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The hip-hop community is mourning PnB Rock, who was fatally shot today while dining at a Roscoe’s Chicken And Waffles diner in Inglewood. In the hours since his death was reported, several artists have taken to social media to express their condolences and share fond memories of the rapper.

On Twitter, Chika recalled a time when PnB helped Chika feel comfortable during a photoshoot.

“PnB Rock was one of the first people i met out here [In LA],” Chika said. “i remember being tucked away at a shoot feeling out of place & he went to the director and told them to make sure to prioritize me the same way. he was gentle and kind with me, a newcomer and stranger. rest in peace, man.”

His longtime friend and frequent collaborator Tee Grizzley shared a photo of the two together, along with a group of friends, from Grizzley’s engagement party, which had just taken place the night before.

“Love you broski,” Grizzley said, “you was a real friend I’ll never forget you.”

Internet Money expressed shock, largely because he had just collaborated with PnB weeks prior.

“just was with bro a few weeks ago,” said Internet Money. “we was in first class then linked up in the studio afterwords and worked. shit crazy Man U never kno when somebody gonna go. PNB always one of the nicest and most genuine people to be around. RIP bro fr.”

Some fans have taken to Twitter to blame PnB’s girlfriend for sharing hers and PnB’s location on Instagram, however, Cardi B took to Twitter to shut those comments down and call for people to send condolences.

“I highly doubt [people] was looking at [PnB]’s babymom IG. He was in a bad location and people stay outside plotting. It’s very irresponsible and inconsiderate to blame her for something so tragic. We should be sending nothing but love to her and his family at this time.”

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

The Emmys do their best to have fun with the endless handing out of trophies, but there’s one part of the show where things absolutely have to get serious: the In Memoriam montage. It’s a chance for everyone to reflect upon those who passed in the last year after making a stamp on the television industry, in one way or another.

The segment for this year’s ceremony was introduced by Anthony Anderson, with a song performed by John Legend. The names spanned all parts of the industry, from behind the scenes to on the small screen. There were beloved character actors, like Howard Hesseman, David Warner, Dwayne Hickman, Willie Garson, Robert Morse, Dean Stockwell, and Paul Sorvino. There was Tony Sirico, Paulie Walnuts from The Sopranos. There were movie icons who did time on TV, like James Caan, Ray Liotta, Anne Heche, and Sidney Poitier.

There were comics like Jak Knight, Gilbert Gottfried, Louie Anderson, and — one of the most shocking deaths of this year — Bob Saget. There were people who worked in other industries but who nonetheless were big on TV, including The Monkees’ Michael Nesmith, NFL coach and commentator John Madden, and Vin Scully, the euphonious sportscaster for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

And there were TV legends, from Estelle Harris to Nichelle Nichols to Betty White, who passed away mere weeks before what would have been her 100th birthday. They will all be missed but their work will be celebrated forever.

E. Bryant Crutchfield died in Marietta, Georgia, on August 21 at the age of 85. His son told The New York Times his cause of death was bone cancer. Crutchfield will forever be known for creating an invention that helped kids in the ’80s and early ’90s show off their personalities while keeping their schoolwork in order.

In 1978, according to a profile by Mental Floss, he invented Gen X’s most iconic back-to-school must-have, the Trapper Keeper.

The Trapper Keeper consisted of two parts. The Trapper, a folder with angled pockets to hold your papers and the Keeper, a notebook that holds multiple Trappers. Together, secured by a strip of Velcro and adorned with a radical graphic on the front, they made up the iconic Trapper Keeper.

The idea for the Trapper Keeper came out of a brainstorming session with Crutchfield’s team where they pondered “How to make a binder like a pet,” “How to get a double purchase” and “How to have a knapsack file drawer.” Incredibly, the Trapper Keeper was the answer to all three questions.

One of the main selling points of the Trapper Keeper was the amazing graphics on the front cover. They allowed students to show off their personalities whether they bought one featuring puppies, a Hawaiian sunset, neon ’80s graphics, horses, animal print or a red Lamborghini.

If you changed your mind after buying one, no problem. The Trapper Keeper’s plastic binding usually broke by the end of the school year so your parents would have to buy you a new one in the fall.

u201c”Few objects evoke Gen X or millennial childhood as powerfully as the Trapper Keeper. Mead introduced it nationally in 1981, and by the end of the decade, the company estimated that half of all middle and high school students in the United States had one.”nhttps://t.co/ZzMZFcsa3Ku201d

— Orin Kerr (@Orin Kerr)
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Trapper Keepers lost their popularity in the mid ’90s after the internet meant kids carried fewer pieces of paper. So why are they such an important part of Gen X’s childhood?

