Category: News

Traveling during a pandemic is risky, no matter who you are or where you’re going. It’s also beset with rules and restrictions put in place every step of the way, from airports to airlines to governments of the places you’re visiting. Depending on where you’re going, breaking those rules can have serious consequences—beyond just potentially spreading a deadly virus.

Skylar Mack, 18, learned that lesson the hard way after she was arrested in the Cayman Islands for breaking the British territory’s mandatory 14-day quarantine. The Mercer University pre-med student from Georgia flew to the Cayman Islands on November 27 on a visit with her boyfriend, Vanjae Ramgeet, 24, who is from the territory. According to TODAY, Mack tested negative for COVID-19 before she left and again after arrival, but was still supposed to remain isolated for two weeks.

On day two of quarantine, Ramgeet competed in a jet ski competition and Mack went to watch him. According to local news, neither of them wore a mask or practiced social distancing at the event. Mack also left the electronic bracelet she was supposed to wear behind, after reportedly asking the public health department to loosen the tracker the day after her arrrival.

Both Ramgeet and Mack were arrested for breaking pandemic protocol.

The Cayman Islands are home to about 64,000 people and have seen 311 cases and two deaths from COVID-19. The territory has enacted strict rules for keeping their numbers low, including quarantining travelers. Punishments for breaking the rules were increased the day before the jet ski competition, according to Cayman Compass. Previously, a breach could result in a sentence of up to one-year imprisonment and/or a fine of $1,000. That was increased to up to two years imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $10,000.

Ramgeet and Mack both pled guilty to the breach, and were initially sentenced to 40 hours of community service and a $2,600 fine. But a prosecutor successfully argued that the sentence was not stringent enough to serve as a deterrent to others who might be tempted to break the rules. On appeal, Mack was sentenced to four months in prison. She and Ramgeet are the first people to be sentenced under the Caymans’ harsher punishments.

Mack’s lawyer, Jonathan Hughes, argues that the government is trying to make an example of Mack without taking into consideration her age and history of responsible behavior. Mack, an honors student, has never had any run-ins with the law.

“They’re two young people who have never been in trouble before,” Hughes said in a phone interview with The Associated Press. “This is the first time they’ve had interaction with police, the courts, prison.”

In an interview on TODAY, Huges said, “This particular sentence would have a particularly harsh effect on her, and the court ought to have considered the individual before it, not just the crime.”

In a conversation with TODAY, Mack’s grandmother indicated that it was out of character for her granddaughter to break the rules.

“It’s not like her to make this kind of a mistake,” Jeanne Mack said. “She knows she screwed up. She knows she should have to pay for it.”

She also shared how Skylar is faring in prison, where she’s been since December 15.

“She cries, she wants to come home,” Jeanne Mack told TODAY. “She knows she made a mistake. She owns up to that, but she’s pretty hysterical right now.”

People have reacted to the story in predictably divergent ways, with some saying that four months of prison for an 18-year-old who simply went to a jet ski competition is too harsh, and others saying that she’s legally an adult and has the same responsibility to follow the laws of the nation she’s in as any other adult. Some feel that young adults often make stupid choices and that Mack could learn from her mistake without such a harsh punishment, while others point out that a deadly pandemic is not a time for leniency for “youthful indiscretion.” There’s also no shortage of people with little sympathy for someone who has the privilege of being able to travel to a tropical island in a pandemic choosing to flout protocols in place to protect the entire population.

Meanwhile, Mack’s lawyer and family are hoping for an overturn of the four-month imprisonment. Hughes is arguing in a court of appeals today for a lesser sentence, and the family is trying various avenues, including contacting President Trump.

Mack was originally scheduled to fly home today. While there are no binding quarantine rules for Americans returning from international travel, it’s perhaps worth pointing out that the per capita death rate from COVID-19 in the U.S. is 30 times higher than in the Cayman Islands.

“I am a photographer that is incredibly interested in the built environment. And not just what we build, but why we build it. What are the power dynamics? What does it say about what we value? I’ve long argued that you can look out of a window and see how we value each other as people, or if we value each other as people at all…”

When photographer Micah Cash first set out to take photos out of Waffle House windows across the Southeast, he was simply looking for a conceptual framework to talk about income inequality, social mobility, and the working class. What he ended up finding was a subject in itself — a regional restaurant chain that held uncanny weight in the lives of those who frequented it.

“What came out of the project was this… other half,” he notes. “Not quite nostalgia, but people’s true appreciation for a place where they can be themselves and where they were accepted and that accepted them amongst all the hardships in their lives.”

