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This year’s hip-hop-focused Super Bowl Halftime Show — featuring Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, and 50 Cent — was generally well-received. It also managed to renew interest in some of the performers’ music, as the new Billboard 200 chart indicates: On the chart dated February 26 (which accounts for listening activity from February 11 to 17, while the Super Bowl was on the 13th), albums by Eminem and Dr. Dre have returned to the top 10 for the first time in years.

Eminem’s Curtain Call: The Hits (a former No. 1 on the chart) had a major rise, as it ascended to No. 8 this week, up from No. 126 the previous week. That’s thanks to about 31,000 equivalent album units earned, an increase of 256 percent. Meanwhile, Dr. Dre’s 2001 rose from No. 108 to No. 9 with about 30,500 units (a 220-percent increase). Its previous peak was at No. 2 on the chart dated December 4, 1999.

This is the first time Curtain Call has found itself in the top 10 since the chart dated March 11, 2006, when it was No. 8. The last time 2001 was in the top 10 was on the May 13, 2000, when it ranked No. 9.

Those albums were well-represented during the halftime show: Eminem performed “Lose Yourself,” while three 2001 songs — “The Next Episode,” “Forgot About Dre,” and “Still D.R.E.,” made the setlist.

Elsewhere on the chart, the smash hit Encanto soundtrack is once again No. 1, for a sixth total week. That ties it with Adele’s 30 for the third-most weeks spent at No. 1 in the last five years (since January 2017). Ahead of those LPs are Morgan Wallen’s Dangerous: The Double Album (ten weeks) and Taylor Swift’s Folklore (eight weeks).

Jack Harlow had a huge weekend: He dropped a video for “Nail Tech,” he participated in NBA All-Star festivities, and he received high praise from one of his idols, Kanye West (aka Ye).

In a now-deleted Instagram post shared on Friday morning, West posted a thumbnail from Harlow’s “Nail Tech” video and wrote, “This n**** can raaaaaaap bro And I’m saying n**** as a compliment Top 5 out right now.” Harlow shared a screenshot of the post and expressed his excitement over the situation, writing, “This right here…is one of the greatest moments of my entire life…glad y’all all get front row seats to it…suddenly all the hate means nothing…imagine your hero saying this about you…I could cry.”

This is just the latest in a series of feel-good moments Harlow has had in recent months. On December 18, 2021, Louisville, Kentucky celebrated Jack Harlow Day. Also that month, Harlow visited his old school, and naturally, the students were pretty amped about it. Back in November, he reunited with one of the few fans who attended his first ever concert and showed gratitude.

Jack Harlow is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The 2022 NBA All-Star Game was the most exciting yet with the new Elam Ending format, as Team LeBron edged Team Durant, 163-160, with the captain himself hitting a fadeaway for the win.

James finished with 24 points, eight assists, and six rebounds, but it was his longtime rival turned All-Star teammate that carried the team for much of the way. Stephen Curry stole the show with a 50-point outburst that included 16 three-pointers (on 27 attempts) as he caught fire early and somehow never cooled off in what is an all-time All-Star Game performance — he fell two points shy of Anthony Davis’ record of 52 points in 2017.

Curry, unsurprisingly, took home the Kobe Bryant MVP honors, but he wasn’t alone on Team LeBron in shining. Giannis Antetokounmpo added 30 points, 12 rebounds, and six assists, while also playing some of the best defense of the night late, including an incredible block of his Bucks teammate Khris Middleton.

On Team Durant, it was Joel Embiid who did the most to keep them in contact with 36 points (on 14-for-20 shooting) and 10 rebounds. Devin Booker had 20 points, while two first-timers, LaMelo Ball and Dejounte Murray, impressed in combining for 35 points.

It was an incredible night, which included the NBA’s 75 Greatest Players being honored at halftime — with LeBron, Giannis, and Steph all getting to join the legends of the game on stage for that honor and it was fitting those three showed out in a big way. It was filled with some cool moments, few better than the embrace between LeBron and Michael Jordan after the ceremony.

Curry’s performance even managed to turn the crowd, which booed him loudly all weekend, earning an ovation when he accepted the MVP trophy.

(SPOILERS for this week’s Euphoria will be found below.)

Last week’s episode of Euphoria saw Rue Bennett take an honest step towards rehab and sobriety. Her struggles with withdrawals stand as low moments for Rue, but there are also some highs (the good kind at least) for her. It includes Rue mustering up the strength to apologize to Ali for her harsh words towards him in episode four. Rue’s improvements are all with the expectation that she’ll be able to enter rehab in the next few days. However, all of that comes crashing down when Leslie, Rue’s mom, is informed that they will not give inpatient care to Rue, which leaves her worried about Rue’s health in the future.

