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The Washington Informer reports that hip-hop godfather Kurtis Blow underwent heart transplant surgery on Sunday in Los Angeles and is now recovering, according to his wife, Shirley Walker. “He is out of surgery,” she reported via text. “Keep the prayers and praises up. God does all things well.”

Kurtis, at 61 years old, had a history of heart problems. He suffered a heart attack in 2016 at a bus stop in LA. The rapper had collapsed during and was revived by LAPD officers who performed CPR on him and called paramedics. In 2019, he had surgery to repair an aortic artery. His recovery from that surgery was apparently disrupted by further problems, causing him to be rushed to the hospital for a second surgery.

Although the words “icon” and “legend” get tossed around a lot in hip-hop these days — maybe a little too much — Kurtis Blow is one rapper who certainly fits the bill. He was the first rapper to sign with a major record label in 1979, signing with Mercury and releasing the holiday staple, “Christmas Rappin’.” He followed up with “The Breaks,” another pivotal record in the development of the burgeoning movement, and helped launch the careers of Run-DMC and The Fat Boys, while his 1984 song “Basketball” was covered by Lil Bow Wow and he produced for some of the most popular and successful early hip-hop acts. Most recently, he was politically active in the 2020 presidential elections, encouraging fans to vote for Biden-Harris.

UNLV’s football team rarely makes national headlines, as the Rebels have struggled in recent years in the Mountain West. This season, they find themselves 0-5 on the season, with one final game scheduled for this weekend in Hawaii to try and avoid a winless season in a shortened 2020.

However, on Monday, quarterback Max Gilliam and UNLV coach Marcus Arroyo both issued statements regarding a reality TV show incident that has become quite the story in Las Vegas. Gilliam appeared on the Bravo show Below Deck, in which he and some friends chartered a yacht in Antigua back in February and requested that their sushi dinner be served on a nude model to the dismay of the chef. The episode aired in late November and has caused a bit of a stir.

Gilliam says it was not the idea of he or his friends, but that of the producers and says he regrets not pushing back on the idea and allowing it to happen. He notes it’s not a reflection of the culture of UNLV football and doesn’t want it to take away from their focus on finishing the season this week.

It is one of the most bizarre college football stories of the year, as you rarely get an apology for a reality TV show appearance, and the biggest shocker is that this happened to a UNLV player but not at something filmed in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas Review Journal dove into some of the details of the when and how his appearance on the show came to be, but while it seems nothing was amiss from a legal or NCAA standpoint, it seems it was not the kind of attention Gilliam or the program wanted to be getting this fall.

Industry (HBO, 10:00pm EST) — The Succession-esque series for the younger crowd puts Pierpoint on the defense following an ex-employee’s tell all book. Meanwhile, Eric evaporates, Gus must cover despite not being prepared to do so, and Harper’s maneuvering for her own ends.

His Dark Materials (HBO, 9:00pm EST) — The Dust-filled fantasy series picks up with Lee locating Grumman, who’s now known as Jopari, and Will and Lyra searching for the knife bearer.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert — Meryl Streep, Chris Stapleton

Jimmy Kimmel Live — Miley Cyrus, Tony Romo

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon — Mariah Carey, Andrew Rannells, Jose Feliciano

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Matthew McConaughey, Shawn Mendes

Late Night With Seth Meyers — Nick Kroll Jeremy O. Harris, Sam Hunt

Your Honor (Sunday, Showtime 10:00 p.m.) — Bryan Cranston’s intense (although uneven) limited series faces inevitable comparisons to Breaking Bad, and for sure, Cranston’s character executes his most Walter White-like maneuvers since Heisenberg left the building with AMC’s 2013 “Felina” finale. Some The Wire vibes and Defending Jacob vibes resonate throughout as well, and here he’s playing a sort-of everyman (albeit one with more power than Walt), who tangos with the criminal underworld after making an incredibly bad decision that quickly sets off a series of even worse decisions, eventually leading to a sh*tload of collateral damage. And a lot of Panic Faces.

