With cold season upon us, there’s no better time to learn a couple of awesome and easy tricks that will clear up the dreaded and annoying stuffy nose. Prevention magazine created a short video showing two easy ways to get you breathing free again no matter how stuffed up you might be.
Both tricks take less than two minutes and are certainly worth trying out when it feels like that runny nose might never go away.
Fortnite caused a stir earlier this week with a special Martin Luther King Jr. event in game that was supposed to honor the civil rights legend’s legacy. The Epic smash hit has expanded what a video game can do in recent years, hosting in-game concerts, movie trailers, and other events in non-competitive areas of the in-game universe.
But the event honoring King drew skepticism given the sensitivity of race relations in America and the often fraught relationship gaming and gamers have with race in general. Something like an exhibit paying due tribute to one of the most important Americans in the nation’s history in a virtual world was, to some, inviting the more callous in the Fortnite universe to make memes. Which seems to be what happened until Epic stepped in.
All emotes have been disabled in the March Through Time experience except the 8 that are part of the experience. pic.twitter.com/XQZMX1ABYP
As Kotaku noted Friday, Epic was forced to disable all emotes available in the game except the special ones that come with the exhibit itself. This comes after clips emerged of people in various skins dancing and doing some of the more toxic emotes in the game were circulated online. What’s interesting is that, as the report notes, some emotes were already removed from the game ahead of this new event. And the game has had issues with people using emotes during serious events like its We The People event about race in America last July 4.
It’s not a surprise that this happened, in other words, but it’s curious that Epic didn’t foresee this problem coming until players had the chance to make it weird for a day or so first.
The best new hip-hop this week includes albums, videos, and songs from Belly, OhGeesy, Westside Gunn, and more.
Friday saw the releases of Baby Keem’s Kendrick Lamar collaboration “Family Ties,” Babyface Ray, Big Sean, and Hit-Boy’s “It Ain’t My Fault,” Belly, Nas, and The Weeknd’s “Die For It,” Meek Mill, Lil Baby’s, and Lil Durk’s “Sharing Locations,” and Rich Gang’s reunion on “Blue Emerald” along with the releases listed below.
Here is the best of hip-hop this week ending August 27, 2021.
Albums/EPs/Mixtapes
Belly — See You Next Wednesday
Bellly
The Canadian rapper follows up his 2018 album Immigrant with his third album, which features appearances from Benny The Butcher, Big Sean, Gunna, Lil Uzi Vert, Moneybagg Yo, Nas, Nav, and Young Thug.
Curren$y — Highest In Charge
Curren$y
The New Orleans rapper continues his extreme prolific streak with his third release of 2021, produced in conjunction with producer Trauma Tone.
G Perico — Geezy World
OhGeesy
LA indie G Perico teams up with fellow local rising stars 03 Greedo, BlueBucks Clan, and Remble. With just 11 tracks, it’s one of the breezier releases of the week but Perico’s authenticity oozes through every bar.
Grip — I Died For This!?
Grip
Atlanta rapper Grip is living the epitome of whirlwind success after being signed to Shady Records last month and releasing his debut project just weeks later. He’s got an intricate, nimble flow that lets him command even tracks featuring his label’s head honcho.
Lil Tecca — We Love You Tecca 2
Lil Tecca
Lil Tecca never seemed comfortable with the limelight during his rocketship rise behind the success of “Ransom,” but he’s here now and making the most of it. The sequel to his debut mixtape is focused on demonstrating his growth since then as he finds himself brandishing more confidence and looking forward to the future.
Nitty Scott — Jiggy Mami
Nitty Scott
Brooklyn-born Nitty Scott returns with the independently-released LP featuring R&B legend Mya. Although her inception predates the wave of girl power currently sweeping the industry, she deserves to be its beneficiary as much as anyone after laboring mostly uncredited through the blog era.
OhGeesy — Geezy World
OhGeesy
Shoreline Mafia’s OhGeesy has long been considered the group’s standout performer, often drawing huge crowd pops when he shows up at other LA artists’ concerts. It’s only right for him to get some love for his solo debut, which features A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, BlueBucksClan, and YG.
Westside Gunn — Hitler Wears Hermes 8: Sincerely, Adolf
Westside Gunn
It’s Westside Gunn; you shouldn’t need an explanation. Tough talk gets talked, gun bars get busted, bricks get fluffed up and sold by the truckload. Bask in it.
Another bold independence anthem from the current queen of Detroit rap featuring the original certified lover boy (no offense to Drake), Wale? Yes, please.