Did Rue Relapse On ‘Euphoria?’

After Leslie, Jules, Elliot, and Gia dispose of Rue’s luggage of drugs, Rue has not relapsed. However, there is the concern that Rue could once again relapse due to the hospital’s inability to accept her into inpatient care. Rue seems to be doing a lot better in scenes like enjoying dinner with Gia, Ali, and Leslie and watching Lexi’s play Oklahoma. Episode seven does not spend much time on Rue’s progress towards sobriety as the focus is on Oklahoma. Hopefully, episode eight will bring us back to what’s going on with Rue and her journey towards getting and hopefully staying clean.

HBO’s ‘Euphoria’ airs on Sundays at 9:00pm EST.

(SPOILERS for this week’s Euphoria will be found below.)

Lexi’s Oklahoma play, which she’s spent most of the season working on, is at the center of this week’s episode of Euphoria. She uses Oklahoma to hold a mirror to her friends as she highlights certain aspects of Rue, Maddy, Cassie, Nate, and Kat’s lives, among other people. The play also examines the dynamics and friendships that Lexi has with these people. One example comes when looks back at the memories she had with her father as she reminisces on a time when her family was together and unified.

What Happened To Lexi And Cassie’s Dad On ‘Euphoria?’

If you recall from season one, Lexi and Cassie’s dad, Gus, split with their mother, Suze, in episode seven. The cause for their split is truly unknown as Suze indirectly sites his unpreparedness to be a father while other hints point to Suze’s possible infidelity. Later on, we see Gus develop a drug addiction after a severe car accident, and following a sneaky entrance into Lexi and Cassie’s house to retrieve some goods, we never see him again.

In this week’s episode, Lexi uses her play to remember the good times with her family. As Bobby Darin’s “More” plays in the background, we see the Howard family in happy spirits as they dance with each other. Lexi uses the absence of her father to draw a connection between her and Rue, whose father is also no longer in her life as he passed away from cancer.

HBO’s ‘Euphoria’ airs on Sundays at 9:00pm EST.

(SPOILERS for this week’s Euphoria will be found below.)

This week on Euphoria, Lexi is at centerstage (quite literally) and she debuts her play, Oklahoma. She’s spent most of the season working on it, and this week marks the grand opening for it. Oklahoma is a direct reflection of Lexi’s life as it includes characters that play Rue, Maddy, Kat, Cassie, Nate, and more. In episode six, Lexi expresses concerns with Fez about how her friends would feel about the way they were depicted in the play. All in all, Oklahoma strikes as an honest tale of the world that is Euphoria and its respective dynamics from Lexi’s point of view.

Just like last week’s episode, which featured songs by Method Man, Mary J. Blige, Ben E. King, and more, this week on of Euphoria also featured a great selection of songs. The aforementioned events in this week’s episode are soundtracked by carefully curated songs that help to accentuate the emotions behind each scene.

What Songs Were In ‘Euphoria’ S2E7?

The songs that soundtracked the standout moments on this week’s episode of Euphoria are Captain & Tenille’s “Love Will Kep Us Together” and Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out For A Hero.” Captain & Tenille’s record plays in the background as Lexi reveals the cast to Oklahoma, and as Rue, Maddy, Kat, Cassie, Nate, and others sit in attendance, they quickly realize that the cast looks a lot like them. Bonnie Tyler’s song plays as Nate’s football team is emulated with a shirtless dance routine that’s set in the weight room. It’s one that causes Nate to walk out of the theater before the play concludes.

The soundtrack for this week’s episode also includes the following songs:
Piero Picconi — “Amore Mio Aiutami”
Ennio Morricone — “Uno Che Grida Amore”
Air — “The Word Hurricane”
Francis Lai — “Vivre Pour Vivre”
Activa — “Daydream (Original Mix)”
Bobby Darin — “More”
Alex North — “Spartacus Love Theme”
Tweet — “Oops (Oh My)”
Armando Trovajoli — “Surrender (From II Commissario Pepe)”
Labrinth — “What’s Up”
Riz Ortolani — “Cannibal Holocaust”

HBO’s ‘Euphoria’ airs on Sundays at 9:00pm EST.

(SPOILERS for this week’s Euphoria will be found below.)