“It was fun to be able to show your personality through the binder that you had,” Peter Bartlett, former director of product innovation at ACCO Brands, told Mental Floss. “You don’t really remember a notebook or the pens and pencils you used. But maybe you remember your [Trapper Keeper].”

The great thing is, just in time for back-to-school, you can get a retro Trapper Keeper with awesome ’80s designs delivered the next day (in some cases) from Amazon. They’re a fun back-to-school gift to show the students in your family how cool it was to go to school in the ’80s and ’90s with a Trapper Keeper.

Classic ’80s Geometric Shapes 1″ Binder was $16.99, now just $10.87

(Next day delivery available through Prime.)

This Trapper Keeper epitomizes everything ’80s. For some reason, the default design in that era was geometrical shapes laid on top of a grid. Kids back then had to be sure to write their name in this particular design because everyone had it.

Order yours now >>

Classic ’80s Animal Print 1″ Binder was $16.99, now just $10.87

(Next-day delivery available through Prime.)

Ever wanted to carry a Trapper Keeper to school that looks like it was modeled after David Lee Roth from Van Halen’s tights? This is for you, my gnarly friend.

Order yours now >>

Classic ’80s Palm Trees at Sunset 1″ Binder was $16.99, now just $13.75

(Next-day delivery available through Prime.)

This Trapper Keeper features a graphic that perfectly encapsulates the ’80s dream. It’s what you see after you spent all day in a halfpipe or just got out of the water after a long day of surfing.

Order yours now >>

Classic ’80s Laser Beam Sunset 1″ Binder 24.59

This Trapper Keeper puts one in the mindset of the average person in 1984. Yes, they had their sights on a beautiful sunset. But they were also completely consumed by laser beams, neon and geometric grids.

Order yours now >>

Classic ’80s Funky-Looking 1″ Binder $10.90

This Trapper Keeper may be retro, but it’s clear that even in 1982 this wasn’t cool. Yes, it has checker print, which was always radical. However, the streak of Andy Warhol pink mixed with the clown-dog prints is a little extreme even for an era defined by excess.

Order yours now >>

Upworthy may earn a portion of proceeds from the sales of these items

An inspiring story first reported by the Watford Observer in England shows that when we stop making knee-jerk reactions about people involved in crime, we have the opportunity to change their lives.

Back in July, heating engineer and social activist Winston Davis learned that his 12-year-old nephew was mugged by a 16-year-old boy at knifepoint. For six weeks, Davis studied the security camera footage in an attempt to find the teen.

After he located the teen and contacted him on his phone, he told him he’d be paying him a visit to get the bag back. When the two met face to face, Davis was impressed by his honesty.

“You could have easily turned your phone off, you could have easily allowed it and bury your head in the sand,” Davis said in a video he posted to TikTok. “In life sometimes we do things that we regret and then we want to try make something change after that and what you’re doing, bringing this back, is a big moment.”

@winstondavis1

#knifecrime #streetrobberboy #mugging #streetcrime #youthviolence #reconciliation #conflict the young man needs help…any #computerengineering links out thete that can offer him a a chance?

​When Davis looked at the teen he thought he looked “frightened” and learned about his past.

“That’s when he told me he’s been in and out of detention centers and had no education and has literally been living in supported living,” Davis told the Watford Observer.

Instead of calling the police on the teen, Davis decided to try to get him some help, so he posted a video of their interaction on TikTok asking for assistance. “He’s 16 years old, been in and out of detention centers, lives in a supported living place and has no qualifications,” he wrote on TikTok. “Despite this, he wants to work in computer engineering.”

The post received more than 900,000 views on TikTok and was shared far and wide. A few days after the post, Davis said that a lot of people had reached out, offering to help get the teen’s life on track. “Offers of support for this guy have been mad. So, gonna get back to people soon as I can, thank you,” he wrote in a follow-up video where he also summed up the message of the story.

“There’s people that say, ‘If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.’ But actually, do you know what, a lot of the time there’s people that don’t really want to do the crime.”

@winstondavis1

#crime #rehabilitation #hmp #restorativejustice #povertytoprison

Davis had a soft spot in his heart for the teen because he had been there himself. Years back he went to prison on a drug charge and after he got out, vowed to change his life. Since then, he has opened his own heating business and has been an activist for social change.

He saw that the teen could use a break and hoped that the opportunity presented by this moment would change the direction of his life.

“He’s got an opportunity to really, if he takes the opportunities that are presented to him, to really change his life,” Davis said according to Ladbible. “It’s just, can he see far enough into the future? To be able to take advantage of the good nature and goodwill of so many people?”

Grandparents can be a wealth of history and knowledge. But one TikTok user, Reagan Jones, was blown away by her grandmother’s ability to write in shorthand, so she did what a lot of people do in this century—uploaded it to TikTok. Not surprisingly, most people who viewed the video had no idea what shorthand was and some thought the whole thing was made up. The reaction to it certainly makes you question if it’s more than a lost art, but a forgotten part of history.

