MTV Drops Ball By Not Paying Homage to Ananda Lewis at 2025 VMAs

There’s no doubt Ananda Lewis brought originality, depth, and inspired a culture during her time on MTV. However, her death wasn’t acknowledged at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards, despite her presence even after her time on the network. 

Lewis died on June 11 at the age of 52. She battled breast cancer for several years before her death, opting to utilize holistic treatment instead of a recommended surgery by her oncologist. 

Lewis worked at MTV from 1997 to 2001. She left the network to host her own talk show, but remained a staple on red carpets and beyond for several years before she left entertainment journalism altogether.

MTV failed to highlight Lewis in any capacity or in a memorandum moment during the award show. It took rapper Busta Rhymes to pay homage when he accepted the inaugural Rock the Bells Visionary Award. 

After thanking his loved ones, including his parents and children, he paying paid to Lewis. “I want to thank — and I think we all need to acknowledge — the incredible woman that loved us very much when we came to MTV during the ’90s. An incredible woman that loved me and she loved us. She loved the culture; she lifted us up,” he said. “I love her very much. I miss her very much. The late, great, incredible royal empress Ananda Lewis. I want to pick up her mother, her father, her sister Lakshmi.”

Lewis hosted Total Request Live and Hot Zone during her MTV tenure. In 1999, The New York Times declared her “the hip-hop generation’s reigning It Girl.”

Lewis left behind a 14-year-old son, Langston. She died on the morning of his 8th grade graduation. She’d reportedly told loved ones she hoped to make it to see him walk and died at home in hospice care. He attended his ceremony in her honor.