It’s showtime baby! This week on Euphoria Lexi opens the curtains on Oklahoma, her semi-autobiographical play that she’s spent most of this season working on. As she’s hinted at in previous episodes, the play is a controversial one as it’s a direct reflection of the many friendships she experiences with her friends on the show. Rue, Maddy, Nate, Cassie, Kat, and more are all emulated in the play, and while some are painted in a decent light, despite their flaws, others did not receive the same grace.

Why Was Nate Bothered By Lexi’s Play On ‘Euphoria?’

Nate would certainly fall under the category of those who didn’t receive the best love from Lexi in Oklahoma. His seemed to be the worst as he was pushed to storm out of the theatre as the play came to a close. In the final scenes in Oklahoma, a group of shirtless guys put on an energetic dance routine that’s set in the weight room. This group, which represents Nate’s football team, is led by a character who looks and acts very much like Nate himself. Towards the end of this scene, the football players get quite intimate with each other which directly sparks Nate’s dramatic exit.

As he walks out, Cassie, who moved in with Nate at the end of last week’s episode, chases him down to try and console him. “Why the f*ck are they laughing?” Nate says. “That sh*t is so homophobic.” Cassic attempts to apologize and assure him that she had no idea about the contents of the play, as Lexi is her sister, but Nate isn’t buying it. “She’s your f*cking sister!” he yells. “You know what? Pack your sh*t and get the f*ck out of my house.”

HBO’s ‘Euphoria’ airs on Sundays at 9:00pm EST.

(SPOILERS for this week’s Euphoria will be found below.)

Euphoria’s penultimate episode is finally here and, we know what you’re thinking: ‘We finally get to see Oklahoma!”

Lexi’s play has been teased throughout season two as the catalyst for some finale-worthy drama, and it did not disappoint. From homoerotic musical numbers to some eyebrow-raising revelations, our girl Lexi put everyone’s business on the street and we ate it up. (So did her mom, by the way.) But, with just one episode left this season, this juicy interlude left us with more questions than answers. Here are a few we hope to see resolved before the show goes on hiatus.

What Will Cassie Do Now?

Cassie’s emotional breakdown in the school bathroom and her blow-up with Nate all seem to suggest our girl has finally realized her life has imploded, and she’s the only one to blame. Nate breaks up with her — blaming Cassie for the humiliation he’s suffered because of her sister’s local theater production — and she ends the episode fuming, fogging up a glass door as she watches Lexi’s play. So, what happens next? Euphoria is a show about addiction in all its many twisted forms and for Cassie, the desire to be loved has ruined all of the healthy, meaningful relationships in her life. She was content to be Nate’s plaything, giving up her bodily autonomy — he dressed her, told her what to eat, etc. — in exchange for it. Now that they’re apparently done, does she go home? Try to work things out with Maddy? Apologize to the people she’s hurt? Or does she take her anger and desperation out on Lexi, who she seems to blame for her problems with Nate at the moment?

What Did Nate’s Dream Sequence Really Mean?

As unreliable a narrator as Rue is, Lexi’s storytelling this episode was a bit all over the place. We constantly flip-flopped from the play to her memories of real-life events and, in the in-between, were forced to sit through some really strange dream-like sequences involving Nate, Cassie, Maddy, Jules, and… Nate’s dad? Yeah, Cal popped up in his son’s bizarre erotic nightmare which saw Nate reliving the sexual encounter between Jules and his dad in that motel room. We saw Maddy getting undressed, Cassie sprawled out face down on the bed in a position that mimicked the one Jules was in during the real encounter, and Jules embracing Nate during different parts of the dream. The most disturbing visual though was when a shirtless Cal crawled up the bed and hovered over Nate himself, who was lying face down just like Cassie and Jules had been. Does that mean Cal sexually abused his son? Or, does the dream signify Nate’s debilitating fear that he’ll either end up like his father or end up being used by him?

Is Maddy Leaving?

During one of the few scenes not connected to Lexi’s play, Maddy and Samantha (Minka Kelly) sit on the bleachers watching Samantha’s son as the two discuss how she’s going to tell him goodbye. Maddy feels guilty for leaving him, but when Samantha asks if the guilt is enough to keep her in East Highland, Maddy offers an emphatic “f*ck no.” Most of the Euphoria crew seem to be around 17 -18 years old right now, so it’s possible Maddy’s planning to leave for college soon but since this show doesn’t seem to care about these teens’ school life, that feels unlikely. If Maddy does leave, will things between her and Cassie be resolved before that happens? And, if everyone’s going off to university, how the hell is this show going to keep up with its many storylines?

Are There Copies Of Jules Sex Tape?

