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Cyhi The Prynce is more than grateful to be alive at the moment. That’s because the GOOD Music rapper was recently involved in a brutal car accident that he claims was caused by an attempt to kill him on an Atlanta highway.

He shared the news with his fans through an Instagram post on Valentine’s Day. “Today is a day about love, but in my city (the city of Atlanta) there’s no love here anymore,” he said. “A couple nights ago there was an attempt on my life… somebody tried to gun me down on the highway. I tried everything I could do to lose them, but they were adamant about taking me off this earth.”

He added, “They where shooting at me while I was driving and even after my car flipped, hit a pole and crashed into a tree, they came back and shot the car up some more.” The incident confused Cyhi so much so that he labeled the situation as a result of mistaken identity, an attempted robbery, or payback for an incident that occurred when he was younger.

“I was born and raised in Atlanta, GA, and I have tremendous love for my city … but it’s chaotic out here,” he said further into the post. “I’m trying my best to keep a level head, but when you don’t know who is after you its hard to wrap your mind around it and not be paranoid. By the grace of god and my lord and savior jesus christ I am still here. I just want to let the people know who were trying to kill me that i am not a bad person. I don’t want revenge, I just want understanding and closure.”

The rapper then implored his followers and fellow citizens to be safe and to stop the violence in his hometown of Atlanta as he was clearly rattled by the accident and the events that led up to it:

“It’s time to stop the violence in Atlanta. I don’t have all the answers and I definitely don’t have the power to make it stop, but i do feel like somebody gotta step up and say something. So much love to every artist, label, hustler, and crew in my city pleaseee lets resolve our problems man. We don’t have to kill each other man. SMH thanks again, Atlanta. I wrote this letter to y’all with tears in my [eyes].”

You can view Cyhi’s Instagram post above.

Last week, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian’s daughter North went viral for a beautiful landscape painting that she made, which was especially impressive considering that she’s only 7 years old. Right away, her work drew Bob Ross comparisons, and now North has gotten some attention from the Bob Ross Experience, a museum that is housed in a refurbished version of Ross’ former studio.

TMZ reports that Sarah Strohl of Bob Ross Inc. says the company was “thrilled” to see North’s painting and that they’re inviting her to visit the Muncie, Indiana museum. If North were to find her way to Muncie, she would be able to check out Ross’s paintings and take a class to learn about Ross’ painting techniques from a certified instructor.

After North’s painting was first shared, some people questioned whether the young artist actually painted it herself. That prompted outrage from Kardashian, who wrote on social media, “DON’T PLAY WITH ME WHEN IT COMES TO MY CHILDREN!!! […] I’m seeing op-ed pieces in the media and social media from grown adults breaking down whether or not my child actually painted this! How dare you see children doing awesome things and then try to accuse them of NOT being awesome!?!?! Please stop embarrassing yourselves with the negativity and allow every child to be GREAT!!! NORTH WEST PAINTED THAT PERDIOTDDDDDABCDEFGZFDT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Morgan Wallen is found himself in the midst of controversy over the past couple of weeks thanks to a video that captured him using a racial slur with friends. Despite this, it hasn’t stopped the singer’s recent success on the charts as his sophomore album, Dangerous: The Double Album, kept its No. 1 position on the Billboard 200 chart dated February 20. The project tallied an additional 150,000 units thanks to 107,000 streaming equivalent album units and 37,000 pure album sales. In addition to retaining his crown on the charts, Wallen’s 2018 album, If I Know Me, made its top-ten debut coming in at No. 10.

Dangerous is just the third album in the last 12 months to spend five weeks at No. 1 on the charts. The other two projects to accomplish this were Taylor Swift’s Folklore and Lil Baby’s My Turn, which were the two most popular albums of 2020. Wallen’s sophomore effort is also the first country album to land five total weeks at No. 1 since Taylor Swift’s Red. The last country album to spend its first five weeks atop the charts was Shania Twain’s Up, which accomplished this between December 7, 2002 and January 4, 2003.

The singer’s return to No. 1 comes after he shared a five-minute Instagram apology video for his use of a racial slur earlier this month. “The video you saw was me on hour 72 of 72 of a bender, and that’s not something I’m proud of either,” he said at one point. Elsewhere, he acknowledged the severity of his actions and revealed some of the work he’s done in the last week to turn things around.

“Since that video was taken, I’ve been sober for nine days,” Wallen said. “It’s not all that long of time, but it’s enough to know the man in that video is not the man that I’m trying to be.”

John Oliver made his much appreciated Season 8 return on Last Week Tonight and not a moment too soon. After all, a lot has happened in the past month, and it’s been almost a year since Oliver handed out much needed advice on COVID-19. Unfortunately, it is still very much with us, so Oliver sort-of made it the subject of his deep dive, but not before putting his thoughts on Netflix’s sultry, sexy Regency England-set hit, Bridgerton, on display for all. He did so in a backhanded way while acknowledging that “if you want to see a British person do something hot or interesting,” then Bridgerton is there for the taking. He added his one-sentence take on the series: “Lots of jizzing in blankets on that show.” He’s not wrong! (My regards to the Duke.)