Big Mouth: Season 4 (Netflix) — One of TV’s funniest shows is back to drum up anxiety, courtesy of Tito the Mosquito (who will be voiced by Maria Bamford), in addition to all the hormone monsters that you dearly love. Newcomer voices on the series include Ayo Edebiri replacing Jenny Slate as Missy, along with Zach Galifianakis, Seth Rogen, Josie Totah, Lena Waithe, Quinta Brunson, John Oliver, Sterling K. Brown, Paul Giamatti, Maya Erskine, and Anna Konkle.

Euphoria Part 1: Rue (Sunday, HBO 9:00 p.m.) — Need a little Zendaya to tide you over before the show returns (at an undetermined date) for Season 2? The Emmy award winner returns for the first of two special episodes. This one officially lands on HBO on Sunday, but you can catch it early already, only on HBO Max. Rue’s relapsing and ends up in a diner whilst contemplating life after Jules leaves her along at the train station following their winter formal.

Kyrie Irving, the basketball player, is polarizing.

He is electric with a dexterous handle, picturesque jumper and championship-winning shot on his resume. A highlight machine in real time. A six-time All-Star. One of the NBA’s premier guards and a vivacious offensive talent. That same player also owns a checkered injury history, questions about the effectiveness of his leadership style and ability (hello, 2018-19 Boston Celtics), and, according to his harshest critics, is more flair than substance.

There’s certainly some validity to the critiques of Irving. He could probably be better about accountability. He doesn’t always seem like the most pleasant locker room presence. Deciphering how exactly to balance the aesthetic beauty of his game with the impact it produces is a narrow road to walk. He is very good, though perhaps less than the montage of his peaks suggest. I understand all of that. Nobody has to enjoy or even appreciate this side of him.

I also, quite frankly, don’t give a damn about it. Because Kyrie Irving, the human, is different, and so many people fail to separate these components. Kyrie Irving, the human, is thoughtful. He’s outspoken. He challenges oppressive institutions. He utilizes his platform to educate about and advocate for social justice and change. And yet, among many, all of his work in this realm is immaterial because of his basketball persona. Others will point to his comments about the earth being flat, which he has since apologized for and clarified.

Some think he’s corny. The labels “fake intellectual” or “fake woke” are tossed around with him when he speaks about important topics more recently as a means of discrediting him. His motives are questioned. Merely by virtue of Irving authoring these ideas, they pack less or no gravity for many. Troublesome gate-keeping, at best, exists in dismissing Irving’s ideas, all because he does not conduct himself in a manner people deem appropriate or within cultural norms. I’m exhausted, discouraged and frustrated by how Irving’s advocacy and the way he carries himself are received and portrayed.

With media, he can be brash in his approach. He does not always consider decorum and platitudes; in a world that obsesses over those concepts, his messages about legitimately important topics sometimes ring hollow. That’s absolutely absurd. Value the subject matter, not the delivery or one’s history involving trifling events. And, seriously, re-evaluate the thought process of glossing over his words about injustices because he threw a ball in the stands or failed to lead a basketball team to its goals.

That’s sports. This is life.

Failing to hear and absorb his concerns and beliefs because of trivial affairs is emblematic of an American tradition: the oppressor silencing its oppressed through critiques of transmission and a disregard of the expressed plights.

Back in June, when the NBA’s plans to resume the 2019-20 season gathered steam and coincided with protests for racial justice and the abolition/defunding of police forces, Irving was hesitant to embrace the league’s revival. Many players had led and participated in these protests or used their time away from the game to maximize the social justice platform afforded to them. Irving worried a return to play and months in an isolated bubble would diminish and inhibit those efforts. He wanted players to sit out the rest of the season and maintain their directive on the fight for racial equality, even saying he’d “give up everything” for social reform.

Many, fans, media and NBA constituents alike, considered Irving’s actions a continuation of his prickly in-house nature, which most prominently led him to demand a trade out of Cleveland and contributed to Boston’s underwhelming 2018-19 season. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski described it as such, writing, “Irving, 28, has forged a reputation as a disruptor within his career, and that’s emerging again at this crucial moment for the NBA. Irving’s stance has pitted him against the league’s establishment, including his former Cavaliers teammate LeBron James, once again. There’s significant support to resume the season among the league’s superstars — most of whom are on playoff contenders — and Irving seems to be relishing the clash.”

But the framing seems disingenuous given the difference between his basketball activities and his big-picture intentions; Irving was not being difficult for the sake of confrontation but because he’s passionate about the fight, something much larger than poking the bear to argue about pick-and-roll coverages or what time the team should meet for tomorrow’s film session.