Lil Gotit — “Work Out” Feat. Gunna
Slippery Atlanta trap at its finest. If waiting for Punk has you sitting on pins and needles, you could do worse than the latest from two of Thugger’s more prominent proteges.
Russ — “Can’t Let Go”
Russ has been penning magnetic, relatable love songs for the past few months’ worth of weekly releases, but the quality is always A1.
Stunna Gambino — “Demons” Feat. A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie
A Boogie’s addition just highlights how good Gambino is at the melodic New York rap wave.
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Although Lil Baby hails from Atlanta, he’s demonstrated quite the affinity for Detroit’s burgeoning street rap scene. Last year, he put rising star 42 Dugg on his album My Way, signing him to the 4PF label, which shares a partnership with Yo Gotti’s CMG label in helping the XXL Freshman crossover from the Motor City streets to the world. Now, Lil Baby lends a lyrical assist to another Detroiter, Icewear Vezzo, dropping in on his video for “Know The Difference.” In the video, the two rappers hang out in Detroit’s West End, throwing a house party with their foreign cars out front.
Icewear Vezzo, meanwhile, has also shown his own connection with Atlanta rappers, collaborating with Future on “Tear The Club Up” and Lil Yachty on “Plastic” from the latter’s Michigan Boy Boat mixtape, which employs many other members of the bubbling scene. In addition, Vezzo has been building his buzz with big-name collaborations, linking up with Lil Durk on “Up The Scoe” as he prepares to release Rich Off Pints 2. The new project is the follow-up to the original Rich Off Pints, which dropped earlier this summer, and features Babyface Ray, Rio Da Yung OG, RMR, and SpotemGottem.
The NBA is prepared to make vaccinations against COVID-19 a crucial part of its gameday experience ahead of the 2021-22 season. According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, the league is mandating that essentially everyone who is in the arena for an NBA player and is not a player or fan is vaccinated.
Sources: Any NBA team, arena and personnel whose role involves interactions with players and referees will be required to be fully vaccinated to have in-person interactions for the 2021-22 season — including coaches, front office and medical/equipment staff.
Charania laid out the list of people of whom this distinction falls, and essentially, an entire host of personnel — which includes head coaches, members of front offices, team employees, and stadium staffers — will need to receive the vaccine.
The following NBA personnel must be fully vaccinated in order to conduct in-person interactions with players and refs: Coaching staff, medical/performance staff, equipment, front office, player development, team/arena security, PR, social media, scorer’s table, attendants. https://t.co/E2EWbrTBkG
ESPN likewise obtained the memo that was sent around laying all of this out, and answered the biggest question associated with all of this: If the NBA is issuing such a broad mandate, why are players exempt? Basically, the answer is that it’s not something the league can do at the moment, although that could be discussed with the player’s association.
The directive specifically includes coaches, front-office members and trainers but stops short of requiring all players to be vaccinated. Leaguewide vaccination of players is subject to negotiations with the National Basketball Players Association.
Despite the inability to mandate players getting it, the most recent number we have by way of NBPA head Michele Roberts indicated 90 percent of players have been vaccinated against COVID.
Lynelle Cantwell is in 12th grade at Holy Trinity High School in Torbay, Newfoundland and Labrador (that’s Canada). On Monday, she found out that she had been featured on another student’s anonymous online poll entitled “Ugly Girls in Grade 12,” along with several other classmates.
Cantwell responded via Facebook with her own message, which has already been shared more than 2,000 times and counting.
Take a look:
Lynelle Cantwell/Facebook
Since posting her brave response on Facebook, more people have come out to show support than people who voted in the first place.
Check out some of the responses:
Facebook
The School District of Newfoundland and Labrador has announced that it will be looking into the incident further. For Cantwell, the positive outpouring of love and support vastly outweighs the initial cyberbullying and is raising her confidence in new ways.
Just four months after being hired as the janitor at Farmington Elementary School in Germantown, Tennessee, Robert Reed, 60, made such an impact the school repaid him with an incredible act of kindness.
Reed is incredibly hard-working, always has a smile on his face, and even seeks out additional jobs at the school when he’s finished his janitorial tasks.
“No job is too big or too small,” Reed told WREG. “I wanna make a safe, clean, sanitized environment for the students, the guests.”
It’s hard work, but he’s grateful for the opportunity to work at the school. “This building was built in 1975, so it takes a lot of work, but it’s a blessing to do the job,” Reed said. “I love these people up here. I love them. I couldn’t have made it without them. Yes, it’s a joy to work here. Joy. Pure joy.”
