We’re still learning new things about COVID-19 on a near-daily basis but one of the earliest facts we knew about this virus was that it was particularly difficult for people with preexisting conditions. Which preexisting conditions put you at greater risk, however, was always a question that remained unanswered and up for debate. Chronic respiratory diseases like asthma or autoimmune disorders like HIV seemed likely to top that list, but a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) examining over 5,700 New York City COVID-19 patients is finally starting to give us a clearer idea of which groups are at risk.

Patients were surveyed from Northwell Health System, which has the largest concentration of COVID-19 patients in the country. The study revealed that 88% of hospitalized patients in the New York City area had more than one preexisting condition, dropping sharply to just 6% amongst patients with one or no preexisting conditions. The five most common preexisting conditions that resulted in hospitalization were hypertension (53.1%), obesity (41.7%), diabetes (31.7%), morbid obesity (19%), and coronary artery disease (10.4%), with Asthma (8.4%) as the sixth most common, and HIV the 14th most common preexisting condition (0.8%).

The median age of the patients requiring hospital care was 63 years old, and 94% of patients had at least one pre-existing condition. Researchers in the study also examined the outcome data of the 2,634 patients who had either been discharged from the hospital or died and found that 14% of them needed ICU treatment, 12% required the help of a ventilator, 3% needed kidney replacement therapy and 21% died. Patients who had diabetes in addition to COVID-19 were much more likely to require the need of a ventilator and although only 12% of patients needed a ventilator, a shockingly high 88% of those patients died, making diabetes one of deadliest conditions for COVID-19 patients.

The full study is free to download at the JAMA Network, so check that for a full breakdown of the study’s findings.

It’s going to be a long wait until the final season of Better Call Saul rolls around. That doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun with the show until then. On the TV side, Brian Grubb will certainly continue to speculate on what’s coming for this ill-fated crew, but real talk on the food tip — did anyone else get hungry when Kim Wexler described that room service burger from the swanky hotel?

I sure did. “Veils” of cheddar? “House-made” buns? High-end beef? Yes to all of that.

I knew it was my job to make Kim’s burger immediately. First, I went back and wrote down all the things Kim actually says. Right away, I could tell I was venturing into deep waters. There were also some big gaps in what Kim was describing, so I found the actual hotel in Albuquerque that Kim and Jimmy were staying at and dove into their menu. Sure enough, the Hotel Andaluz’s menu has a burger on it that’s pretty much exactly what Kim was describing, flowery language included.

With that information in hand, I went ahead and made the burger, the “house-made” bun, and the goddamn shoe-string fries. It was a lot of work, but very worth it.

SHOESTRING FRIES with TRUFFLE SALT

This is the moment Kim Wexler broke bad. Shoestring fries are the work of the devil. I’ve worked in kitchens and made a million orders of fries. I also know a lot of chefs and cooks. I can tell you with authority that only an asshole chef wants their staff to make shoe-string motherf*cking fries to order.

Making shoe-string fries at home sucks. It sucks so much, I don’t think I like Kim anymore.

Ingredients:

• 4 Queen Anne Potatoes
• Dried Truffles
• Coarse Sea Salt
• Vegetable Oil
• Water

Prep:

Peel the potatoes and put them in a bowl with water as you peel each one. Pour that water off once you’re done peeling. Using a mandolin with a small teeth plate, slice the potatoes along their horizontal line.

Return potatoes to bowl and cover with room temp tap water and add a punch of salt. Use your hands to work the potato “shoelaces” in the water to draw out the starch. It’s like a gentle massage. Let sit for at least 30 minutes.

Pour that water off and then start wringing all the water out of the potatoes in a cheesecloth. Basically, you’re going to need to do a fistful at a time and really wring the life out of the potatoes until no more water drips out.

Layer the potatoes on a baking sheet lined with a towel. Pat down, set aside.

Later, we’ll fry this is small batches in vegetable oil at 350F. You’ll need to add them very slowly to the oil as they cause the hot liquid to boil up dramatically. Use a slotted spatula to move them around until golden brown and crisp. This will takes eight to ten minutes.

Move to a bowl lined with a cloth. Remove cloth. Hit with several grinds of dried truffle and salt. Toss. Serve. You’ll see them pictured at the end.

CONDIMENTS

This is where the menu from Hotel Andaluz came in handy. They list “house-made ketchup,” “hatch green chili BBQ,” and “mojo mustard” as the condiments for this mighty burger. I’m going to go over these pretty quickly.

House-made Ketchup:

• One can of Tomato Puree
• 1/4 cup of Dark Brown Sugar
• 1/8 cup Apple Cider Vinegar
• One tsp. Cumin
• One tsp. Allspice
• One tsp. Garlic Powder
• One tsp. Onion Powder
• One tsp. Smoked Paprika
• One tsp. Dried Truffles
• One tsp. Sea Salt
• Half tsp. White Pepper

Add all ingredients to a small saucepan. Stir. Bring to a bare simmer. Cover and simmer until reduced by about a quarter, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat to cool. Serve.