Irving’s devotion to philanthropy and social reform extends beyond this instance. In 2016, he publicly opposed the development of the Dakota Access Pipeline and two years later, he donated $110k to the Sioux tribe. Earlier this year, he donated food items and masks to Standing Rock Reservation. He’s repeatedly donated resources — time, money, food — to food banks. Before the WNBA season opened this summer, Irving launched the KAI Empowerment Initiative, which committed a $1.5 million fund to any players who opted out and also offered a financial literacy program. He participated in a protest against systemic racism this summer.

His Instagram includes odes to racial justice icons such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Fred Hampton. More recently, his feed features posts demanding equality for Native Indigenous Black people and justice for Breonna Taylor, and reading selections supporting feminism and railing against colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism. Positing Irving’s reluctance to embrace the NBA’s restart stemmed from a desire for conflict was ignorant. His prior and continued behavior emphasizes that.

As it turned out, Irving’s reservations about the NBA Bubble were warranted. When Jacob Blake was shot in August by Wisconsin police officers, the players, led by members of the Milwaukee Bucks, including George Hill, organized a strike to thrust police brutality and systemic racism back into the spotlight. Hill even said they shouldn’t have come to the Bubble in the first place. The scope of their advocacy, as Irving worried, had grown limited, proving that his fears were genuine rather than a pesky, egocentric hurdle standing in the way of a sport’s return. Questioning them and insinuating he weaponized the pursuit of racial justice for his own pleasure was always, in its kindest form, asinine.

Friday was media day for the Brooklyn Nets, and Irving was scheduled to meet virtually with the assembled press for the first time since then. That afternoon, Alex Schiffer of The Athletic, tweeted out an email from an Irving spokesperson indicating that he would not be participating.

The backlash to the statement was swift and prevalent across social media, but went far beyond what would normally be the response to a player not meeting with the media specifically because this was Kyrie and he handled it in the manner he did.

Irving is not establishing some dangerous precedent. He’s not the first nor the last athlete to skip media duties. Obligations like media day exist and are indeed part of the job, but skipping out on one does not mean the very thread of sports journalism’s fabric unraveling. Media day is generally a boilerplate endeavor filled with cliche quotes. Bypassing that is not an affront to sports media’s most important aspects. Though it would be nice to hear how Irving sees the new-look Nets coming together, crucial storytelling will not manifest from a Zoom call with 50 other reporters on the line.

It seems clear the way his comments about the Bubble were received did not make him more likely to speak his mind, either. Kendrick Perkins said, “If you take Kyrie Irving’s brain and put it in a bird right now, guess what that bird is going to do? It’s going to fly backwards. Because Kyrie right now, he’s confused.” An ESPN commentator who has since fled to Fox News said Irving supported racism. Irving has since revealed that reception put him in a “dark place.” As such, it’s pretty simple to recognize why Irving is less willing to speak with media and his statement described as an effort to “ensure that my message is conveyed properly.” In this case, being wary of an institution and practice that has attacked his character seems justified.

The NBA — its fans, media, partners and leaders — often laud the league for its progressiveness. But it can be a transparently self-aggrandizing title. The treatment and narratives of Kyrie Irving, the articulate, socially conscious human, and inability to parse this from his polarizing basketball tendencies are a summation of the institutional facade. Social justice, so as long as its execution and messengers are good and proper in our eyes.

Irving deserves far more respect for his work than he’s ever garnered. I worry I’ll be expressing a similar belief years after he’s stepped away from the game, too.

Euproria‘s first special episode hit the HBO Max streaming platform last week and finally aired on the network Sunday, and plans for Part II are now official. HBO announced Monday that the second special episode will follow Rue’s reflective Christmas Eve diner date and focus on Jules.

According to a release, the second episode will follow a slightly different naming convention and is titled “F*ck Anyone Who’s Not A Sea Blob.” Perhaps most interestingly, the episode was co-written by Hunter Schafer, who plays Jules on the show. The release notes that Schafer also served as co-executive producer of the episode, along with director and series showrunner Sam Levinson, who also co-wrote the episode with its star.