Cash is a Charlotte, North Carolina based photographer whose work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions throughout North America and Europe, with two published books to his name. His most recent project, Waffle House Vistas, caught our eye for how it examines the dreary, often repetitive modern American landscape during late-stage capitalism, and how that intersects with our current era in food. Inspired, we decided to chop it up with Micah over the phone for an in-depth discussion of the project. He also shared some of his favorite photos and moments from his travels to Waffle Houses across the American Southeast.

So… why Waffle Houses?

It came about for two reasons. One, from a conceptual side, I was looking for a framework and a metaphor to talk about income inequality, social mobility, and to make work about the working class, which is some segment of society that I certainly come from. I’ve been looking for a number of years, how to properly make work about it and start conversations about it, in a way that is respectful amongst everybody who’s a component of the working class and a part of the working class.

There’s a lot of stories that exist out in the world that are not really mine to tell, as a white dude. What is my role in telling certain stories and trying to bring as many voices to the table as possible? So that was part of it. The other part was Waffle House really seemed to fit that metaphor, but it also allowed me to be very conceptual in my artistic approach. So I could go to all of these different restaurants that were exactly the same, didn’t matter what city I went in, and people’s love for Waffle House seems to be very vast.

It’s a restaurant with a persona, for sure.

I was able to do the work I wanted to do in a place that is notorious for just a “live and let live attitude.” I joke that a lot of times, if I wanted to make this work in a McDonald’s, people would’ve probably thrown me out. But in a Waffle House, you can do whatever the hell you want, as long as you’re being respectful. That certainly was true. I can photograph the parking lot and no one is really going to care. People would certainly talk to me about it, but it’s not like people felt threatened by someone making photographs out of a window at Waffle House.

It was a nice space that not only hit all the points I wanted to talk about in terms of content, but also had a physical location that lends itself to the kind of work I like to make. Then the cultural phenomenon that is Waffle House. I don’t think this project would mean as much if I were photographing Hardee’s as it does with Waffle House.

I don’t think I really have a whole lot of memorable experiences in a Hardee’s, but I certainly can recall memorable experiences from Waffle House.

All the photos in the series concern Waffle Houses in the southeastern part of the United States. Why there? Is that a particular magnet for Waffle Houses or is that just an area that you wanted to explore?

I am from the Southeast, and I currently live in Charlotte, North Carolina, and I chose early on in this project to limit most of my travel to the Southeast. I wanted to keep this in the Southeastern proper because Waffle House is, I guess, usually known as a Southeastern chain, even though it exists in 25 states. So I wanted to play upon that. But also the discussion of it being so broad, I think I wouldn’t have been able to prove the same contents and fulfill the hypotheses if I had gone into Texas, I had gone into the stores in Arizona because I think looking outside, the built environment is most likely going to be the same. All that’s going to change is the geologic environment.

So you might have the mountains into the sea, but there’s still those two hotels and a McDonald’s out the window in Chattanooga, for instance, or something like that. I wanted to keep it regionalized, and it just felt tighter in that regard as a Southeastern chain that has a headquarters outside of Atlanta and a fast-food chain that most people, if you’re a Southern ex-pat, think of fondly when they think of their time in the South or coming back home.

The point of view from your photos positions the viewer in the booth. What was the idea behind that?

That’s one of the components of the project that I am really the proudest about — because what I was able to do with the framing on each of these photographs and the repetition of it in many ways. That is by design, that I am making a photograph from that particular place. I wanted you, the viewer, to be in that place as well.

So they exist in multiple levels with certainly a point of view shot that is autobiographical. But when you enter that space as a viewer, you become the patron looking up and looking out over the vista from that table. I wanted it to also bring in lived experience, and I think the framing of it is a nice job, where if you enter these photographs visually, you can conjure the sights and the sounds and the smells of a roadside diner very easily, even if you’ve never been into a Waffle House.

If you have been into a Waffle House, you can conjure up your own experiences that you’ve had. So it places you in this very interesting space where you bring 40, 50% of the content of the photograph actually coming from your experience, and then you’re meeting me halfway. I think that was a really important tool for me to get people into photography — into these photographs — because that’s not always the case. Sometimes an artist can be very biased and very controlling.

In this case, I was very controlling. I dictated what you see, but I’m also forcing you to bring your life into these photographs to make them your own.

On that note, did you snap photos from the booths you were seated in? Did you ask for specific … Well, I could tell, based on the fact that sometimes the view is a wall or a car, that I don’t think you purposely chose these booths. So was that part of the concept as well, to see where you got seated?

