Alicia Keys urged the crowd to "talk about life"
About 3,000 people attended the four-hour benefit gig, UrbanAid2, at New York's Beacon Theatre, according to the charity LifeBeat, which organised the event.
A videotaped address from former president Bill Clinton was among the messages played between the acts.
The audience heard black and Hispanic people accounted for 58% of the 774,000 Aids cases recorded in the US by the end of 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Chairing the event, hip-hop mogul Sean Combs, who records under the name P Diddy, urged the audience to practise safe sex.
"We're going to beat this epidemic in our own community," he said. "We've got to protect ourselves."
Actress Rosie Perez, who was given an award for her work against Aids, said too few members of the black and Hispanic communities were lobbying politicians with her.
"We don't need white people to fight our fight. We really can do it ourselves," she said.
"In saying that, I want to thank white people for fighting our fight," Perez added.
As well as P Diddy, Keys and Jay-Z, rapper Ja Rule and soul singer Musiq played at the event.