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Nav’s ‘Good Intentions’ Lands The No. 1 Spot On The ‘Billboard’ Album Charts

Ten days removed from his third studio album, Nav has another accolade to add to his list. Landing another No. 1 album, Good Intentions finds itself atop the Billboard album charts. The achievement comes nearly a week after Nav shared the deluxe version of the album, titled Brown Boy 2.

In its opening week, Good Intentions tallied a first-week total of 135,000 equivalent album units. Of that number, 73,000 units were pure album sales, which can be credited to the merchandise and album bundles sold on his website, while 62,000 units came from streaming numbers. The album also serves as XO Records’ second No. 1 album following The Weeknd’s After Hours.

Looking at the rest of the chart, Kehlani earned her highest-charting ever with It Was Good Until It Wasn’t coming in at No. 2 with 83,000 equivalent album units. Her previous high came with her 2017 album, SweetSexySavage which debuted at No. 3 at the time of its release. Slipping down a spot, Drake’s Dark Lane Demo Tapes can be found at No. 3 after a second-week total of 79,000 units. Receiving a boost from his recently released deluxe version for the album, Lil Baby also spends another week in the top-five with My Turn coming in at No. 4 with 72,000 units. Lastly, Lil Durk earns his second top-five album with Just Cause Y’all Waited 2 coming in at No. 5 with 57,000 units.

Other notable albums in the top ten include Bad Bunny’s surprise album Las Que No Iban a Salir at No. 7, Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake at No. 8, and The Weeknd’s After Hours at No. 9.

[via Billboard]

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Five ‘Last Dance’ Followups We Want To See From Unused Footage

The Last Dance comes to a close on Sunday night with the ninth and tenth episodes of ESPN’s 10-hour documentary on Michael Jordan and the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls. It has been a highly entertaining watch and a welcome escape for sports fans each week, even with the warranted questions about Jordan’s involvement in the production and the impact that’s had on what has (and has not) been presented in the documentary.

As we come to the end of The Last Dance, we wanted to explore some followups we’d want to see from all the footage that didn’t make it into this cut of the doc, as we know there are hundreds more hours of footage and interviews that got left on the cutting room floor. Given that they went with the route of not just looking at the 97-98 season and instead dove into the history of Jordan and the Bulls, there’s a ton that didn’t make it in. Here are five followups we want to see to The Last Dance, starting with one I think everyone hoped would be more prevalent in the documentary.

1. “The Practice Tapes”

I would love for them to cut together hours of Bulls practice footage, because the few snippets they’ve given us have been some of the most interesting — and really the only new information — parts of the whole documentary. I want more Jordan trash talking Scott Burrell and other teammates. I want more Phil Jackson leading yoga and teaching the triangle. Just generally, I want to see more of these practices that have so long been discussed as legendary, when we only got a few minutes of that footage in the documentary.

2. “Jordan’s Wide World Of Golf”

I want all the Michael Jordan golf footage. They teased us with that round in Florida (that was for some reason cut after a practice in Indiana, but whatever). Whether it’s just playing that whole round in its entirety or if they have more Jordan golfing footage we can watch, I’d very much appreciate that. Jordan is a good golfer but not a great one, and there’s something comforting about seeing one of the greatest athletes ever dealing with the same frustrations the rest of us do in trying to master a different sport. Also, I really would like to see more Jordan betting on the golf course, because I’d wager that can escalate things quickly.

3. “Jordan Watches Interviews”

Maybe the most entertaining part of the entire series has been every time they hand Michael Jordan a tablet and have him watch someone else they’ve interviewed talking about him. It’s given us a look at the pure disdain and hate he still has for Isiah Thomas, an extremely condescending “The Glove!” after Gary Payton insists he gave Mike trouble in the 96 Finals, and a rather adorable moment as he watched his mom read a letter he wrote her in college. It’s all been gold and I demand they give us more. They did 106 interviews for this documentary and there’s no reason they can’t just film Jordan working a cigar and glass of tequila, reacting to whatever they have to say about him.

4. “Storytime With Ahmad Rashad

First, I want a separate documentary about Ahmad Rashad, because his life is absolutely fascinating. Second, I would really just enjoy watching Ahmad Rashad tell stories about Michael Jordan, as there’s probably not many people that know Jordan better or were around him more often than Rashad — I mean, he’s literally riding in Jordan’s car to a playoff game at one point. I highly doubt Rashad would be willing to dive too deep into untold stories, but a fella can dream and if he wanted, Ahmad could definitely give the world some gold.