In last week’s episode, Nate went to a lot of trouble to get his dad’s sex tape back from Maddy so that he could give it to Jules. He admitted he’d seen it — and judging from his nightmare this episode, it left quite an impression — but he told her he wanted her to have it so that his father wouldn’t be able to use it against her, or his family. The only problem with that uncharacteristically kind gesture is how focused this episode seemed to be on the CD and the event in question. Right after Nate’s dream sequence, we see Jules burning the disc and smashing it to bits — which all feels very final and also, very ominous. Nate said he didn’t know if there were more copies of the tape, but do we really think he’d give up that kind of ammunition against his dad, even for Jules? Could he have made a copy? And could he use it somehow to take down his dad while still protecting Jules?

Why Was Custer’s Phone On The Table?

Custer is a rat, and Ash seems to be catching on to his bad vibes but currently, he’s still hanging out at Fezco’s, acting suspicious and pressuring Faye to keep quiet. At one point, he carefully places a blank-screened phone on the coffee table where it remains for the rest of the episode. We know Custer’s working with the police and we’ve seen season trailers that show a S.W.A.T. team entering the house, but has Custer been directed to get a confession from Fez or Ashtray before the cops come in? And does he think Ash is stupid enough to not realize something’s up?

Is Faye Going To Tell Fez The Truth?

Faye may have been introduced as a brainless junkie at the beginning of this season, but the girl has clearly been through a lot. She’s suffering from an idiotic boyfriend, a drug problem, and a questionable working relationship with Laurie. Oh, and she threw a guy off a balcony. Her time with Fez and Ash has probably been the most stable and safe she’s felt in a while, and we can clearly see the turmoil she’s in over Custer’s revelation in episode six. Faye wants to tell Fez the truth because she recognizes how good he’s been to her, but she obviously owes Custer (and maybe Laurie?) loyalty too. Will she tell Fez that Custer’s been working for the police? And, if so, how is Fez going to handle that news?

What Is The Production Budget For Lexi’s Play?

A lot of people have accused Euphoria of being too unrealistic but, until now, we were happy to overlook the more fictitious elements of the show in order to appreciate the characters, the drama, and the Zendaya of it all. But really? What school is going to let an underclassman put on a theater production based on her own life where shirtless boys hump each other and kids snort prescription pills? Also, what is the budget for Lexi’s version of Oklahoma? Rotating sets? The lighting cues? A true-to-size streetlight in the middle of the damn stage? That’s Hamilton money, y’all.

On Sunday night, the 2022 NBA All-Star Game in Cleveland featured a halftime event to honor the league’s 75th anniversary team, which presented something of a conundrum for Michael Jordan.

The Hall of Famer, Hornets owner, and for many the Greatest Of All-Time, was going to be a headliner for the league, which saw a few stars not make the trip to Cleveland. Coincidentally on Sunday his NASCAR team had two cars in the Daytona 500 that afternoon, with Bubba Wallace and Kurt Busch both in the field. Jordan wasn’t going to miss that, and he got to see Wallace finish second in a thrilling race that dragged on pretty well into the evening due to some gnarly crashes.

There was some genuine concern Jordan may not make it, as he wasn’t in the group photo before the game, but thanks to a private jet that was gassed up and ready to go near the track, he arrived in time for the guards to be announced about three hours after the race ended in Florida.

When he walked out, unsurprisingly, he got one of the biggest ovations, along with LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaq, and when Kobe Bryant was shown on the jumbotron.

It was quite the scene in Cleveland seeing all of those legends on stage and it wouldn’t have been the same without Jordan, so it was good he was able to pull double duty.

Despite getting selected to the 2022 NBA All-Star Game in Cleveland, Draymond Green did not take the floor during the game. Green’s been out for a minute with a back injury, and the decision was made that he wouldn’t be able to suit up and play some extremely low-stakes basketball that had the potential to end in disaster.

Still, Green was part of the game by joining the Inside the NBA team for its alternate broadcast of the game. Because the Inside guys are sensational at doing things that get people mad at them, one moment during the game’s first half led to Green getting riled up. A conversation about very good defenders saw Green get lumped with noted guy he doesn’t like all that much Rudy Gobert, and in response, Green seemed to get legitimately bothered at being mentioned in the same breath as the Utah Jazz star.

Green isn’t wrong, of course — despite both of them being sensational defensive players, the stuff Green does for the Golden State Warriors and the stuff Gobert does for the Jazz are quite different. Still, seeing as how Green went onto TNT a few weeks back and expressed some thoughts on Gobert, we have to assume this was done with the goal of prodding him.