Schafer tweeted about the news on Monday, revealing a trailer poster that seems to make the episode title make a bit more sense.

Jules appears to be holding up some sort of ocean plant life while standing on a craggy beach. Details about the episode are sparse, but it seems like she’s headed for the water for some wintertime contemplation. The Rue episode we got in Part 1 was a distinct departure from a lot of the aesthetics we’re used to from the show, so it will be fascinating to see what direction Part II goes in with Schafer’s influence on the script.

HBO said the episode will debut on January 24 at 9 p.m., though we’ll see if HBO Max gets an early stream of it just like Rue’s late-night pancakes got this month.

Melania Trump has toned down the “death stares” as she gears up for the end of her run as First Lady. She’s actually pretending to be excited about Christmas decorations, and not everyone’s buying that sudden rush of enthusiasm. What’s going over even worse, though, is Melania’s Monday announcement that renovations are complete on the White House’s tennis pavilion. Tweeting about a shiny structure meant to preserve a leisurely pastime as “vital” during a pandemic (when poverty rates are rising as coronavirus cases continue to spike) probably isn’t a good look. It’s tone-deaf at best and more than a little bit like Kim Kardashian’s private-island tweets that unironically claimed humility.

“History continues to unfold at the @WhiteHouse,” tweeted the current FLOTUS. “I am pleased to announce the completion of the tennis pavilion. Preserving this historic landmark is vital & I want to thank all who helped complete this project.”

This actually isn’t the first time that Melania’s tweeted about these renovations. She did so in March (while posting photos of herself wearing a construction hard hat) and pushed back at critics. “I encourage everyone who chooses to be negative (and) question my work at the ⁦‪@WhiteHouse⁩,” Melania wrote. “[T]o take time and contribute something good (and) productive in their own communities.”

The new structure is larger than the older one, and it’s not open to the general public, only for “leisure time” for first families, according to CNN. The cable news network also reports that the renovations were funded privately through the Trust for the National Mall, which also did its solicitation thing for Melania’s Rose Garden reworking.

Let’s just say that people aren’t pleased, and even if the construction couldn’t be halted (which it probably could have) this year, tweeting out photos of the swanky structure is practically begging for a “let them eat cake” reaction.

There’s some general roasting going on as well, including a key photoshop job that might stay in your brain forever.

Unless you’re an actual masochist, nobody likes being poked with needles. But some of us hate it a whole lot more than others. If you’re of the “Eh, no big deal—just get the quick shot and be done with it” mindset, you’re in good company. But if you’re in the “I can’t handle the idea of a needle coming anywhere near my flesh” camp, you’re also in good company.

The fear of needles is called trypanophobia, and it’s very common. In fact, according Advent Health in Tampa, Florida, a 2012 study of 800 parents and 1,000 children found that 24 percent of the parents and 63 percent of the kids had a fear of needles. And between 7 and 8 percent of those people described needle phobia as the top reason for avoiding getting vaccinations.

Some pediatricians have developed methods for giving little kids vaccines in a way that results in the least amount of trauma. Our kids’ doctor has a flower-shaped plastic device with little bristles on it that they push onto the kid’s skin, distributing the sensation as the needle goes in, for example. But some docs takes it to a whole other level.

Like this one:

Tapping the baby with the covered needle like a game makes the needle itself seem not scary. Then, distracting them with the quick poke and then something super fun right after—the bubbles—appears to be a winning strategy.

Here’s a different baby with the same doc, same routine, and same result. You can definitely tell the babe has a “Whoa, wait a minute, what just happened?!” moment, but it’s short-lived.

Doctor Distracts Baby During Vaccine Jab With Sweet Routine

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Another doc takes a similar approach with a toddler. This time, as the kiddo is a little older and more aware, the “Whoa, wait a minute” reaction comes with some verbal complaint. But the doctor knows just how to handle it, and it’s incredible to see the immediate turnaround from a simple, silly tissue toss.

Baby laughing while getting shots

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Adults certainly don’t want doctors to start throwing tissues in their faces after getting a vaccination shot, but there’s something to be said for trying to make the process less frightening. By the time people are adults, the pain itself isn’t so much the issue as the idea of the needle. The silly play with the needle before the injection is one example of how doctors help kids not see the needle itself as scary, and though adults might need a different approach than children, purposeful exposure is actually one of the key strategies to overcoming phobias.