5. “The World Series Of Poker: Bulls Plane Edition”

Show us the card games, cowards. I know you have the goods, and I want it. Really, I’ll take all the ridiculous Jordan gambling footage you’ve got — plane card games, pitching quarters, and whatever else he would put $1-$100,000 on.

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Hannah Brown From “The Bachelorette” Said The N-Word On Instagram Live And Her Apology Sucks


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Jeffree Star Addressed The “Cremated” Palette Controversy


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Marc Maron And Many Others Mourned The Death Of Director Lynn Shelton

Saturday brought news that comedic actor Fred Willard had died at age 86, but another Hollywood death was equally shocking. News spread Saturday that director Lynn Shelton had died suddenly as a result of a blood illness. The Hollywood Reporter noted that the director, 54, played a big role in the independent film circuit and was involved in a number of beloved films. She also served as a director for television, helming episodes of Glee, Mad Men and more recently, The Morning Show.

Much like Willard’s passing, news of Shelton’s death sparked an outpouring of support and grief from those that knew and worked with her. Shelton’s partner, Marc Maron, also released a statement about her death on Saturday.

In a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Shelton’s partner, comedian Marc Maron, indicated that the director collapsed after having been ill for a week. “I loved her very much as I know many of you did as well,” he wrote. “It’s devastating. I am leveled, heartbroken and in complete shock and don’t really know how to move forward in this moment.”

He called her a “beautiful, kind, loving, charismatic artist,” adding, “her spirit was pure joy.” He went on to say, “She made me happy. I made her happy. We were happy. I made her laugh all the time. We laughed a lot. We were starting a life together. I really can’t believe what is happening. This is a horrendous sad loss.”

Others in film and TV soon joined in mourning her loss, including Ava DuVernay, who shared a touching story about Shelton’s influence on her career.

The showrunner for Apple TV+’s Dickenson shared memories of Shelton, who directed two episodes in 2019.

Others involved in Dickenson also shared memories of Shelton.

It was a sentiment that rang true throughout Hollywood on what’s been a sad weekend of news.

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Stana Katic Opened Up About Being Fired From “Castle” And Said She Was “Confused” And “Hurt”


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People On TikTok Are Sharing The Snacks They “Invented” As Kids, And Some Look Pretty Delicious


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34 Things To Help You Get Excited About Summer, Even While Socially Distancing

Including if you don’t have a backyard.


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New Metas And Heroes Have Changed Overwatch League For The Better

The Overwatch League is in the middle of their third season, a departure from its first two in a number of ways. New for 2020 was the traveling schedule of home matches in cities across the world, a scheduling decision cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now the hallmark of Overwatch League’s third season is a return to online play, but that’s not nearly the biggest difference in the league.

This season has brought a distinct change in the meta, or overall strategy and the heroes that each team chooses to play with. Traditionally metas have dominated games like Overwatch. It’s impossible to perfectly balance a game and as such certain characters are going to feel more powerful than others. Bring them all together and you can create some unstoppable combos, which is why Blizzard-Activision is constantly updating and balancing the game to help shift it away from overused metas.

Despite Blizzard’s best efforts, the first two seasons were dominated by metas with most matchups turning into a six-on-six of the same heroes every single game. What wasn’t helping matters for the Overwatch League, in particular, was that while the main game played by ordinary gamers was constantly updated, Overwatch League would frequently play on older versions with older meta combos.

“This is actually one of the things that did not change in response to moving online.” said Jon Spector, vice president of Overwatch League. “In the first two seasons we had stages where the regular season was sort of broken up into quarters. In that structure we made a decision where we’d say ‘Hey stage one was going to be played on this version of the game.’ Even if throughout stage one the game got updated we wouldn’t update it on OWL.”

This year, however, the league shifted to a more traditional regular season with no mid-year reset, which meant as the game updates so will the league itself. This creates an exciting opportunity when it comes to new features being added to the game. Yes, there are constant balance changes that players have to adjust for, but if a new hero is dropped into the Overwatch universe it could completely alter the balance of the game itself. Someone like Echo.