However, Oliver needed to get serious, so he dove not into COVID-19 but brought a dire warning for “the next pandemic,” which no one wants to think about but should consider. After all, the world saw multiple epidemics (Swine Flu, Ebola, MERS, and Zika) in the decade prior to our current pandemic, and not too many people listened to those warnings. So, Oliver made a lengthy dive into how humanity’s disruption of the Earth’s landscape, particularly through deforestation, has almost guaranteed that we’ll unearth new diseases, and the time is now to prepare for more payback from Mother Nature:

“If we’re not very careful, the next pandemic could be even worse… So for the good of future generations — and in all likelihood, us in a few years’ time — we really need to remember how we feel right now and invest accordingly, because the truth is you never know where the next pandemic is going to come from.”

Urbanization and “wet markets” are other key cradles for emerging diseases, and Oliver notes that “it does being to seem like we’re actively trying to start pandemics.” There’s surely no way to help shut down all of humanity’s most disastrous vices because “draconian measures are just not going to work,” acknowledges Oliver. In other words, black markets will exist if wet markets shut down, but he sure hopes that mankind will at least consider that the COVID-19 situation could happen again, and that nations will take some preparatory action. Watch the full clip above.

Mariah Carey is music’s queen of Christmas, but that’s not her only holiday, as she has a Valentine’s Day presence as well. She has a number of sexy hits in her discography, including the classic “We Belong Together.” Over the weekend, she offered up a new rendition of the track in honor of the romantic day.

She and a band performed a rendition of the song, dubbed “Mimi’s Late Night Valentine’s Mix,” for Live With Kelly And Ryan. Parked in front of a seductively burning fireplace, she, a bassist, keyboardist, and drummer ran through a sultry performance.

Sharing a video of the cover, Carey wrote on Twitter, “Happy early Valentine’s Day! Hope you enjoyed ‘We Belong Together’ on @LiveKellyRyan which we did after a late night jam session! We actually recorded a 7 minute version of this song, thinking of putting it out for the lambily!”

Unfortunately, Carey apparently planned to drop the full 7-minute version on Valentine’s Day, but unfortunately, it looks like something got in the way of that, as she tweeted on Sunday, “I wanted to release it today but I guess it’ll take a few more days [broken heart emoji].”

Watch Carey and her band perform “We Belong Together” above.

The 2021 Daytona 500 was a marathon, as the race that began at 2:30 p.m. ET didn’t finish until nearly 12:30 a.m. ET on Monday with two big crashes early and late defining the race on each side of a lengthy rain delay.

The first wreck saw a number of the top contenders in the race get knocked out on the 14th lap, as Aric Almirola got turned near the front of the pack after Kyle Busch got a big run pushing Christopher Bell and collected 15 other cars with him.

The race would go to a red flag due to the carnage of the wreck and immediately into a lightning delay that turned into a rain delay that stopped action until 9 p.m. ET. When they restarted, there were just 24 cars on the lead lap and while there were a couple minor incidents, things went fairly smoothly for most of the next 190 or so laps. Everyone was content to ride around single file late until the final lap, when guys got antsy and with a pack of Fords leading the race, with Joey Logano ahead of teammate Brad Keselowski and fellow Ford Michael McDowell, all they needed to do was hold on for a great finish.

However, McDowell got a huge run behind the 2 car and when Keselowski tried to dip below Logano for the pass, the 22 tried to block but was too late and both got turned around, Keselowski flying up into the wall and Logano into the grass. McDowell, Austin Dillon, and Chase Elliott managed to get through, with McDowell leading when the yellow flag officially flew, making the race official and McDowell the winner, but the focus was on the carnage behind them as cars piled up in a fiery blaze.

It was a wild finish to a wild day at Daytona, and for McDowell it is a career-defining performance and win for both he and his race team, as he picked up his first career win at the most storied race of them all. For everyone else it’s a tough end to the night, but happily everyone emerged from the wreck relatively unscathed and was released quickly from the infield care center and will move on to the road course at Daytona next week.

The Lakers and Nuggets met for the second time this season on Sunday night, this time in Denver, in a rematch of the 2020 Western Conference Finals.

Once again, it was a highly competitive and well-played game for the first half, but late in the second quarter attention shifted away from the action on the court and to Anthony Davis, who limped off of the court after suffering an apparent lower right leg injury on a drive against Nikola Jokic.

Jokic was called for a foul on the drive but the contact didn’t seem to be down low as the injury for Davis seemed to occur as he stepped after the contact. Davis would shoot his two free throws and immediately walk to the locker room, grasping at the back of his right ankle, which is obviously concerning given he had recently missed time with Achilles tendonosis in that same leg. Davis said recently that he was going to remain cautious with the injury, not wanting to “play” with an Achilles issue which the Lakers said was not serious, as he sat out two games before returning on Friday night against the Grizzlies.

