of L.A. Live and Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.

Heart throb Ne-Yo was off to a great start on Friday night, setting the pace for Minaj, who took quite a long time to come to the stage. However, the disgruntled patrons immediately got over it as she made her way on to the stage in her usual provocative manner. Decked out in black from head to toe in a figure-hugging bodysuit, there was no stopping Minaj when she started to spit rhymes, coupled with well-choreographed dance sets. As she transitioned from one performance to the next, the cheers from the audience intensified until she got to Anaconda, her latest ode to the voluptuous rump, and the intensity went through the roof of the Staples Centre. After Minaj's performance, the audience made its way over to Club Nokia to see Miguel in concert, where the neo-soul singer entertained with tracks from his 2012 breakout album, Kaleidoscope Dream.

Hip-hop night

With Saturday night dubbed the hip-hop night, rapper Kendrick Lamar held his own against old-school hip-hop veterans Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg. Lamar had the audience rhyming to every lyric as he breezed through songs from his new but impactful repertoire. Also making his way back to the stage after a 20-year hiatus was rapper/actor Ice Cube, who shouted, "To those who thought my rapping career was over, you better check yourself before you wreck yourself," to cheers and applause from the audience. Cube also performed with a few surviving members of the hip-hop group N.W.A.