Coworkers Raise Money to Surprise School Janitor Who Takes Buses, Walks Miles to Get to Work
What’s even more incredible is that he still had the energy after a four-hour commute. Reed had no car so he was forced to take three busses and walk about two miles to and from work.
“Let’s say I get off at 3:00, I would get home about 7 because I stay in Millbranch and Winchester,” Reed said.
Can you imagine doing that long of a commute and then having to do a physically demanding job?
When faculty learned that Reed had such a long commute they helped him out by driving him to the bus stop on some days and by lending him a few dollars when he was short. But they soon decided to take the next step by giving him the surprise of a lifetime.
They started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to get him a truck. The campaign was so successful it raised $7,000 in just 21 hours, enough to get him transportation.
They surprised him at a school event and he was so blown away by the generosity that he fell to his knees. When he got back up on his feet his eyes were filled with tears of joy as he hugged the campaign’s organizer, first-grade teacher Elizabeth Malone.
HEARTWARMING: 60-year-old school janitor, Robert Reed, dropped to his knees when he learned staff & parents at Farm… https://t.co/KC2zXEsnDl
By the time the GoFundMe campaign had ended it raised over $49,000 for Reed. Reed hopes that with the new truck, he can start a side business doing landscaping.
The fundraiser has made an incredible impact on Reed’s life but it also teaches the students at Farmington two big lessons. Hard work pays off and when you see someone in need, help them out. “His work ethic is unbelievable, and we want our kids to pick up on that,” Malone said. “We just want to model to our kids that when you see a need you should reach out and help them,” Malone said.
In every relationship we’ll ever have, there’s going to be a final conversation. Before the digital age, these interactions were usually face-to-face or over the telephone and could only be recorded in our memories. But now, just about every relationship leaves a paper trail of text messages, social media interactions, and voice messages. Sometimes the final communication is a heated breakup, and other times, it’s a casual interaction shortly before a person’s death.
Now, there’s a blog that collects these haunting final messages. The Last Message Received contains submissions of the last messages people received from ex-friends or ex-significant others as well as from deceased friends and relatives. Here are some of the blog’s most haunting posts.
“My good friend’s dad died around Thanksgiving. Two weeks later he drank himself to death.”
via Imgur
“This is the last text I got from my mom before she died of Stage IV brain cancer at the age of 53. It left her completely paralyzed on the left side of her body, hence the typos in the texts. What she was saying was, ‘You’re missing music therapy.’ Almost as good as Good Friday church giggles.’ A few years prior to this, we went to the Good Friday service at our church. The choir was absolutely horrendous and couldn’t sing whatsoever. She and I sat there, in the most serious, somber church service of all, laughing hysterically, unable to stop for the life of us. She sent me this text while she was in hospice and I was at school.”
via Imgur
“This happened a few months back. He was my best friend and my boyfriend of 7 years. He stuck with me when I fell pregnant at 16 after I was raped. He became an actual dad to my son. He was my everything. A few months before this message, things started to change, we drifted apart and he was telling my 5 year old son to lie to me about his whereabouts. One night he beat me, I ended up in hospital for a few days. He begged for forgiveness, I stayed. It happened again a few days later, he was at work when I text him. I took my son and left. This is the last text I received from him. I heard last week that he’s just been sent to prison for crimes involving violence and drugs. I hope he gets the help he needs.”
via Imgur
“My dad died 6 weeks later flying the plane in this picture.”
via Imgur
“The last text he sent me. The next day I got a call from his daughter that he was still very much with his wife and I wasn’t the only one he was cheating on her with.”
via Imgur
“She had sent me a message earlier asking me not to contact her anymore. I woke up to one last message. We’d dated for 3.5 years and when I came out as trans, the relationship fell apart. I still think about and miss her every day.”
via Imgur
“I sent this to my grandpa on thanksgiving. Two days later he unexpectedly had a heart attack and passed. He was my favorite person in the world and nothing has been the same since. I refuse to delete this message.”
via Imgur
“I would have fallen in love with her if distance and timing hadn’t gotten in the way. I’m ignoring her because I need to let her move on.”
You think the Ted Lasso discourse is bad? The “Marvel Scorsese” discourse is worse.
“I don’t see them,” Martin Scorsese said in a 2019 interview about Marvel movies. “I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema. Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.” People (Marvel stans) got mad at him; he wrote an op-ed for the New York Times about why he said what he said (“For anyone who dreams of making movies or who is just starting out, the situation at this moment is brutal and inhospitable to art”), and people (more Marvel stans) got mad at him again.