Mojo Mustard:

• 1/2 cup good quality Mustard
• Zest of one Lime
• Juice of 1/2 Lime
• Zest of 1/2 Orange
• Juice of 1/2 Orange
• Two Sprigs of fresh Oregano (minced)
• One clove of Garlic (minced)
• One tsp. Habanero Paste
• Pinch of Sea Salt
• Few Cranks from Black Pepper Mill

Add all ingredients to a bowl. Stir until completely incorporated. Cover and place in the fridge to rest.

Pepper Jam:

• One Green Bell Pepper
• Two Cayenne Peppers
• Two Pointed Peppers
• 1/2 Yellow Onion
• Two Cloves of Garlic
• One cup Chicken Broth
• Juice of 1/2 Lime
• Juice of 1/2 Orange
• Sea Salt
• Black Pepper
• Olive Oil

Heat a medium pan on a medium-high flame with a glug of olive oil. Add chopped onion, peppers, and garlic. Hit with salt and pepper. Cook until onions wilt. Add liquids. Reduce heat and simmer off the liquids until it looks like the image below. It should take around 30 minutes.

“HOUSE-BAKED SESAME SEED BUNS”

Kim, you’re killing me with this burger. I’ve never made hamburger buns. So I have to admit — I am curious. However, I have a busted oven. I have to eyeball the flame to set the temp and my broiler is shot. Still, I soldier on because I love this show and I want to have this recipe in my arsenal.

You’re going to need a scale for this recipe. Always bake by weight. There’s no better way. Cooking is art; baking is science.

Ingredients:

• 7 grams Dry Yeast
• 450 grams Bread Flour
• 50 grams Raw Sugar
• 250 grams Whole Milk
• 50 grams Unsalted Butter
• 1 Medium Egg (beaten)
• 7 grams Fine Sea Salt
• Olive Oil

Wash/Topping:

• 1 Medium Egg
• 1/4 cup Whole Milk
• Sesame Seeds

Prep:

Start off by putting the milk and butter in a small saucepan on a low flame on the stove. Turn off as soon as the butter melts and let cool down to at least 130-100F. If it’s too hot when you add it to the yeast, it’ll kill it.

Add 50 grams of flour, the sugar, and yeast to a large mixing bowl and whisk together. Add in the milk and butter and stir until completely blended. Let sit for ten minutes so the yeast can activate.

Add the rest of the flour, egg, and salt. Mix using a wooden paddle until it comes together into a cohesive dough.

Flour a working surface and plop the dough down.

Knead the dough for at least five minutes. I go until the dough is completely smooth and no longer sticks at all to the surface of the counter.

Form into a ball. Brush olive oil around a receiving bowl. Place the dough ball into the bowl top side down and then flip it over so that the whole ball is coated in oil.

Cover in plastic wrap and set aside. As soon as the dough has doubled in size, it’s ready.

Line a baking sheet with baking paper. Preheat your oven to 375F (mine was closer to 400F, I think) with the rack in the middle.

Roll the dough onto a lightly floured surface. Gingerly roll the dough into a foot-long log. Cut in half. Cut those halves in half. Cut those quarters in half. You’re left with eight buns.

Turn each of those eighths into balls by folding the ends under until the top is smooth. Dust each one with flour. Place them on the baking sheet with plenty of room. Pat them down so that they’re about an inch tall.

Cover loosely in plastic wrap and let them proof until they’ve doubled in size. This will take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes depending on how hot your kitchen is.

Bake:

Mix the milk and egg in a bowl until well blended. Use a brush to gently brush the wash onto each of the buns. Then, sprinkle generously with white sesame seeds.

Place in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes. I set an alarm for six minutes to turn the baking sheet around. Otherwise, let them bake. Unfortunately, I don’t have a broiler, so the tops didn’t get a nice brown to them.

Remove from the oven and place them immediately on a wire cooling rack.

I had to taste test one. So I broke it open and ate it while it was piping hot with some butter. And, wow, I’m definitely doing this again. But not right now.

CHEESEBURGER

Hey guys, we’re finally going to make this burger!

The photo below is a pretty good example of how I felt while making this goddamn burger. It’s also one of the only chances I had to see the burger in the show.

It’s kind of dark and certainly not the focal point of the shot. So, let’s take a closer look.

via GIPHY

We get another look here:

There’s not a whole lot to go on besides a thick, fancy-schmancy New York steakhouse style patty, cheese, and what looks like that “housemade ketchup” up top with a butter lettuce leaf below.

Here’s the burger from the real-life hotel for comparison. It’s what I’m aiming for in the end.

Prep:

I make two 200-gram (seven ounces) Irish beef patties. It’s 80/20 lean/fat. I hit the burgers with salt and pepper. And, since this is a boutique hotel burger, I’m going sous vide with a reverse sear. So I vac-seal those patties with a sprig of fresh sage and rosemary.

Cook:

I place the patties in a 132F water bath for two-hours. Now, it’s crucial that ground beef reaches 140F to be safe. I’m cooking them to 132F in the sous vide and then searing them off in a cast-iron skillet, which will allow the patties to hit the magic-mark of 140F. I assure this by using a meat thermometer.