I had a very strict regimen that I would do in order to maintain a level of authenticity. Most of them, if not all of them, are randomly entered. I’d be on the road. I would just say, “Oh, it’s been 45 minutes. Let me go here.”

Then sometimes I would say, “Well, I haven’t been to Nashville yet. Let me go get a couple of shots in some stores in Nashville.” But I would enter these restaurants and I would find a space to eat. They never really sit you in a Waffle House. You sit wherever there’s a space or where you feel comfortable.

So a lot of times, I would go into these spaces, and they would be full and I would take whatever space was available to me. If I would enter a restaurant at say, three in the afternoon, I could choose wherever I wanted. So I’d be a little bit more choosy in those spaces.

Then I would only make photographs from where I was seated. I wanted it to be authentic, in that regard. So if I was seated at one of the bars, I would turn around and photograph the wall Or photograph the parking lot. It would be a very mundane image. So the images would be random at times.

I would also eat at every restaurant. Usually, it would be a side of toast and some black coffee. That way, I would have a true Waffle House experience and just talk to the servers. If it was in the morning, I would get eggs or something. There are a couple of photographs where I was in that restaurant for so long because I was talking to either patrons or a waitstaff or the cooking staff, that I would get a little choosy. I would say, “You know what? I’m going to stand up and go over here.” That’s mainly just because the shot was too good. I just had to make that photograph.

But by and large, 95, 96% of them were photographed from wherever I was able to get a seat.

Some of the commonalities that pop out to me, obviously the red booths, because they’re all designed the same. But from outside of the windows, you see a lot of gas stations, hotels, other restaurant chains. I think McDonald’s pops up a couple of times.

What are the commonalities that pop up to you?

I am incredibly interested in the built environment and not just what we build, but why we build it. So what are the power dynamics? What does it say about what we value? I’ve long argued that you can look out of a window and see how we value each other as people, or if we value each other as people at all, or if we view each other as a commodity or a means to wealth or something in that regard.

So that discussion and that contemplation of architecture is interesting to me. What do I see out of Waffle House? Why does there seem to be Waffle Houses next to payday loan lenders, next to Dollar Generals next to hotels and motels, usually of the extended-stay variety? I can make some pretty reasonable hypotheses about that, in an educated way, in terms of how corporations serve different populations.

But looking out the window, those commonalities tended to shift right as we would think. So I photographed just as many restaurants in suburban locations as I did rural locations, as I did urban environments. Part of that was pushing back against the narrative that Waffle House is strictly a rural phenomenon. It’s not. It’s also not strictly a white rural phenomenon. The demographics across the map and the demographics in a Waffle House usually look like the demographics of America.

In America, there is a segment of our economy that is built to make money off the poor or off of people who might be in more precarious positions. You certainly see that, and that’s not a critique on Waffle House because I think providing fast food all hours of the day is a worthwhile endeavor, but it does overlap in a Venn diagram of some other ways that we build around them, and other business models that companies might have.

Is there a moment in this journey that sticks out to you as significant, be it a conversation or something that you witnessed?

Absolutely. I make a point in my essay specifically to talk about how Waffle House is not always positive, and certainly, in 2018, that wasn’t the case. There were a string of racial violence incidents, and that was difficult — making this work, thinking about what was going on. Fast food is also a stage where tensions in our culture boil over. So I want to acknowledge that it’s not always positive. However, most of the people I have spoken to and throughout the life of this project and in the years since the project has been complete, have had positive experiences.

I went to about 65 restaurants and never really had a negative experience. Some of the most positive experiences were when I was talking to people. They would come up to me whether they worked in the store or whether they were eating. They would say, “Why are you photographing the back of that store across the street?” Or “Why are you photographing the cars in the parking lot?”

I would tell them what I was doing, and then we would end up having an hour-long conversation about who they are, their biography, my biography. One gentleman, in particular, in Richmond, Virginia stands out. I was the only person in this store. It was a restaurant out by the airport. I had gone in at about 2:30, which is a great time to photograph in a Waffle House because you’re usually by yourself and it’s in the middle of shift change.

He and I just started chatting and he was younger, probably college age. I often teach as a college professor, adjunct. So I can relate to him as a college-age student. He had escaped some type of family situation in the Midwest and he didn’t elaborate, but it was clear that he needed a fresh start. So he really just packed his car up, and he drove out to Richmond and got a job at this Waffle House and was relocating his life.

