WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Patting his pants pockets, T.I. claimed he couldn't find the acceptance speech he had prepared for the Hip-Hop Inaugural Ball at the Harmon Center for the Arts on Monday (January 19). So he went off the top of his head with an ode to all the things he's thankful for; the speech left the crowdmembers stunned and on their feet.

"I want to thank God for giving me the strength, the wisdom, the patience, the resilience, the perseverance to make it through one of the toughest times of my life," he said. The rapper's past few years have included the murder of his best friend and assistant Philant Johnson, his arrest on weapons charges and a one-year prison sentence he's slated to begin in March.

He improbably thanked the U.S. government, "the U.S. attorneys who prosecuted me in my case for giving me the opportunity to make a difference -- real talk," he said, as an audience member shouted out, "That's the man!"

"I want to thank God for somehow ... I know he perfect. So I'mma thank him for everything. I'mma thank him for making me drop out of school. I'mma thank him for making me run the streets. I'mma thank him for making me sell crack. I'mma thank him for making me have shoot-outs. I'mma thank him for allowing me to watch my partners die in my arms," he said, his voice rising and quickening and taking on the cadence of a fire-and-brimstone preacher. "So I'd be fearful enough for my life and paranoid enough to go out and cop machine guns and silencers so I catch a fed case and I have to put up $3 million for my bond so I have to spend seven months of my life in my house, so I have to spend a year of my life in prison just so I be validated enough to get out there and touch the youth because they know that I done been through it, and if I say it, it means something. You know what I'm saying?"

A look of relief on his face, Tip asked the clapping and hollering crowd to give him a minute, calling out an earlier speech by Young Jeezy -- another MC honored earlier by show sponsor the Hip-Hop Action Summit Network -- who double-checked to make sure his name was on his award. "I'm gonna make sure it's my name on it, 'cause I don't normally get awards for doing good stuff," Jeezy joked.

Also honored during the event were pioneering female rapper MC Lyte, Bow Wow and LL Cool J. Mario opened the show with a cover of Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror," leaning in extra hard on the lines "I'm gonna make that change for once in my life" as a montage of notable African-Americans flashed behind him. The show was closed by special guest Busta Rhymes, who took the stage with Spliff Star for a medley of hits, including "Ante Up" and "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See."

"Be the Change: Live From the Inaugural" will air live on MTV on Tuesday, January 20, at 10 p.m. ET/PT. MTV News will have wall-to-wall coverage of the event and of the scenes in Washington, D.C., New Orleans and Kenya in the days leading up to the event and in the days that follow.