I slice my home-made hamburger buns in half, butter them, and sprinkle ’em with garlic powder. I then toast them off in a ceramic pan because why not add more dishes to the pile at this point!

(This is also where I fry the shoe-string fries using a wok with one-liter of vegetable oil at 350F).

Next, I get the cast iron ripping hot with a good glug of olive oil. I fish the patties from the sous vide, remove them from their vac-sealed packages, pat them as dry as possible, and sear them off.

After they’re seared on one side, I flip them over. This is where I add a thick slice of white Irish Cheddar. I kill the heat and put a lid on the skillet, trapping in the steam. I let that sit for at least five minutes so the cheese can “veil” over the patty.

Construction goes like this:

• Bottom Bun
• Mojo Mustard
• Folded Lettuce Leaf
• Patty with Cheese
• Pepper Jam
• Housemade Ketchup on the Top Bun

Then, I grabbed a California Cab since they were 100 percent drinking red wine with their burgers and I’ve f*cking earned a bottle glass of wine at this point.

And there it is. I did it. Shoe-string fries are dumb but, I have to admit, I loved them here. They were light, crisp, full of umami, and salt. In fact, hitting fries with dried truffle flakes and sea salt is delightful — even in shoe-string form.

As for the burger, yeah, it’s goddamn delicious and messy and nap-inducing and I want it again. I just want someone else to make it for me next time. I have to say though, I’m only making my own ketchup from now on. And, home-made buns are actually worth the effort. The mojo mustard really made things sunny and sharp. The peppers were a great add on. Now, about that nap…

May 15 is a big day for Nicholas Hoult. It’s the 10-year anniversary of Mad Max: Fury Road, one of the best films to come out this century, and it’s also when his new TV series debuts on Hulu. The Great stars Hoult as the Peter III of Russia to Elle Fanning’s Catherine the Great, the country’s longest-ruling female leader. If the “thoroughly modern with occasional historical facts” trailer above reminds you of The Favourite, that’s because it was created by the Best Picture nominee’s co-writer Tony McNamara.

Here’s the official plot synopsis:

The Great is a satirical, comedic drama about the rise of Catherine the Great from outsider to the longest reigning female ruler in Russia’s history. Season one is a fictionalized, fun and anachronistic story of an idealistic, romantic young girl, who arrives in Russia for an arranged marriage to the mercurial Emperor Peter. Hoping for love and sunshine, she finds instead a dangerous, depraved, backward world that she resolves to change. All she has to do is kill her husband, beat the church, baffle the military and get the court onside. A very modern story about the past which encompasses the many roles she played over her lifetime as lover, teacher, ruler, friend, and fighter.

The Great, which also stars Phoebe Fox, Adam Godley, Gwilym Lee, Charity Wakefield, Douglas Hodge, Sacha Dhawan, Sebastian de Souza, Bayo Gbadamosi and Belinda Bromilow, premieres on May 15 on Hulu.

After about ten years of remaining dormant with his solo material, Icelandic musician Jónsi returns with the orchestral single “Exhale.” Known as the frontperson in the award-winning band Sigur Rós, Jónsi transmutes the human experience and our connection to the natural world into expansive soundscapes. “Exhale” is an example of his meticulous and experimental production.

Directed by Giovanni Ribisi and Jónsi himself, the track’s cinematic accompanying visual depicts a dancer emerging in slow motion from a black tarp. The delayed emergence mimics the track’s slow-burning production, with the dancer’s metamorphosis arriving in unison with the track’s delicate instrumentals. Opening with soft, resounding piano, Jónsi’s reverberating vocals wax and wane until a vivid crescendo of synths and percussive elements arrives part-way through the track.

Co-produced by A.G. Cook, who is currently working with Charli XCX on her quarantine album, the emotive song pushes Jónsi’s gripping vocals to new territories. “Just let it go now/ It isn’t your fault,” Jónsi repeats in the lyrics, both a mission statement and a guiding principle for the modern times.

Watch the choreographed “Exhale” video above.

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

Sometimes, all it takes is a poorly-sourced quote from a dubious outlet on social media to spark all-out war on the timeline. That’s exactly what happened today when ASAP Rocky and Nelly trended alongside “Air Force 1” as fans debated which of the two rappers was more responsible for helping to make Nike’s summertime staple one of the companies best-selling models of all time.

When the hip-hop blog Kollege Kidd posted an unsourced ASAP Rocky quote claiming responsibility for the trend — likely taken from a town hall that the rapper participated in, in which he calls Air Force 1s “wack sneakers” and says that he wore them just to see if he could spark interest in them. He comments on the number of designers that borrowed looks from him and ASAP Mob around 2011, saying as soon as people “started wearing them again, I stopped wearing them.”

However, for a certain class of hip-hop head, this contradicts the established history of the sneaker, which was the subject of Nelly and the St. Lunatics’ 2002 single paying homage to the Nike classic. “Air Force Ones” peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and very likely sparked a wave of interest in the shoe, which at the time were already one of Nike’s best-selling models.