What was really phenomenal about it is he had so much hope and he had so much optimism that he had made the right decision and that he was starting something new and was really looking forward to that next chapter in his life. That was actually really common with most people that I talked to. In this country, everybody works really hard. Everybody that I had talked to had this element of looking forward to when things would be easier for them and when the hard work would pay off.

That was really reassuring and incredibly heartfelt, and something that will stick with me. I’ve had a conversation similar to that with people over email, once the project was published. People reaching out to me and telling me what one particular Waffle House in their own town meant to them, and asking me if I do this again, “Will you go to that store and make a photograph for me, because I haven’t been to my home town in 20 years? But that one restaurant got me through high school. That one restaurant got me through college.”

I think that’s really astounding, the passion that a restaurant can have, that effect on people. I didn’t necessarily think that at all when I started this project. It was more me, a conceptual photographer, thinking about these big lofty issues in the built environment and income quality and economic stability. What came out of the project was this other half, which was not quite nostalgia, but people’s true appreciation for a place where they can be themselves, and where they were accepted and that accepted them amongst all the hardships in their lives.

That was awesome.

“And now, here is the host of Jeopardy! Alex Trebek.”

Johnny Gilbert has introduced Alex Trebek as the host of Jeopardy! over 8,000 times, but he’ll say it for the final time on January 8. That’s the airdate of the last episode that Trebek taped before he died from pancreatic cancer at 80 years old. In a special issue of People, Gilbert, 96, remembers Trebek as a special talent and all-around good guy.

“Alex has always been the same person. He was very introspective, he read a tremendous amount, and traveled a lot. He was always doing crossword puzzles to keep his mind active,” Gilbert said. He called Trebek “very intelligent” and revealed that he was “always telling the youngsters in the audience, ‘You’ve got to read, you have to learn. That’s the way you’re going to succeed.’” Gilbert also told an amusing story about a question an audience member once asked Trebek. It involves thongs, obviously:

“He would answer any question anyone wanted to ask. He would get so involved that we would have to hold up coming back out of commercial for him to finish with the audience, but he insisted,” Gilbert said. Some of those questions [were] silly. “One gal asked him, ‘Boxers or briefs?’ Alex took a beat and said, ‘Thongs!’ I told him a long time ago, ‘If this show goes away, you could be a stand-up comedian.’ He always loved to do jokes.”

Gilbert doesn’t know who will replace Trebek as the next host, but he has some advice for them. “Jeopardy! is a very special game. All that information that he gave out, aside from what was actually on the show, was in his mind,” he told People. “Somebody has to be able to handle that. If the person lets the show be the show, it will be fine.”

(Via People)

Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor once said he “couldn’t give less of a sh*t” if he and his band got inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. He has since changed his tune about the Rock Hall to a more supportive one, though, and last month, he and NIN bandmates past and present — Atticus Ross, Robin Finck, Chris Vrenna, Danny Lohner, Ilan Rubin, and Alessandro Cortini — got inducted. Now, Reznor has said initially, he was the only member set to get in, but he made sure his bandmates got the credit they deserved.

Speaking with Consequence Of Sound, Reznor said:

“From my perspective, I just felt it was the right thing to do. I think, kind of lazily, the approach was, ‘OK, we’re just going to induct you.’ Then I thought I’d push back and say, ‘Well, you need to at the very least induct Atticus, and you should induct these guys.’ And that was pre-pandemic. And the endless kind of justification of that, which wasn’t necessarily fought by me, as much as me telling my manager, ‘Make this f*cking happen … Enough.’

It’s backed up by the precedent where you could look at other bands and say, ‘The Cure got these guys in. That guy’s been in the band X amount of time.’ Again, I wasn’t the one presenting the case, but I felt strongly that it’s a shared recognition, and it would certainly feel better to me. It wasn’t rolling a boulder up a hill. They weren’t against it. I don’t know where their minds were at, but I’m glad it turned out the way it did.”

Ross also spoke with the publication about his induction, saying, “From my perspective, I try and approach life without any expectations. Something like being inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, and something like Trent going out on a limb to make sure that happened, I’m incredibly flattered. And I think it’s incredibly generous. I mean, did I ever think I was going to be in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame? No, I never thought that would be the case. Did I ever think any of this was gonna happen? I’m just trying to get through the day. You know what I mean? So, it’s all been good.”

Meanwhile, Reznor recently got one step closer to becoming an EGOT winner, as he’s only one award away now.

ESPN’s Monday Night Football deal with the NFL doesn’t give them the opportunity to flex games as NBC’s Sunday Night Football does, and as such when the powers that be release the schedule, there are going to be some duds — particularly because they try to get most teams at least one spot on the primetime showcase.

