After a nearly four year wait, fans of The Weeknd finally received his fifth album, After Hours last week. The album did fairly well critically but it did even better commercially, debuting atop the Billboard album charts. It’s The Weeknd’s third No. 1 album and, thanks to After Hours, fourth No. 1 release overall.

The album, which had a first-week total of 444,000 equivalent album units sold, served as the biggest opening week for The Weeknd, surpassing the previous mark set by his 2015 album, Beauty Behind The Madness. On top of that, After Hours also had the biggest overall opening week and the second-biggest pure album sales week of 2020, falling second to BTS’ Map Of The Soul 7, which nabbed 347,000 pure album sales in its opening week. Of the 444,000 equivalent album units sold, 275,000 were pure album sales — most likely coming from the merch bundles he offered on his website — while 163,000 were streaming equivalent album units.

In addition to the aforementioned accolades, the first-week numbers for After Hours gave it he biggest streaming week ever for an R&B album, registering a total of 220.7 million on-demand streams, and the biggest overall week for an R&B album since Beyonce’s 2016 album, Lemonade.

Elsewhere on the top five, Lil Uzi Vert’s Eternal Atake moved down one stop to No. 2, with 115,000 units sold, and Lil Baby’s album, My Turn, also moved down a spot to No. 3 with 60,000. Bad Bunny’s YHLQMDLG comes in at No. 4 with 51,000 units sold and Conan Gray’s debut full-length album, Kid Krow, checks in at No. 5 with 49,000 units sold.

Read our review of After Hours here.

[via Billboard]

The fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has impacted the entertainment industry on every level, with movie releases delayed and an endless list of productions put on ice, all because the need to practice social distancing has made gatherings unsafe as the virus spreads. One show that was already on pause, however, was Rick and Morty.

The Adult Swim cartoon has a lot of episodes on deck, but for months now only five from the current fourth season have been made available. With fans hoping to hear news of an airdate for episode six — the last new episode aired on December 15 — any Rick and Morty is welcome.

Thankfully, Adult Swim shared a short on YouTube that features a perhaps-canon samurai battle over a very important Morty. The video starts when a Rick is pushing a Morty along and a bunch of portals open up and reveal a group of Ninja Ricks, one of which reveals that this Rick is about to be in a lot of trouble.

The Rick is addressed as Rick WTM-72, who has apparently kidnapped Shogun Morty.

“That Morty is not a Morty that you nitwits can just make off with,” the subtitles say, though the audio is Japanese and the typical Rick burps and gurgles. “Hand him over and we will let you have an easy death.”

It’s clear that the Ninjas are here to get him back, but it will not end without a bloody fight. The message carrier’s arms get sliced off dramatically just as the threat is finished, setting up a very bloody battle.

Rick WMT-72 is certainly a formidable foe, and that includes some savvy technological moves. At one point the cart carrying Shogun Morty reveals spinning blades that cut off a lot of ninja ankles. He even manages to take down an extremely large Rick, but that only draws more enemies into the field for him to fight.

Oh, and some smoke bombs that cause Rick and Morty to trip the hell out.

Even Rick WTM-72 is mesmerized, but just for long enough to realize the dancing critters floating around him through space and time are actually there to kill him. That sets up a final samurai battle with a bearded Rick and WTM-72, the ending of which I won’t spoil here. But it’s certainly a good time-killer for fans desperate for more Rick content as isolation continues. And of course, it adds yet another layer of possible canon for the show’s already very splintered and uncertain timeline.

Many of us are a good way into our quarantine as COVID-19 continues its American siege. We’re anxious, we’re angry, we’re sad, and we’re also probably more than a little bored. We need stuff to imbibe. Luckily many entertainers have stepped up to the plate: Musicians have recorded videos of them playing songs, actors have recorded videos of them reciting Shakespeare. And now Spike Lee has given you not something to watch but something to read.

As caught by Deadline, the legendary filmmaker — almost certainly antsy about not being able to shoot a new project while quarantining — decided to head over to Instagram and make available an old script that never made it to production. It’s called Jackie Robinson, and it’s a biopic about the trail-blazing baseball deity. And now you can head over to Dropbox, download it and imagine it being real.

In a video posted alongside the text, Lee said it was a “dream project” that he’d planned to make with Denzel Washington not long after their 1993’s Malcolm X. Alas, it was too slow to get going, and eventually, as per Lee, “Denzel said he was too old.”

The script, which Lee wrote by himself and adapted from Robinson’s autobiography I Never Had It Made (as told to Alfred Duckett), runs 159 pages and chronicles his career as a barrier-breaking all-star player for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Lee noted that his many fans shouldn’t “worry about it if you don’t like baseball or sports,” adding, “This is a great American story.”

So crack one open and imagine what a Spike Lee movie starring Denzel as Jackie Robinson would be like, asking yourself where he’d drop one of his famed “people mover” shots. There’s few better ways to flatten that curve.

(Via Deadline)

Miranda Priestly = goals.

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Here’s to looking super present in that video call while getting other stuff done just off camera.

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The US will not be opening back up by Easter.

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C’mon…I know you’re curious.

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Video games have been a very practical outlet for millions of people stuck in their homes as they do their best to practice good social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic, and now we know that practice is World Health Organization approved.

The WHO announced earlier in the week that it has partnered with video game companies to encourage people to stay home and, well, play video games as a way to help flatten the curve.

The #PlayApartTogether hashtag encourages people to use gaming to make human connections that won’t be at risk of spreading coronavirus by remaining safely away from others.

Many gaming companies have used the hashtag to share information about the WHO’s COVID-19 safety guidelines as a way to help gamers take precautions as coronavirus cases rise worldwide, especially in the United States.

This is a pretty significant stance by the WHO, especially considering that in 2019 the organization actually classified “gaming disorder,” or playing games to the point of addiction, as an illness. Clearly COVID-19 is a far more dangerous and deadly ailment than gaming disorder, so it makes sense that the organization would encourage solo gaming as not only a way to practice social distancing and pass time but also interact safely with others through online play.

Finding a Nintendo Switch console to occupy yourself with has become increasingly difficult and it seems the coronavirus pandemic has made it all but impossible to do so without paying a hefty price. Part of the problem is the arrival of Animal Crossing on the Switch, as the special edition of the console was essentially sold out well before the game was actually released. But with the coronavirus keeping folks inside and the World Health Organization actually encouraging people to play video games, demand has gone up even further.

For people who would like to get into gaming the Nintendo Switch may not be a reasonable option thanks to the pandemic. The console appears to be all but impossible to find online at retail price, which for many is their only option now that visiting retail stores is not encouraged.

As of this writing the cheapest Switch available for purchase on Amazon starts at $469, hundreds of dollars over the $299 retail for the full-sized model. The only consoles available are all from secondary sellers, as the console is sold out through Amazon’s own vendors. Walmart has similar price gouging issues, and Forbes pointed out Best Buy has Switches available but apparently not able to deliver until the second week of April.

It’s not impossible to get a Switch if you really want one. Some stores like Target still have stock available in some models for in-store pickup, though going out to buy a video game console may not be considered an essential trip no matter what the WHO says. Those models, however, tend to be the Switch Lite, the cheaper more handheld version of the console.

There’s certainly something to be said about supply and demand here, or maybe price gouging during a global pandemic. But even when you take into account Nintendo’s fairly consistent supply shortages, it’s clear folks trapped at home are trying their best to keep occupied with new hobbies. Unfortunately for most, checking out Animal Crossing or Breath of the Wild won’t be an option unless they already have their console or are willing to pay a premium.