This discrepancy naturally sparked yet another intergenerational battle on Twitter, as elder members of the millennial generation went to bat against their younger peers and Gen Z-ers to set the record straight, while younger fans backed up Rocky’s assertion. Meanwhile, still others joined in to point out the enduring popularity of the classic silhouette. One thing is for sure, though — the shoes are enough of a cultural linchpin that they are still capable of captivating the attention of fans across multiple generations and regions.

Check out some of the responses below.

Just a month ago, rap was introduced to its latest star, Memphis rapper Jucee Froot, by way of her hard-hitting major label debut Black Sheep. You’d be forgiven for thinking she came out of nowhere, but she’s actually been a fixture of the underground rap scene for some time. In 2018, she was billed as a member of Rich Gang, but since then, she’s come into her own, proving she has no need for celebrity co-signs.

The first sign of her impending stardom: Even before Black Sheep came out, Jucee had been recruited for the soundtrack to one of 2019’s most-hyped movies, Birds Of Prey. After that, she attracted fellow burgeoning superstar Rico Nasty to appear in the video for her rambunctious single “Psycho (Remix).” Her latest accomplishment: She landed a song, sight unseen, on Issa Rae’s Twitter-favorite television show, Insecure this season.

Jucee’s come a long way in a relatively short time but she’s just getting started. Uproxx interviewed the Memphis firebrand about her quarantine activities, classic Memphis hip-hop, and her placements on the soundtracks of huge cultural moments like Birds Of Prey and Insecure.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, of course, we have to start pretty much every interview with how are you passing the time while you’re not allowed to go outside?

Recording, playing with my son, playing card games, board games, taking a stroll before it gets dark outside. Other than that, that’s pretty much it. I’m trying to stay off the internet as much as possible because it just seem like it’s just worse news every day. So, I’m just saying to myself.

When did you first realize that hip-hop was kind of what you wanted to do for a living, and how did you start to make that transition from whatever you were doing before to doing this now?

I’ve basically been around music since I got out the womb, type stuff. My mama put me in the choir when I was six, and I can form words in complete sentences, and everything. And when I was in there, they told me they liked my voice. So then my sisters, they always used to sing around me, like listening to Beyonce, and everything else.

But I liked to rap. I just always liked to rap more than anything. So from then on, I started playing the piano at like 10, and on up I start writing my songs and making beats and stuff on GarageBand. And then when I got old enough, I start just putting videos up on the internet, on Facebook and stuff, and staying consistent. And then I went viral a couple of times, but it wasn’t until I met my manager, who’s my boyfriend, I met his brother, and he made me just want to do music for real. And it got to a point where I start getting all the tattoos. And I got one on my face, and I got one on my neck, and after that, I couldn’t get a job. So I just had to make it with the music.

You’re from Memphis, your name’s Jucee, that can’t be a coincidence. How much of an impact did Juicy J, Three 6 Mafia, 8Ball & MJG, and Gangsta Boo, of course, have on your musical style?

I was born in ’94, so, Three 6 Mafia is basically all that I know. DJ Paul, I spoke with him not too long ago, and he was telling me it was some people before him, but I feel like they were the people that like made everything pop. It was the way we said our words, just like Project Pat, got that sizzurp, and all of that type of stuff. I got Juicy J up on the album. As far as Gangsta Boo, she bigging me up. We’ve been conversating. I was supposed to get up with her when I was out there in L.A., but everything take like an hour and 30 minutes, so we never got to link up.

You did get to link up with Rico Nasty for the “Psycho” remix? What was the process and what does it mean to you to have that support and sisterhood from somebody who is already popping, in her own respect, coming back to show you that same sort of love?

It was good. It was nice. So, okay, I got signed, and that was one of the songs they wanted to roll with. And we was talking about features and her name got brought up. It’s not a lot of females that link together and do stuff like that.

With me being from Memphis, I’m used to people being bougie and stuck up when they on a certain platform. But she was not like that. She was so sweet. She was complimenting me. I was complimenting her. After we had got done doing one scene, she came to the trailer in there with me while I was smoking, and it’s like the vibe was just completely right.

I’m pretty sure the label had sent over the song to her and she had knocked it out, and sent it back. And I just loved her energy, and just loved her vibe, period. Working with Rico was real nice.

How did they get you to perform a song for the Birds Of Prey soundtrack? Did they bring you the concept, or did you turn something in and we’re going to just put it in the movie?

They was like, “Okay, we got this placement for you. We want to see what you can do.” It took me at least like a week or so to do it, because they had me make two different versions of it.

The first version I did, I just went straight in, just straight rapping. And the second version Daniel Pemberton had made the beat, and we was in contact with him, and this was a new sound for me. So while I was in the studio, he was like throwing out ideas, like just say some girly stuff, like girls can chant.