As such, when you get to the end of the year you aren’t always treated to important games for both teams like last week when the Browns and Ravens played in a thriller (with a little poop controversy to help spice things up further). This week is a great example of that as the Steelers look to hang around with a shot at the No. 1 overall seed in the AFC Playoffs against a Bengals team that will be starting Ryan Finley, their third starter this season due to the season-ending knee injury suffered by top overall pick Joe Burrow a few weeks ago.

There isn’t much drama about who will win this game, at least barring something truly unbelievable, and as such ESPN has decided to dip into it’s Disney bag of tricks to boost a little interest. Enter, the Muppets.

Yes, the Muppets will be popping into Monday’s broadcast here and there, although Steve Levy, Brian Griese, and Louis Riddick will be on the call for the game as usual, Kermit, Miss Piggy, Animal, and many more will be dropping in at various points to add some extra entertainment, via ESPN.

Starting at the top of the telecast (8 p.m. ET, ESPN), Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy will make their debut in the broadcast booth while Fozzie Bear reports from the field, Statler and Waldorf join from the stands, and Animal comes in with the drums. Then, right before kickoff, the Muppets will return for a Carol of the Bells music video.

You can be assured that this will lead to some frustration from the football viewing public, but, look, it’s Steelers-Bengals and the Muppets rule. Honestly, I’d take a booth that’s just Kermit calling the action while Statler and Waldorf drop snarky remarks once this game gets out of hand in the second half. That’s not going to be the case, but considering the general lack of stakes in this one, the more Muppet action we get the merrier.

The last few weeks of the Billboard Hot 100 chart have been very similar to how the chart wrapped things up in 2019. Like last year, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” found its way to No. 1. Also like last year, some other holiday classics are back in the top 10, although in 2020, they’ve come out in greater force than ever before.

A footnote from Carey’s historic chart run last year was the fact that on the chart dated December 28, 2019, four total Christmas songs were in the top 10 of the Hot 100, which at the time was tied for the most ever. Now, though, that record has been eclipsed: On the chart dated December 26, 2020, there are six holiday tunes in the top 10.

Returning to the top 10 from last year are Carey’s hit (which fell from No. 1 down to No. 2 this week), Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” (No. 3), Bobby Helms’ “Jingle Bell Rock” (No. 4), and Burl Ives’ “A Holly Jolly Christmas” (No. 6). The other additions to the top 10 that weren’t there last year are Andy Williams’ “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” (No. 7) and José Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad” (No. 10). All of the aforementioned songs were released at least 50 years ago, aside from Carey’s, which came out 26 years ago.

When Carey’s song returned to No. 1 again this year, she shared a surprised message, writing on Instagram, “WOW! I truly wasn’t expecting this at all!! Eternally grateful for the enduring success of this song. ‘I don’t want a lot for Christmas…’ just wishing for a bit more JOY and some holiday spirit for all, especially this year. Merry Christmas! Love, MC.”

In 2016, money was flying around like never before in NBA free agency, as a cap jump saw teams flush with cash and yet to fully understand how to best use it. That led to some massive contracts for the lucky players who happened to be free agents that year, particularly role players who had excelled the year before.

Guys like Bismack Biyombo, Allen Crabbe, Chandler Parsons, Ryan Anderson, Tyler Johnson, Harrison Barnes, and Kent Bazemore all cashed in on massive deals thanks to strong seasons playing a particular role the year before. Those players eventually became cautionary tales for teams about the dangers of taking their massive amounts of cap space and investing them in long-term deals, which has led to teams being much more shrewd in similar situations, often offering big money on shorter deals to avoid ending up locked in to an albatross of a contract that mucks up the cap sheet for years to come.

I covered the Atlanta Hawks in 2016 and Bazemore’s 4-year, $70 million raised an awful lot of eyebrows as he suddenly was going from being a role player to being paid like a star, which brings the expectation of star production. Instead, Bazemore remained himself, which is a very solid and useful player, capable of filling gaps on the wing, bringing energy on defense, and working best offensively off the ball as a cutter and spot-up shooter in the corner. There is always a place in the league for players like that, but fans grow frustrated quickly with a player making a lot of money who isn’t producing to the expectation of a contract (or draft position in the case of lottery picks).

This isn’t the fault of players, who should always secure as much financial security as possible, but more an issue of teams not recognizing what makes a player successful and paying them with the expectation of something more.