The lyrics: Take away your things and go / You can’t take back what you said, I know / I’ve heard it all before, at least a million times.” In case anyone was wondering which side she’s on, Francesca Scorsese later added on Instagram, “Lol y’all idk how many times I’ve said I agree with my dad about #Marvel.”
For what it’s worth, Scorsese doesn’t dislike every Marvel movie.
the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies are the only superhero movies Martin Scorsese has openly said he likes. the man’s taste is impeccable pic.twitter.com/ARViLzDe1D
As we digest this week’s heavy news, it’s vital that we all balance our media consumption with uplifting and inspiring content. Doom-scrolling is a quick way to slip into despair, so we’re here to offer some joy-scrolling to lift your spirit.
Here are 10 things that can help bring a smile to your face as you wrap up your week:
1. A photographer captured the innocent joy of an Afghan girl skipping across the tarmac after landing safely in Belgium
It’s hard to find uplifting news surrounding the tragic events in Afghanistan, but this Reuters image of an Afghan girl skipping across the tarmac with her family after being evacuated to Belgium offers a glimpse of hope and a reminder of what freedom means to those who are fleeing Taliban rule. A little beam of light in the darkness.
A girl skips across the tarmac as people evacuated from Afghanistan arrive at Melsbroek Military airport in Belgium. https://t.co/wrW0CRpiC0
2. This martial arts instructor took forgiveness to a whole new level after kids broke his studio window.
“To the kids that threw the rock at my window & shattered it, I was a wild kid too, and I forgive you,” they wrote in a note. “If you want to learn how to channel your anger, I will train you for FREE. I will help you.” Signed, Warrior Poet.
Warrior Poet indeed. What a beautiful example of the best of humanity.
3. Elementary teacher perfectly illustrates fairness in a simple lesson using Band-aids.
Good teachers are treasures, and Ms. Aimee here proves herself priceless as she explains how she teaches her third-grade students about what fairness really means. Fairness doesn’t mean everyone gets the same thing, but rather everyone gets what they need to be successful. Simply brilliant. Read the full story here.
4. Speaking of great teachers, Mr. Monroe and his therapy dog, Nala, are lighting up TikTok with empathy demonstrations.
Josh Monroe is winning hearts all over the internet with his TikTok videos showing how he empathizes with students who are struggling. He also shares how he utilizes Nala, his therapy dog, in the classroom. This guy will restore your faith in humanity in an instant. Read the full story here.
5. Isaac Kearney might just be the best lip synch artist you’ve ever seen.
I have no idea if this kiddo can actually sing or not, but his lip-synch performances are off the hook. So much passion and emotion in such a tiny package. I could watch him all day.
6. This bird actually can sing and pianist Kevon Carter adding some accompaniment to it is just sheer delight.
It’s the little head shake with the eyes closed for me. “Yeeeeahhhh….Yeeeeahhhhh” Unreal, but so fun.
7. 11-year-old drummer Nandi Bushell finally got to perform live with Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters.
Nandi Bushell is a drum prodigy (for real) and she became internet famous during the pandemic for her drum challenges with Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl. That story is amazing on its own, but seeing Bushell’s dream come true in front of a whole stadium is something else. Look at this joy (and talent—holy moly).
11-year-old prodigy @Nandi_Bushell finally got to meet and jam with the @foofighters last night at The Forum… https://t.co/KzmFwVUgF2
— Wu-Tang Is For The Children (@WUTangKids) 1630076403.0
8. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson surprised a tour group in his neighborhood and I’m not sure who got more joy out of it.
The Rock is beloved for being one of those celebrities who genuinely seems like a good guy. Watching him casually roll up next to a tour bus and give fans the surprise of their lives is just some good, wholesome fun. Read the full story here.
9. Speaking of wholesome fun, this great aunt giving Australian football a go is definitely smile-worthy.
We all have that cool older relative who’s up for anything. Great Aunty Judy’s laughter is contagious, and her slipper flying off during her kick attempt is just the icing on the cake.
10. Want to see sheer, unadulterated joy? Watch Walter the Golden Lab book it down to the ocean in Sicily.
It’s me. I am Walter. This is pretty much exactly what I would do if someone let me loose on a beautiful Mediterranean island, ears flapping and all. Wait for the unhesitant leap and plunge at the end.
Walter, a Labrador in Sicily, loves the water.. https://t.co/gGelnPlOMg
BONUS: You want the SOUND UP on this one, I promise.
I shared this video in last week’s round-up, but I figured it’s worth sharing again because I’ve watched it approximately 85 more times since then. Can’t stop, won’t stop. Not even sorry.
Keep seeking joy and finding reasons to smile, everyone.
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