That’s basically what I did. And I didn’t curse on the second version. On the first version, I cursed. On the second version, I didn’t. So after everything I turned in, they wound up sending the stuff back and I loved it. They basically merged the first version and the second version together, and it just went good from there on. It was something new for me, and I was so frustrated in the booth. Like, what can I say? Because it’s so different from my regular sound. But, I’m real happy that I did it. I got new fans from overseas. They be hitting me up, they be making the videos to it, and I just loved the reaction.

At first, I was afraid that a lot of people was going to be like, “Oh, she’s not like that for real, and this and that.” But they really gravitated to it. So I was really excited about that. And my kids, they like [superhero] movies. Even though it was females, they still like [superhero] movies. And they said that they liked it.

That’s fire. What did you think of the movie? Did you enjoy it? I thought that they really did a great job but there are people that have complaints. Mainly, it comes from the fact that it’s all women.

Yeah, exactly. Because you know certain people, they just not used to that type of stuff. But I loved it. The fighting scenes, the mood swings from the females. You had the hardcore, and then you had the giggly, goofy one. Then you had the weird one that just came from out of nowhere. It was funny. It was filled with comedy, thriller, action, everything. Everything you can ask for, which is what I think women are made of. We can be sad, we can be happy. We can go crazy, we can fight, we can do whatever we want to. So I feel like basically, the movie was based on females, our personality, and just to show dudes we can do it. It was just a good movie for me to watch. And I felt like I was a part of the team watching the movie and everything.

Absolutely. Women are definitely capable of doing anything and that’s shown in no place more so than hip-hop. An interesting thing that came up in my research is that the XXL freshman 2020 nominees include 16 women, including yourself. When I say that, what does that make you think? What does that make you feel about women’s place in hip-hop?

I feel like we making an impression. Like now, the boys is finally paying attention. Y’all not the only ones that can do it no more. Now we coming in, and we not trying to overpower, but we just want to be heard. Even if people is calling it stripper rapping, pussy rapping, all of that stuff. We just want to be heard and have fun. Dudes done had enough fun, and enough time to voice their opinion. So seeing that many females on there, and I know a couple of them, and done linked up with them, it feel good, period, just to have just somebody else that’s your same gender who you can root for, and not hate on, and all of y’all is doing this together.

How do you feel like a Black Sheep?

I just say that the Black Sheep title really came from me and my manager just talking about it. I always felt like I was the black sheep of my family. I was the black sheep at my school. It’s just throughout life I always felt like I was the black sheep. People just made me an outcast because either I was too honest, or too outspoken, or I didn’t do everything like everybody else.

So, with this being my first major project dropping with a big label, I was like, “Okay. Well, we going to do something that’s going to be spoken for, that’s going to describe who I am, and how I feel.” And we just basically tried to bring it to life. Because all the tracks up on there, it ain’t the usual… it just ain’t the usual stuff that people been hearing.

It’s the stuff where not just women can relate to it, men can relate to it, too. So, I don’t feel like it’s a lot of that going on. I just went with Black Sheep and the labor had liked it when I threw the idea out there, and it was just something that we had tried, and it did real, real good. And, that’s mostly it.

How did your placement on Insecure come about?

I was a fan of the show already, but what had happened was, my A&R will call me and they’ll just be like, “How do you feel? Do you got a song for this?” Because they knew when I got signed, I had over a hundred and something unreleased songs.

So they know that I’m prepared for when they do need a placement. And they hit me, and I was excited about it. And that record had already been done. I didn’t even have to redo it. It was already done. And when they picked it, I was just excited, because that was one of the records that I really, really, really liked when I did it. They hit me up, I sent it over. In a matter of like two weeks, they hit me back and was like, “She loved it, we want to roll with this one.”

So what’s your goal for the next year? If you have everything go the way that you want it to go, what are some of the things that you’re going to be able to say this time next year, when we do another interview?

I don’t know. That’s the thing, with me, I ain’t really a materialistic person, or really worried about doing a lot of big stuff. I just want my kids to just… if I was to pass away or anything happen to me, I just want my kids to be paid up for life, and they kids to be paid up. I could say that I could see a Grammy or performing on BET Hip-Hop Awards or even playing in a TV show or something. I just want everybody to hear my music and be able to relate. And for some people that’s going through depression or whatever situation that they in, that my music can help them. That’s where I get my enjoyment from. I don’t really care for the trophies and all the other stuff that come with it.

Jucee Froot is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

This week in hip-hop is so stacked, there isn’t even enough room to cover it all. So, while we hit on our faves at multiple levels of exposure from just-under-the-radar to superstar-in-the-making, there is plenty more to look for, from Azizi Gibson’s latest to yet another new release from E-40. Giving the artists below some spins shouldn’t prevent you from checking out Jackboy’s self-titled debut, Lil Gotit’s Hood Baby 2, Quelle Chris and Chris Keys’ reunion Innocent Country 2, or Ron-Ron’s joint EP with Compton rapper YS, Street Icons, but these are the projects we’ve been anticipating the most.

Here are all the best new hip-hop albums coming out this week.