Shorthand is a method of quickly writing that has been around for a centuries. The first recorded history of a form of shorthand being used was in the 4th century B.C.. In the 1800s, two different types of shorthand became popular, Pitman in 1837 and Gregg in 1888. Looking at the shorthand alphabet may make you furrow your eyebrows because a lot of the symbols look ridiculously similar. It’s full of lines that are straight, slightly curled or partially looped and some that just look like a squiggle. It’s something to behold and resembles a super secret language.

Judging by the comments on the video, other people feel the same way. One commenter, Jamie wrote, “I’ve heard the term shorthand but I think my brain always took it as abbreviations not this 😳😅”

Another commenter, Samantha said, “Nah this has to be a glitch in the timeline I’ve never heard of this from any of my family member.”

@reaganjones176

This is called “short hand” and its a real form of old-style note-taking. She uses this to write herself notes daily. 😂#coolgrandma #funwithgrandma #grandparents #handwriting #shorthand

In a reply to a commenter, Jones revealed, “My grandma was a legal secretary for the railroad 🙂 She won a lot of awards for her work and shorthand in school.”

Now, that’s just cool. Sure there are still professions like court reporters and such that use shorthand, but it’s not as common as it was back when most people’s grandparents and great-grandparents were young adults. This was such a neat blast from the past. It’s clear that Jones’ grandma could probably still take home some awards for her unique skill.

A wonderful piece of news has come out of the blue that will change a lot of people’s perceptions about America’s future and how we tackle complex economic issues. A new report by The New York Times and Child Trends shows that child poverty dropped a whopping 59% percent in the United States between 1993 and 2019.

The poverty rate dropped an additional 10% in 2020 due to aggressive, albeit temporary, COVID-19 aid measures. If those numbers were included in the study, the child poverty rate would be 69% lower.

“This is an astounding decline in child poverty,” Dana Thomson, a co-author of the Child Trends study, said according to The New York Times. “Its magnitude is unequaled in the history of poverty measurement, and the single largest explanation is the growth of the safety net.”

What’s interesting about the study is that it gives people on both sides of the political aisle reason to rethink their opinions on how the country tackles poverty. The study shows that liberals were correct in their belief that a robust social safety net can bring children out of poverty. The Earned Income Tax Credit, Social Security and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) contributed the most to protecting children from poverty.

u201cLessons from a Historic Decline in Child Poverty https://t.co/uSIjgIzmGA via @ChildTrendsu201d

— MDRC (@MDRC)
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Conservatives can take a victory lap because another major reason for a reduction in child poverty was that more single mothers began to work after welfare reform enacted in the ’90s reduced cash payouts to parents without jobs.

The number of single mothers in the workforce increased from 69% to 79% by the end of the ’90s.

The reduction in child poverty also comes during a period of growth in which the GDP per capita, median household income and state minimum wages have all seen increases. The number of kids living with two caretakers and the percentage of the population with a high school diploma has gone up as well.

u201cAn u2018astoundingu2019 decline in child poverty from 1993 to 2019. Why? The single largest factor is growth of the govt safety net. https://t.co/NE0O85s5kLu201d

— Trip Gabriel (@Trip Gabriel)
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It’s also notable that the child poverty rate has declined by about the same degree among children who are Hispanic, Black, Asian and white. However, the rising tide may have lifted all boats but the ethnic poverty gap among children still persists. According to Pew Research, Black and Hispanic children are still about three times as likely to live in poverty than white and Asian children.

The decline in child poverty also coincides with a drastic reduction in teen pregnancy rates. The teen birth rate has gone down from 61.8 of every 1,000 births in the U.S. to just 17.4 in 2018. Child Trends attributes this to a decline in teen sex as well as an increase in contraceptive use. The study warns that the recent overturn of Roe v. Wade may lead to an increase in economic hardships for children.

In a country where we are always bemoaning a lack of progress, this study on child poverty shows that smart policy—regardless of what side of the aisle it stems from—can have a major impact on the lives of America’s most vulnerable. It also gives hope that we can learn from these lessons to further alleviate poverty not just among children, but the American population in general.

Bleu has something special cooking up. This Friday, the “Your Mines Still” singer is set to drop a new single with Nicki Minaj, titled “Love In The Way.” The two announced the collaboration via social media today.

The song arrives just over a year after Bleu manifested the track via Twitter. “I would love to work with [these artists] in the future,” Bleu said. “I like speaking things in existence, it seems to work.” Among his dream collaborators were The Weeknd, Justin Bieber, Anthony Hamilton, and Rihanna, but at the top of his list was none other than Minaj.