Considering the fact that we’re going to need a good percentage of Americans to get the coronavirus vaccine in order to return to non-distanced, non-masked normalcy, doing everything we can to help people overcome their fears of either the vaccine itself or the needles used to give them is important.

Also, considering this dumpster fire of a year, we could all use a little extra TLC. Maybe we can all take our burned out doctors a gift card or something when we ask them to sing a song while they give us our shots. Whatever it takes to get us through this home stretch of the pandemic with as little ongoing trauma as possible.

In all of the hubbub over Cardi B’s tweet about an $88,000 bag and the resulting criticism, one thing was overlooked; nobody but Cardi had any idea what the thing looked like or whether it was actually worth the price of a luxury automobile. Cardi solved that problem herself this afternoon, posting a photo of the bag from her text conversation about it and writing, “This is the purse people crying about.” Unfortunately, she may not have made a great case for spending the money, as it’s receiving less than stellar reviews.

As one stan account succinctly put it, “This sh*t was not worth getting dragged.” So far, the accessory has drawn comparisons to a pair of Ugg boots, a Western movie prop, and a Sherpa jacket, with many just outright calling it ugly.

Many just questioned why Cardi wouldn’t buy the significantly cheaper, though much higher coveted Telfair bag, which became a hot item going into the holiday season despite its relative affordability.

Cardi’s initial tweet about the bag — sans photo — sparked an intense debate about the number of people struggling due to the pandemic and Cardi’s own acts of charity. Cardi eventually gave a half-apology while pointing out how the government — whose job it is to actually provide for the welfare of the American people — did very little to help the working class.

Shortly after posting the photo and quickly sensing which way the wind was blowing, she also explained her reasoning for throwing down on an accessory she’s unlikely to get much love for… she considers it an investment. “It’s not about being cute it’s about the http://value,” she wrote. “In 3 years I can auction it for double.”

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

History may not remember Wayne’s World as a music movie, but it really is. Getting Cassandra a record deal is one of the film’s major plot points, Milwaukee enthusiast Alice Cooper makes a memorable cameo, and the film is credited with bringing renewed popularity to the Queen classic “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

So, when Josh Gad hosted the latest episode of his Reunited Apart series for the film, it was a music-heavy affair. Aside from the film’s primary cast, also participating in the event were Cooper, Queen’s Brian May and Roger Taylor, and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry (who appeared in a Wayne’s World sketch on Saturday Night Live once upon a time).

It has long been known that Freddie Mercury approved of the famous “Bohemian Rhapsody” scene before his death, and May spoke about how Mercury enjoyed it, saying, “I took [a VHS tape of the scene] ’round to Freddie not long before he went and showed it to him, because you said you wanted to have the approval. He loved it, he just laughed and laughed. He was very weak, but he just smiled and laughed.” He had been known to say, ‘Look, I suppose I have to die before we get America back,’ but you guys did it. You got us back to a new American public, and Freddie was very aware of that. He got totally into it, and he went to the next place knowing what had happened and enjoying it.”

Meanwhile, Cooper also came in clutch during the reunion by reciting his famous Milwaukee facts in front of a Delaware-themed background.

Watch the full video above.

The Olympic games may have been postponed all the way to 2021, but they’ll be back in 2024 — with a few all-new events, including breakdancing. Hip-hop has already been global, but it’s been further legitimized by the International Olympic Committee’s announcement today, per ESPN, that the most physical element of the culture has officially been added to the list of events coming to Paris in 2024. The IOC has also added skateboarding, sport climbing, and surfing, although they’ll debut at 2021’s postponed Tokyo games instead.

Breaking was proposed by Paris organizers in 2018 after the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires had a successful trial run of the new event. It still required more approval stages from the IOC board and a membership vote. The inaugural event will take place at Place de la Concorde in downtown Paris alongside 3-on-3 basketball. In receiving approval, breaking bypassed the fates of sports like ocean rowing and parkour.

Up until this announcement, the biggest stage for hip-hop dance was the annual Red Bull BC One, which features a one-on-one battle format decided by a panel of five judges. The youth games used a similar format; while details on the upcoming games are vague, it stands to reason they’ll use the same format, foregoing crew-based competitions.