Hopefully, Davis just tweaked something on the play and it was more of a scare than anything serious, but until official word comes from the Lakers about his status, fans around the NBA will be holding their collective breath it isn’t a significant injury for one of the league’s top stars.

UPDATE: Davis did not return for the start of the second half, but the team had yet to provide an official update. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported he “re-aggravated” his Achilles tendonosis and had swelling, with an MRI to come on Monday.

The Spurs social media team, like that of most NBA teams, had some special Valentine’s Day content cooked up for Sunday, as they had players play “Finish The Lyric” with Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together.”

The video is pretty great, but the star of it is sophomore wing Keldon Johnson who is very clearly a big Mariah fan as he belts the song out. Mariah saw the video and found it quite adorable, giving the Spurs a shoutout on Twitter for singing her smash hit.

After the Spurs came back to beat the Hornets in Charlotte on Sunday, Johnson was far more interested in talking about the Mariah post, as he was fired up about getting a shoutout from, who he called, his favorite artist.

I love that Keldon made it clear that this isn’t something new for him just for that Valentine’s Day post, and he’s really about that Mariah Carey life, listening to her every day. That was clear from the video because he didn’t miss a word or note, while others like DeMar DeRozan kind of mumbled through it. Johnson had 18 points and eight rebounds in San Antonio’s win on Sunday, and it’s clear that the Spurs need to find a way to get him a shoutout from Mariah more often.

Ted Cruz played a key role in fomenting the events that led to the failed MAGA riot of January 6, which resulted in five deaths and nearly (but not quite) got former president Trump convicted by the Senate. Since then he has not apologized, much less acknowledged what he’d done. Instead he’s gotten repeatedly owned on Twitter, by colleagues and the star of his favorite movie. Or mocked for getting Watchmen wrong. Or belittled for his hair. On Sunday he was at it again, this time humiliating himself by presenting a post from a parody news site as real.

The post was from The Babylon Bee, which for the last five years has presented itself as a conservative Christian alternative to The Onion. Not many believe they’ve achieved their goals. Far from it. But a new Twitter post — linking to a satirical article with the headline “Disney Posts Job Ad Looking For Strong, Fierce Women Who Are Also Obedient, Submissive, And Docile,” an apparent jab at the recent firing of Mandalorian supporting player (and anti-Semitic meme-poster) Gina Carano — was close enough to the truth to fool the senator from Texas.

Many were quick to respectfully inform Cruz that The Babylon Bee is a different kind of fake news.

Although one person hatched a tongue-in-cheek explanation for what Cruz, not exactly a man of letters, was trying to say.

Others made sure to trash The Babylon Bee, not so much for being conservative but for simply not being funny.

And some others had other wises.

The Blazers and Mavericks met on Sunday evening in Dallas for the first game of ESPN’s Valentine’s Day doubleheader, and while it looked for a bit like Portland would run away and hide, it came down to the final possessions late after a huge fourth quarter run by the Mavs to tie it up late.

It was the superstar duel everyone hoped to see between Luka Doncic and Damian Lillard on Sunday, with Doncic piling up 44 points, nine assists, and seven rebounds, including a big chunk in the Mavs’ fourth quarter run, while Lillard had 34 points and 11 assists as he continues to play sensational basketball to lead the shorthanded Blazers. When it came down to winning time, though, it was Lillard who had the answers late, while Doncic couldn’t quite answer.

After a beautiful Doncic feed to Dorian Finney-Smith for a corner three to tie the game at 116-116, Dame calmly stalked the ball up the floor and worked his way into a stepback three for the lead.

Doncic would get to the basket for a dunk to cut the lead to one, and Dallas opted not to foul with just a three-second differential on the clock and the Blazers were able to work free for a Derrick Jones Jr. dunk with just over six seconds to play to extend the lead back to three. On the Mavs’ final possession, Luka somehow worked himself wide open thanks to some Portland miscommunication, but simply couldn’t sink the open three from the wing to tie the game.

The win moves Portland to 16-10 on the season, holding onto their fifth position in the West ahead of the Spurs and just behind the Suns, both of whom likewise won on Sunday. The Mavs dropped to 13-15 with the loss, as they just can’t quite build consistent winning momentum despite the heroics of Doncic, as they dropped to 10th in the West — behind either Sacramento or Memphis, who play each other. It’s early to be too concerned about seeding, but in a West playoff race where things are so tightly bunched in the middle to bottom, Portland being able to win these games while dealing with injuries is so important. Dallas, meanwhile, can’t get any separation from the pack, and when we arrive at the latter stages of this season, that might doom them to a play-in fate when they had dreams of a top-6 seed entering this season.