Asher Roth — Flowers On The Weekend

The originator of so-called “Frat Rap” returns with a reflective, jazzy project that blends his love of abstract, funny, and surprisingly insightful raps with some newfound maturity, letting him rap about grown-up topics alongside an astonishing roster of guest stars that includes Buddy, Joyce Wrice, Lil Yachty, and more.

Fivio Foreign — 800 BC (Before Corona)

The burgeoning superstar arrived last year with the Pain And Love EP, launching his career in spectacular fashion with his hit single “Wetty.” Now, he follows it up with another EP that aims to prove his breakout success was no fluke, bringing more New York drill sounds to the broader hip-hop landscape.

Ivan Ave — Double Goodbyes

Ivan Ave hails from Norway and has opened up the boundaries of imported hip-hop with nineties-inspired, jazz-heavy beats from producers from Dâm-Funk, Kiefer, and Kaytranada. It’s left-of-center, smart, introspective hip-hop that works on both intellectual and emotional levels.

K Camp — K.I.S.S. 5

For the fifth installment of K Camp’s K.I.S.S. mixtape series, the Milwaukee rapper said he wanted the “coldest R&B artists in the game” to join him. He’s come close, recruiting 6lack, Ari Lennox, and Tink for the tongue-in-cheek “Black Men Don’t Cheat,” as well as Jacquees, Jeremih, and Wale — who may as well be an R&B artist himself — on separate tracks.

Kierra Luv — Take It Or Leave It

The 18-year-old Harrisburg rapper returns after pushing back her debut. She’s a tough-as-nails, aggressive rhymer whose bars are as hard-hitting as they are complex.

Skyzoo & Dumbo Station — The Bluest Note

The Brooklyn rapper’s rapper is well-known for wordplay that resembles the construction of a jazz song — multilayered, deceptively deep, improvisational, and experimental — so it’s fitting for him to team up with an actual jazz band and pay homage to the genre’s rich connection to hip-hop.

Tre Capital — Liberty

Tre is one of hip-hop’s most powerful underground forces, with a richly creative approach worthy of his pedigree (he’s also Xzibit’s son). While he hasn’t revealed much about Liberty, judging from his past works, it’ll be a tour de force.

Trouble — Thug Luv

The Atlanta trap rap pioneer is releasing his first project with Def Jam, containing appearances from 2 Chainz, Ducko McFli, Jeezy, and Quavo. Playing around with different sounds, Trouble pushes the boundaries of the subgenre, while remaining thoroughly and deeply rooted in the street strand of Dirty South rap.

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

Straight Outta Compton star and former The Chi actor Jason Mitchell has been arrested by sheriff’s deputies in Gulfport, Mississippi following a traffic stop. TMZ first reported the incident on Wednesday evening after learning of several felony charges for weapons and drugs before the actor’s booking into Harrison County Jail. According to the outlet, Mitchell (best known for his breakout performance as Eazy-E in the 2015 N.W.A. biopic) landed a total of four charges, including two for the possession of a firearm (an AK-47 semi-automatic and a Glock 19 pistol) by a felon, along with two drug charges that remained unspecified at the time.

Local dual ABC/CBS-affiliated TV station WLOX followed with a confirmation on Mitchell’s arrest to detail the two drug charges that stemmed from deputies discovering ecstasy and marijuana in his vehicle. The Harrison County Sheriff’s Department told WLOX that the packaging and amount of the drugs suggested “a mid-level drug operation,” and here are more details about the arrest:

Mitchell, who lives in New Orleans, was stopped at 10:30 a.m. in his GMC Yukon near the 37-mile marker on Interstate 10 in Gulfport, about a mile west of the Lorraine-Cowan Road exit.

Authorities say a search of the vehicle led to the discovery of individually wrapped packages of marijuana totaling approximately two pounds. Individual bags containing 1,300 MDMA pills, or ecstasy, were also found.

TMZ spoke with a Mitchell representative, who characterized reports of the arrest as a “misunderstanding” that may have been reported “without all of the facts.” WLOX stated that Mitchell remained in jail as of Wednesday night, although Mitchell’s rep told TMZ that the actor had returned to his home.

This isn’t Mitchell’s first brush with trouble. SuperFly actor was previously terminated from Showtime’s The Chi following allegations of misconduct, for which showrunner Ayanna Floyd told Hollywood Reporter in 2019 that “everyone was well aware.” Subsequently, Netflix removed Mitchell from Desperados prior to shooting, and his manager, agent, and attorney all cut ties with the actor, who then declared that Floyd had weaponized the #MeToo movement against him.

(Via WLOX, TMZ & Hollywood Reporter)

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Previously on the Best and Worst of NXT: Timothy Thatcher, who looks like Drew Gulak if Gulak came from California instead of Pennsylvania, debuted as NXT Tag Team Champion. Finn Bálor showed up to make a date he wasn’t going to keep, and Tommaso Ciampa was attacked by the White Rabbit.

If you’d like to read previous installments of the Best and Worst of NXT, you can do that here. Follow With Spandex on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow me on Twitter, where everything and everyone is terrible.

And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for April 15, 2020.