I say all of this to lead into the situation Jerami Grant finds himself in with the Pistons, after inking a three-year, $60 million deal to leave Denver for Detroit. We don’t know exactly how negotiations went, but reports emerged after Grant chose the Pistons that the Nuggets had offered him the same deal but wanted him to continue playing the role that made him their third best player in the 2020 postseason, whereas the Pistons offered a larger opportunity, particularly on offense.

Grant chose the allure of a more prominent on-ball role, something he didn’t have at all in Denver. With the Nuggets last season, 100 percent (yes, ONE HUNDRED PERCENT) of his made three-pointers were assisted. Overall, 84 percent of his made baskets were assisted, per Cleaning the Glass. Since he came into the league, that percentage has never been lower than 73 percent. Thus far through the preseason, the adjustment to a larger role has been rocky.

The preseason sample size is admittedly small, but the trends that caused many to question the move by the Pistons to promise Grant a greater on-ball role have continued in Detroit. His usage rate has jumped to 27 percent (it was 16.1 percent a year ago) but his true shooting percentage has plummeted to 44 percent (last year it was 59 percent), and he has just two assists to go along with 12 turnovers. Pistons coach Dwane Casey addressed those problems Grant’s having on Monday and said something that was a bit eye-opening.

And here you see the dilemma facing the Pistons, who are quickly understanding what Grant is best at and what his weaknesses are, but are in the position of having apparently promised him a role playing more into those weaknesses and less to his strengths. Grant is exceptional playing off the ball and thrived in that role in Denver. He has become an excellent catch-and-shoot player, has terrific hands to catch and finish at the rim as a cutter, and is best when taking just a few dribbles to attack closeouts and step in for a rhythm jumper off one or two dribbles. What he’s not great at is being an offensive initiator, creating for himself and others off the bounce.

Beware of the Baze. That’s a warning to both teams and players. Understanding who you are as a player and where you’re going to be at your best is important and also requires a certain humility and willingness to be honest with yourself, a difficult thing in a profession that requires immense self-confidence. For teams, it’s about recognizing what someone is best at and figuring out how to get them to do that as often as possible, not pushing them away from that role just because they’re coveted elsewhere.

Bazemore never found that next step to take in Atlanta, partially because of a roster that quickly changed around him but also because that simply isn’t who he is as a player. In Sacramento last season, his third stop in as many years, he played well and showed the value he can still bring to a team in the role at which he excels. He’s now back in Golden State where he started his career and will be asked to do that again, bringing the energy off the bench and I would expect him to thrive in it. He’s a good player capable of helping a contender, just not of playing a starring role on one.

Jerami Grant is a better player than Bazemore, but faces some of the same problems. He’s an above average starting wing in the NBA, capable of raising both the floor and ceiling of a team as a two-way menace, as we saw last year in the Nuggets run to the conference finals. He’s not, however, a superstar and simply isn’t efficient as an on-ball playmaker, either for himself or others. It’s possible with more reps he’ll get there, but quite literally every trend and stat from his past suggests otherwise.

That sounds like a slight, but it shouldn’t be. Not everyone is a superstar and there’s a way to get in where you fit in and thrive, something Grant did in Denver. He is a tremendous, versatile defender with a smooth shooting stroke who spaces the floor and attacks soft spots in the defense off the ball. That’s worth a lot in the modern NBA, enough so that Denver was apparently willing to pay him $20 million to continue doing that for them. The problem is, now he’s in Detroit where he wanted an expanded role, one that he might not be best suited for, and it’s clear that the coaching staff is even recognizing the flaws in that plan just four preseason games into his tenure.

GOP Senator Joni Ernst is facing intense criticism after being one of the first in line (like other senators) to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. The Iowa senator became a trending topic on Twitter after she posed for a photo of herself getting the vaccine despite her public statements downplaying the pandemic. During a campaign event in September, Ernst accused doctors of inflating the number of COVID cases to line their own pockets. “These healthcare providers and others are reimbursed at a higher rate if COVID is tied to it, so what do you think they’re doing?” Ernst said. She also said that she is “so skeptical” of the death counts. Via Little Village News:

“Asked to clarify her remarks after the event, Ernst said that’s ‘what I’ve heard’ from healthcare providers, but wasn’t sure if that meant numbers were being inflated,” the Courier’s Annie Rivers reported.

“They do get reimbursed higher amounts if it’s a COVID-related illness or death,” Ernst told Rivers. “I heard the same thing on the news. … They’re thinking there may be 10,000 or less deaths that were actually singularly COVID-19. … I’m just really curious. It would be interesting to know that.”