New heroes are a huge part of the Overwatch experience. They’re an opportunity to play with a new set of skills and potentially change the game, and while it may take an ordinary gamer years to fully understand how best to utilize new characters, the pros have quickly figured out how much the new build changes the game itself.

“It was awesome seeing Echo,” Spector said. “From a viewership and a fan perspective we think it’s really important, and our fans appreciate seeing the pros play the same game that they do, and so the closer we can have OWL to what you and I play at home we think is for the better.”

Watching pros utilize Echo can also help regular gamers build strategies for play on their own time, an important lesson that can be taken from a league no longer competing on older builds of the game. Spector said this switch was intentional, and the results have been encouraging to say the least.

“We wanted to come up with a different logic that felt fair and consistent that the teams and players could prep for,” Spector said. “What we’ve done is basically outline for them typically when the game receives a new balance patch or in this case a new hero: ‘Here’s the process of the timeline by which we would then move that into the Overwatch League.’”

The addition of Echo has helped create a lot of excitement in these online-only matchups, as each team utilizes her ultimate ability — to copy a hero on the opposing team — in a completely different way. Do they want the bulkiness of a tank or the potential of an extra support ultimate? The flexibility has helped create more differences among the teams and disrupt matches from falling into the same patterns from earlier seasons and matchups.

Another concept helping to change things up are the Hero Pools, which “removes” four heroes — two damage dealers, one tank, and one healer/support — from the game for one week. The move has completely changed the strategies teams have to use in different situations. Even when teams use the same hero compositions they’re using different styles on different maps: One team might go with the Winston-D.VA tank combo to dive on to their opponents while another might use an Orisa-Sigma double shield combo.

“A lot of season two in 2019 was about teams racing to sort of perfect a specific meta or specific strategy for months on end,” Spector said. “The introduction of hero pools but also things like Echo, I think, shift the emphasis more toward rapid innovation and experimentation and trying to theory craft.”

The goal, Spector said, was to force pros out of the metas and strategies that seemed unavoidable and to experiment with something new. And through the league’s third season it’s been a clear success in both diversifying the strategies in-game and the entertainment value for fans watching at home. Seeing the pros adapt to the game’s changes has helped others playing to do the same because, as Spector pointed out, for many watching Overwatch League is part of their process in improving their own game.

“I think for eSports as well the goal generally is one of the most consistent reasons you see when you talk to fans” said Spector. “Why do you watch this sport? ‘I want to get better. I want to learn. I want to see what the pros do.’”

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Ludacris Debuted Songs With Lil Wayne And Chance The Rapper During His Versuz Battle With Nelly

Following the record-setting battle between Jill Scott and Erykah Badu, Timbaland and Swizz Beatz’s Versuz platform returned on Saturday with their latest offering: Nelly vs. Ludacris. The 20-song battle found the southern legends duking it out with some of their best records, songs that also brought a sense of nostalgia to the more than 400,000 viewers that tuned in to watch. While the first half of the battle was riddled with connection issues on Nelly’s end, the two rappers got it together to bring the second half to a smooth close. Aside from the actual battle itself, Ludacris decided the platform and the large attendance would be a perfect opportunity to debut some new music.

While Nelly looked to fix his connection issues, Ludacris decided to pass the time by pulling from the vault to treat fans. The first song he played is titled “Silence Of The Lambs” which sees a guest appearance from Lil Wayne. The track is also produced by Timbaland, who attempted to get Ludacris to stop playing the song, but to no avail. On the song, Ludacris alludes to the problematic figures within the black community rapping, “The world’s screwed if they pourin’ drinks like Bill Huxtable / I love R. Kelly but around my daughters, I’m not comfortable / Stand for what you believe in like Kaepernick / You either in control or you gettin’ f*cked, no abstinence.”

The second record he previewed Saturday night remains untitled, but featured Chance The Rapper and was a bit more relaxed than the Timabalnd-produced first new track. Lastly, Ludacris played a version of his 2006 hit “Money Maker” which featured Nelly on the hook. The two hoped to release the remix at the time of its creation, but disagreements on an appropriate rollout halted its release.

Ludacris also revealed “there’s a project in the works” between him, Usher, and Lil Jon, which would explain the recent release of their “SexBeat” track.