Worst, Then Best: Montage Of A Dream Deferred

Finn Bálor was supposed to face The Velveteen Dream in the night’s main event, but there was a Finn incident — a Finncident, if you will — backstage. Two referees found a Finn Bálor t-shirt next to an overturned garbage can and Finn was nowhere to be found, which can only mean something terrible has happened. Top bets include “stuck by Imperium and thrown into Lake Osceola,” “abducted by two mysterious masked men in the Full Sail parking lot,” and, “didn’t want to leave his house and roll around with someone in their sweaty underwear during a global pandemic.” One of the three. Tom Phillips puts it into the proper context:

“In the wake of one of the more distributing scenes in NXT history, tonight we are faced with another.”

Now left without an opponent, Velveteen Dream opens the show with a promo talking about “new levels” causing “new devils,” because he’s been playing a lot of Ghosts’n Goblins on his 3DS. He’s interrupted by Adam Cole, who believes (or at least asserts) that Dream is the one who vanished Bálor so he could worm his way into an NXT Championship match. Assuming that’s true, Cole does the only reasonable thing and sics the available, non-immunocompromised members of Undisputed Era on him. Good Guy Keith Lee makes the save to set up a tag team match for the main event, and remind us how fun it is any time he’s able to check Adam Cole into oblivion

Unfortunately for Dream, Lee is ALSO attacked only a few minutes into the match by the nightstick of former Cobb County prison guard Damian Priest. It looks like Dream’s going to have to go it alone until, suddenly, Dexter Lumis is in his corner. No entrance, not even a shot of him climbing up onto the apron, just a hard cut to a different camera angle and boom, there he is. And brother, it just works. Who knew that Velveteen Dream’s best friend would be the other guy who crawls around on his belly and stares at people? It’s like two snakes finding each other in the terrarium. Bless whoever was like, “Prince should accidentally become friends with a serial killer.” How good would that movie be? AND THE SOUNDTRACK.

I don’t know how, but Dexter Lumis showing up like a murderous Orange Cassidy to take the hot tag and heroically stomp the shit out of the NXT Champion felt like NXT’s first inspired decision in a while. Maybe since they came to USA Network. I just wish they’d been able to do this in front of fans, because oh man, Full Sail would’ve started up the “holy shit” chant right around the time of that standing dropkick.

This Week In The Largely Unnecessary Interim NXT Cruiserweight Championship Tournament

Drake Maverick wrestles the first of his purported final three matches in WWE as somehow even LESS than an independent contractor, and takes a hard loss to Jake Atlas. You know, one of two things is going on here. One, Maverick’s firing was either a work, or they reneged on it when they saw the social media outpouring for his goodbye video. Or two, they laid a guy off for real and are using his upcoming inability to provide for his family during a societal collapse as a wrestling storyline. The first one would be a huge slap in the face to everyone else who did get laid off for real. The second one means they’re outright exploiting him, and/or planning to pat themselves on the back for giving him his job back after they book him to win. It’s not like he could, say, win actual, real-life competitive sports matches to win a championship and save his job. WWE controls the narrative and everything in it. So either way, it’s just a confusing, bad situation. “Real life sadness due to unemployment and confusion” is a “ripped from the headlines” plot we don’t really need to see on escapist TV shows right now.

It’s a shame that it feels so iffy, because Drake Maverick is awesome and deserves a spot on the show, and Jake Atlas is out here busting his ass with cartwheel DDTs and a complex introspection on the nature of self-worth and masculinity. I’m surprised they didn’t have Los Conquistadores roll up in a mini-van and kidnap them for sounding like human beings.

SPEAKING OF THAT;

This week’s most important moment is the debut of lucha libre institution and recent cowboy taxidermist El Hijo del Fantasma. His WWE look is more Lizmark Jr. than El Fantasma, but I guess every luchador in the company has to more or less look the same. On the topic of look changes, he’s up against Gentleman Jack Gallagher, who if you haven’t been watching 205 Live is now covered in horrible nautical flash and dresses like he’s the star of a gritty British prequel to Christmas. Have you ever wondered what Santa was like BEFORE he started delivering presents??

Hijo del Fantasma breaks out his signature dive here, which will never have a better name than the Lucha Underground version, the Arrow From The Depths Of Hell. It’s notable that he accidentally clips the top rope with both feet but is still going fast and hard enough to eat Gallagher up. That sort of thing usually compromises the entire move and leads to some bad situations. You could shoot El Hijo del Fantasma with an actual bow and arrow and he’s gonna follow through with the dive.

Afterward, Fantasma’s foolishly hanging out in the Full Sail parking lot, the nation’s leading site for cruiserweight abductions, and has to fight off the same masked men who kidnapped (and murdered?) Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde.

A quick note from the Best and Worst of NXT for April 1:

I’ve got to say though, it’s pretty weird that these guys are wearing Black Shadow and Dos Caras masks without, you know, being Black Shadow or Dos Caras. I hate that NXT has become a promotion where they expect fans to not know anything about wrestling. Especially when Dos Caras is a former four-time world champion’s dad, you know? As @luchablog correctly pointed out, if NXT used Tiger Mask and Jushin Thunder Liger masks here, maybe American fans would realize how weird it is for WWE to use easily identifiable wrestling legend iconography for unidentified kidnappers in a throwaway segment. Y’all don’t have the Conquistadors’ masks somewhere in storage down there?