The notable contrast between Ernst’s COVID remarks and her quickly hopping in line to get the vaccine caused a significant backlash on Twitter:

Ernst joined Florida Senator Marco Rubio in being roundly roasted on Twitter after receiving the vaccine despite routinely attending superspreader events and joining his fellows Republicans in downplaying the severity of the pandemic. For a political party that routinely referred to the coronavirus as a hoax, they certainly didn’t hesitate to be first in line for the cure.

Tobi Lou struggles to hold back tears on his new single “2Hrs.” The emerging Chicago presaged his long-awaited album Parrish Blue with a dazzling video for its melancholy single on Friday, visually representing the metaphorical expressions of his pain with a bold color scheme and a hypnotic video full of floating jellyfish. The reflective video is directed by Tobi Lou himself along with his frequent collaborator Glassface.

Tobi had a relatively quiet 2020, pushing back the release of Parrish Blue to 2021, but that didn’t stop the indie artist from making long strides in his journey to increased acclaim. In September, he released the soothing “Pretty Much” video featuring a nostalgic glance back at Chief Keef’s “I Don’t Like” video. Then, in November, he dropped back-to-back collabs with even more of his Chicago brethren. First, there was “Okay,” a flirty exchange with Dreezy, then a few weeks later, he teamed up with Saba in the latter’s video for “So And So.”

All along, he’s been releasing self-shot visuals for more singles, including “Student Loans,” the animated “Darlin’,” “Notice Me,” and “Cheap Vacations.” He’s proven prolific and consistent in 2020; now all that remains is to put it all together on Parrish Blue.

Watch Tobi Lou’s “2Hrs” video

2020 saw an unprecedented increase in representation for women in hip-hop. Newcomers like Doja Cat and Megan Thee Stallion topped the charts, bringing with them longtime vets like Nicki Minaj and current queens like Cardi B. Meanwhile, Chika, Flo Milli, Mulatto, and more had tremendous breakouts. Even Noname had a moment, thanks to her incisive clap back toward J. Cole’s finger-wagging “Snow On Tha Bluff.”

But while more women than ever made it to the charts, covered our favorite magazines, and dominated our playlists, the music industry as a whole still continued to fail women in rap in a variety of ways that undermined the celebration of this fertile era of growth. From continuing to stoke non-existent beef to failing to recognize women on the highest-profile platforms to straight-up glossing over many of the women who dropped stellar projects this year, critics and the public proved they need to look beyond the surface and truly appreciate the work being done by women in hip-hop.

First, let’s address the element in the room: The double standard that has permeated hip-hop culture since its inception in the ’70s and apparently continues unabated into our modern context despite the increase in female talent in multiple arenas at nearly all levels of the industry. Hip-hop — both the music and the culture — has always been a microcosm of our society, so it’s no surprise that as women have made strides athletically, economically, and politically, there will always be someone seeking to hold them back to maintain a crumb of privilege.

Just days before this writing, one of the most prolifically filthy and explicit rappers the genre has ever produced fixed his silver tongue to worry about the potential effects of the Cardi B hit “WAP,” placing himself on the same side of the debate as trolls like Ben Shapiro. When Snoop Dogg said, “I just don’t want it that fashionable to where young girls express themselves like that,” he apparently forgot that he was responsible for songs like “Ain’t No Fun (If The Homies Can’t Have None)” himself.

Then, there was the Megan Thee Stallion shooting incident and its fallout. While Tory Lanez’s male collaborators like Jack Harlow shrugged in apparent apathy after he was indicted for shooting Megan in the feet, Lanez’s own fan brigade launched a vicious anti-Stallion campaign that saw them question her story, counter-claim abuse on her part, and even call her a man. Remember that when 50 Cent was shot 20 years ago, this culture practically turned him into a rap deity. There are some who question whether Megan was even shot, despite her Instagram post from the operating table as she was having bullet fragments removed from her heels.

That same cavalier, sexist attitude extended to the treatments of women like Chika, Doja Cat, and Noname, who were all ridiculed or questioned, barely afforded the benefit of the doubt, and whose accomplishments were downplayed by male rap fans who protested that men deserved the accolades they did accumulate. Chika’s presence in the 2020 XXL Freshman Class was slated while fans disparaged her physical characteristics, body-shaming her by comparing her to Gunna. Doja Cat, whose old, self-questioning song was resurfaced, got dragged by fans for supposedly participating in racist chat rooms on the slimmest of evidence — the word of jilted fanboys disappointed when she reneged on her promise to “show my boobs so hard” if her song “Say So” reached No. 1 on the Hot 100.