As his latest collab may suggest, Bleu has become a go-to guest in the realm of Young Money. In June, he was featured alongside Lil Wayne on a Chris Brown track called “Possessive,” from his most recent album, Breezy. In 2020, his remix of “Your Mines Still,” which featured Drake, proved to be a viral hit.

In an interview with DJ Akademiks, he credited Drake for helping him land a bigger deal at Empire Recordings.

“That’s when I started seeing them real numbers,” he said. “Just to put it into perspective, as soon as the Drake record dropped, I was having bidding wars between $8 and $9 million…This is why I f*ck with Empire because they still had me for another project, so once I did the Drake song, they came back and redid my deal to way more.”

“Love In The Way” is out 9/16 via Empire. Pre-save it here.

The Emmys had time for a joke-free musical opening and a weird Kia commercial, but not for Jennifer Coolidge to read her acceptance speech for The White Lotus?

I will not be raising a toast to that.

The proud MILF won Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie (catchy category name!) at the 2022 Emmys for her performance in the wonderful Mike White-created series over co-stars Connie Britton, Alexandra Daddario, Sydney Sweeney, and Natasha Rothwell, as well as Kaitlyn Dever and Mare Winningham for Dopesick. “Wait, hold on,” Coolidge said when the walk-off music rudely kicked in. She then started to dance in what is being called a “truly perfect moment” in Emmys history.

Earlier in the speech, Coolidge said that before the Emmys, she took a lavender bath “and it made me swell up inside my dress. I’m having a hard time speaking.” She then remembered she had written down everyone she wanted to thank. “Oh sh*t,” she said while unfurling a crumpled up piece of paper.” Jennifer Coolidge is the best — and the Emmys are the worst for having the gall to cut her off.

You can watch the entire thing below.

Coolidge is returning for season two of The White Lotus, along with new cast members F. Murray Abraham, Aubrey Plaza, Theo James, Michael Imperioli, and Haley Lu Richardson. It premieres in October.

Awards shows are always militant about keeping acceptance speeches short, but this year’s Emmys seemed more aggressive than usual. They played off Matthew Macfadyen, who won for Succession. Jennifer Garner, winning for Ozark, was so scared they’d do the same to her that she almost ran off. Jennifer Coolidge tried — and failed — to keep going after the band cut her off, even turning it into a dance. Then there’s Sheryl Lee Ralph.

The seasoned actress, who was in the original cast of Dreamgirls and has been in shows like It’s a Living and Moesha, won her first-ever Emmy for Abbott Elementary, where she plays the religious kindergarten teacher Barbara. (She’s one of a number of cast members who got nominations.) When presenters Amy Poehler and Seth Meyers called out her name, Ralph seemed shellshocked. She even sat in her seat, taking it all in, clearly emotional, before slowly making her way to the stage.

When she got there, she didn’t do a normal speech. Instead, she belted out a song: “Endangered Species,” the 1993 song by Dianne Reeves, whose lyrics include, “I am an endangered species/But I sing no victim’s song/I am a woman I am an artist/And I know where my voice belongs.”

Ralph was not played off. In fact, she went on: “To anyone who has ever, ever had a dream and thought your dream wasn’t, wouldn’t, couldn’t come true, I am here to tell you that this is what believing looks like. This is what striving looks like. And don’t you ever, ever give up on you, because if you get a Quinta Brunson in your corner, if you get a husband like mine in your corner, if you get children like mine in your corner, and if you’ve got friends like everybody who voted for me, cheered for me, loved me — thank you, thank you, thank you.”

Videos of the “speech” went viral, earning tens of thousands of likes. You can watch it above. You can listen to Dianne Reeves’ “Endangered Species” below.

Rarely do I ever like to say that “I told you so,” but I tried to tell everyone that Selena Gomez is a comedic force. She’s also underappreciated in general throughout Hollywood, but maybe people are starting to catch on? It’s about time. And I’m still so thrilled that she’s moved past being the only person of a starring trio that bothers to dress up (Adam Sandler and Kevin James did her dirty while promoting 2015’s Hotel Transylvania 2). Nowadays, she’s presenting at the Emmys next to two other cool cats, who did dress for the occasion.

Here she is alongside Steve Martin and Martin Short, her two co-stars from Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building. Together, they’re a powerhouse, and I love that they both respect her as an equal. And Selena (in a manner similar, but less grumpy, to her character, Mabel) let them shine and stayed funny in her own understated way.

If you would like to see more of Selena, then HBO Max’s Selena + Chef could be right up your alley. And if you missed out on where she (surprisingly) cut her comedy teeth, then (at least briefly) check out her turn as Alex Russo on The Wizards of Waverly Place. Here’s a parting shot, and remember, like host Kenan Thompson said about Zendaya, Selena is too old to date Leonardo DiCaprio. I doubt that she’s mad about it.