This week, the kidnappers are wearing Conquistador masks.

Wait, does this make me an accessory to kidnapping?

In this week’s final tournament match, KUSHIDA (which is going to be hard for me to stop typing in capital letters) defeats Tony Nese, because of course he does. The announce team is still WHOAAA SHOCKED at KUSHIDA’s top rope Hoverboard Lock transition even though he’s already done it in NXT several times, but it’s dope, and WWE spent like five whole years being stunned by John Cena’s top rope leg drop, so it is what it is. Give me a Kushida vs. El Hijo del Fantasma final or give me death. You don’t want to see Fantasma dive 15 feet out into the aisle and get arm-barred on the way down?

Best: Hands Down

Mia Yim defeats Jessi Kamea, who has given up her adorkable Mae Young Classic dancing nerd gimmick to wrestle in what Lacey Evans might wear if she was a New Japan Young Lion. At least she has a last name again! And shout-out to that Erik Watts-style missile dropkick. Jessi is truly a high flyer of the highest magnitude:

After the match, Yim is confronted by La Reina Charlotte Flair, and the two exchange pleasantries about past NXT encounters before Flair completely and utterly burns her by calling her a “good hand.” Oh, and in case you’re one of the many who misheard it, Charlotte said the deepest division, not the “Divas division.” Although calling the NXT women’s division the “Divas division” would be tremendously condescending.

Perfectly Fine: This Tag Team Match

Tegan Nox teams up with Shotzi Blackheart to face Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez in a tag team match that was set up last week, and it’s perfectly cromulent wrestling. It feels like the Kai and Nox story should’ve ended (or at least should’ve gotten paused) after one of those Kai gimmick match wins, but in the era of Gargano and Ciampa, do feuds ever really end? The best news is probably the return of Shotzi’s bumper-car entrance, reminding us that NXT currently features a character whose gimmick is, “green-haired werewolf with horns who gets around in a go-kart-sized tank.”

Also On This Episode

Chelsea Green and Robert Stone are my favorite characters from Too Hot To Handle.

Here’s Damian Priest wearing a beanie and cutting a promo on a rooftop, confirming my suspicions that his character is just Chris R from The Room. “WHERE’S MY FUCKING MONEY, KEITH??” I believe this makes Matt Riddle and Timothy Thatcher Johnny and Mark, respectively.

Finally, please enjoy the re-imagining of Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae as a Peanuts character and a pastel goth who joined The Dark Order over dinner. You’ve gotta love the intense tonal shift between smooth jazz and BLACK AND WHITE SHAKY CAM. Someone at Full Sail watched Zach Braff stare into a broken mirror in Garden State and thought, “yes, this is the quality of symbolism for me.”

Gargano:

“You can play by the rules as much as you want, but let’s be honest … the NXT that I love has become a toxic wasteland where the good people are taken advantage of, and the horrible people thrive, and are rewarded for it.”

That’s not new, man, that’s called working for WWE. Sami Zayn and Neville did a whole bit about it.

Best: Top 10 Comments Of The Week

AddMayne

Vince when he finally watches Dark Side of the Ring

SexCauldron

Dakota Kai made me sign up for 3 subscriptions to Columbia House then stole all the CDs I got for a penny

FeltLuke

Io: Why do I want to face Charlotte? Because i want to show her…

Every Internet Snark in Unison: HOW TO DO A MOONSAULT!

Baron Von Raschke

Here’s to you, Drake.

EvilDucky

If Lumis just randomly starts showing up and causing indiscriminate chaos towards faces AND heels, I could get WAY into that

Caz

Adam Cole is Dennis’s personality with Mac’s face and Dee’s hair

troi

You know Candice is evil now because she has black lipstick

who knew kidnapping Dj Z would be way easier than King Cuerno?

The Real Birdman

Was looking for a drunk/sad Zack Ryder in the background of this Chelsea Green vignette

Mr. Bliss

Gargano: “And we’ll be the first married couple to reign supreme”

Steph watching at home: “Hunter! What a great anniversary present! A couple we can squash to remind everyone who really reigns around here! Thank You, babe. I’ll call my trainer tomorrow!”

The only other thing to mention is that “Karrion Kross” and whatever they’re calling Scarlett Bordeaux are basically doing Death Proof and Planet Terror at the same time. They’re going to rule NXT with THREATENING STOCK FOOTAGE! Thinking about wrestling them? DON’T.

That’s it for this week’s Best and Worst of NXT. We’re not sure you ever actually read this part or do what we ask, but hey, it would really help us if you commented down below and shared the column if you liked or laughed at anything. The world’s tough, and that makes this kind of thing a lot easier.

Join us here next week for Charlotte Flair versus a Good Hand, and the Big Priest Man taking on Keith Lee for the North American Championship.