Even 53-year-old rap legend Nas joined in, rapping a dashed-off reference to the controversy on his new album. Nas, who spent a good 80 percent of the songs on his album living in the past, made only seven other recent pop culture references on the entire album — one dedicated to berating Gayle King for holding men accountable for past actions. He also never quite got around to discussing the accusations against himself for abusing Kelis, but was still praised for returning to form on The King’s Disease.

Meanwhile, despite the impressive accomplishments of all these women, there were no female rappers even nominated for the 2021 Best Rap Album Grammy — the second time in two years after Rapsody and Cardi B were at least included in the discussion in 2018 and 2019. I guess Cardi’s win was supposed to retroactively cover all the previous years’ women who got overlooked with some credit left over for the next few. While fans rightfully made a fuss over missing contemporary favorites like Lil Baby’s My Turn, the fact that Flo Milli and Mulatto were left out should raise just as many hackles.

But even if they’d received nods, it would still not be enough to address the dearth of critical coverage of women who hadn’t yet charted at major publications. Doja, Megan, Noname, and more all got plenty of attention, but where was similar love for Che Noir, Chika, Lyric Jones, or Sa-Roc? All four released excellent projects this year — and in Che Noir’s case, several — but many major music publications completely overlooked their work in favor of pursuing coverage of favored headline mainstays, despite providing plenty of coverage to other emerging underground acts — notably male ones. When they did, it was in the context of their co-signs from established male acts, like Phonte Coleman executive producing Jones’ Closer Than They Appear or Che Noir’s proximity to Buffalo label Griselda Records, despite not being signed there herself.

Then again, maybe they are just supplying the demand. The fact remains that media outlets tend to print what gets the most engagement. Any given writer or team only has so much bandwidth to devote to surfacing new and rising talent. Maybe the reason they can’t dedicate as many resources to these acts is because fans only allow enough attention for a handful of female rappers at a time — and no guarantee they’ll even accept these new artists if they do pay attention to them. Look at how they treat Chika and Lizzo, two women who don’t offer up the same presentation men claim women should be pursuing. Look at how widely ignored Che Noir and Lyric Jones and Sa-Roc’s stylistic forebearers like Jean Grae and Rapsody have been, even among female-focused Twitter accounts like Female Rap Room and its spin-offs.

Cardi said it best: When she made “Be Careful,” offering a personalized glimpse behind the glammed-up facade, fans rejected her. When she made “WAP,” she went No. 1, broke records, and stayed at the forefront of the conversation about women’s new dominance of rap for weeks. When rap fans bring up Noname and Rapsody, it’s usually to chastise women for being too raunchy, then they berate these paragons of virtue for being too outspoken about topics like the commodification of Africa and the toxic effects of capitalism. They get flattened into pro-Black, respectable caricatures of themselves, despite Chika’s defense that they can be just as filthy as the women they get juxtaposed against.

And while fans, critics, and fellow artists hold much of the responsibility, nothing absolves labels of their tendency to chase past successes and put the mantra “sex sells” at the forefront of their marketing strategies. Since Cardi B blew up, nearly every female rapper to receive a deal has operated from the same blueprint. There’s nothing wrong with that blueprint, by the way, but when there are dozens of nearly identical versions of the same sexed-up ideal, what incentive do fans have to choose any of them — especially when labels barely support them unless they get a viral hit, and even then may still shelve them?

Dej Loaf, Dreezy, Kamaiyah, and Tink were all XXL Freshmen at one point, yet most of them have since departed from their major label deals in favor of independent careers. They’ve flourished, releasing fiery works of art on their own terms, but those works have, again, been largely ignored by mainstream music publications. Kamaiyah dropped three separate projects this year alone, earning her the lion’s share of the blog coverage, but fans haven’t buzzed nearly as much as they had for drama-centered artists like City Girls, whose reckless tweets and “off-beat” flows have drawn almost as much attention as their actual album. For what it’s worth, even the narrative that Yung Miami can’t rap seems based more on taunting her into a response as much as anything else.

Despite all of the strides that have been made in securing representation for women in hip-hop, there is still a long way to go. Not only is the battle against long-entrenched attitudes that make it difficult for any woman anywhere to succeed at anything, but it’s also against the complacency that allows us to look at how far we’ve come and tell ourselves it’s enough. In truth, there is no “enough,” no benchmark for the culture to reach when we can argue that everything is truly equitable. The end goal should be the process, to be constantly re-evaluating whether we’re doing all that we can to pursue the ideal that everyone is getting a fair shot.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.