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Juice WRLD Lands The Biggest First-Week Of 2020 To Go No. 1 With His Posthumous ‘Legends Never Die’ Album

For the second straight week, a posthumous album has topped the Billboard albums chart. Last week, it was Pop Smoke’s No. 1 with Shoot For The Moon Aim For The Stars. This week, Juice WRLD has now earned his second No. 1 album with Legends Never Die. It marks the first time in Billboard history that the No. 1 spot on the albums chart has been occupied by posthumous albums for consecutive weeks.

Legends Never Die sold 497,000 equivalent album units in its first week, meaning it now holds the record for the biggest first-week number in 2020, passing The Weeknd’s number of 444,000 with After Hours. On top of that, Legends Never Die now holds the record for the fourth-biggest streaming week ever, having tallied 422.63 million on-demand streams in the week ending on July 16 in the US. Juice WRLD also logged the biggest week for a hip-hop album or a male artist since Travis Scott’s 2018 album Astroworld.

As for the rest of the top half of the chart, Pop Smoke clocks in at No. 2 with Shoot For The Moon Aim For The Stars, with 110,000 equivalent album units. Coming in at No. 3 we find the original Broadway cast recording ofHamilton: An American Musical backed by 95,000 equivalent album units. Rounding out the top five is Lil Baby’s My Turn at No. 4 and Post Malone’s Hollywood’s Bleeding at No. 5.

As for the bottom half of the top 10, DaBaby’s Blame It On Baby comes in at No. 6, Harry Styles’ Fine Line holds it down at No. 7, Summer Walker’s newly-released Life On Earth EP debuts at No. 8, The Weeknd’s After Hours is at No. 9, and Polo G’s The Goat comes in at No. 10.

Read our review of Juice WRLD’s Legends Never Die here.

(via Billboard)

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

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Report: The NBPA Is Partnering With Russell Westbrook To Make Social Justice Shirts

When the NBA gets back on the court later this month for its restart in the Disney bubble in Orlando, a number of players will be wearing uniforms with various social justice messages on the back in place of their names.

The NBA offered players a list of messages through collaboration with the players association, but many were left underwhelmed by the options and not particularly pleased that they were constrained to the list. It’s for that reason that some like LeBron James and Jimmy Butler won’t put a message on their uniform, with LeBron simply wearing his regular jersey while Butler will remove any name or message and play with just a number on the back.

On Sunday, word emerged from Shams Charania of The Athletic that the NBPA is partnering with Russell Westbrook’s clothing line to create warmup t-shirts for players that will feature more messages that were not on the approved list, including things like “Am I Next?” and “Police Reform.”

Westbrook’s Honor The Gift will create the shirts and apparently supply them to the players in the bubble — Westbrook himself hopes to join the Rockets in Orlando relatively soon after testing positive for the coronavirus earlier this month.

It will be interesting to see how players respond to these shirts and whether they feel they offer a better array of messages to choose from. As players like Jrue Holiday and others pledge to donate their bubble salaries to social justice causes and Black-owned businesses, they will continue to seek out ways to use the platform that will be available to them to amplify the message and keep the issues at the forefront of people’s minds, even as basketball begins.

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Two New Jersey transit police officers revive a newborn baby in dramatic new video

A remarkable rescue was captured on video in Newark Penn Station on Tuesday.

Footage from a NJ Transit Police body camera shows officers Alberto Nunes and Bryan Richards encountering a woman in a bathroom stall in the train station holding a newborn baby. At first you can hear one of the officers saying, “It’s not a baby,” but it’s followed by surprise when they realize that not only was it a baby that the woman appeared to have just given birth to, it was a lifeless shade of gray and was not breathing.

“Working here, you see a lot of things, but expecting a baby in a mother’s arms that’s a newborn, that’s nothing that we would expect,” Officer Bryan Richards told WNBC-TV, “I took possession of the baby to do the assessment on it. We didn’t know how long the baby was in this world.”



New Jersey Transit Police perform CPR to save a lifeless baby

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Officer Richards, a 10 year EMT, quickly brought the child to the sink and began performing CPR using his fingers to deliver the compressions. It did not take long for him to come to the conclusion that the situation was extremely dire and that they could not wait for the paramedics.

The two officers can be seen running to a police car with the infant wrapped in a blanket. As officer Nunes rushed to the hospital, Richards continued the compressions. And then about a minute before they arrived, the child started to show signs of life. Richards can be heard encouraging the baby saying “good girl.”

“We just knew what we had to do: Get the baby and (Richards) to the hospital, and that’s what we did,” Nunes said. “I was so happy, so excited that I heard the baby crying, because that meant the baby was breathing.”

Richards added, “It’s already high stress, high adrenaline, but once I had the baby crying, it was a big sigh of relief. A happy moment that the baby was crying, and everything we were doing was helping.”

The child is currently under evaluation with her mother at University Hospital in Newark, NJ, and is expected to survive.

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Alex Trebek reveals he’s recording new ‘Jeopardy!’ segments during health update

Alex Trebek is “doing well.” The long time host of the iconic game show Jeopardy! was diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer back in 2019. “I’ve been continuing my treatment and it is paying off though it does fatigue me a great deal. My numbers are good. I’m feeling great,” Trebek said in a video posted on the official twitter account of “Jeopardy!”

As CNN reported, this latest video is an uplifting one for Trebek fans, as only 18% of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer survive the first year. While the update was a positive one, the hallowed gameshow host mentioned that he would be lying if he said the journey has been the easiest to deal with. “There were some good days but a lot of not-so-good days,” he said. He revealed that he would kid with those close to him that “the cancer won’t kill me, the chemo treatments will.”


Trebek has been recording opening segments in his home that will precede some classic episodes of Jeopardy! scheduled to air in late July. It appears that his love for his work has played a part in his healing process. As he told The New York Times, “Oddly enough, when we started taping I suddenly started to regain my strength,” he said, after noting that he could hardly get out of bed in the morning. “It’s the strangest thing. It is some kind of an elixir.”


Summer Update From Alex Trebek | JEOPARDY!

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In an interview with People in May of 2019, Trebek said his first round of chemotherapy had shrunk some of his tumors by as much as 50%. After the numbers rose again later on that summer, he committed to another round of chemo. The gameshow icon told media that he would likely stop the treatment should the current round not show enough progress. No matter the results, Trebek has no plans to stop hosting the game show.”It’s a quality program, and I think I do a good job hosting it,” he said. “When I start slipping, I’ll stop hosting.”

Trebek revealed even more good news for the Jeopardy! faithful. Not only is he releasing his book The Answer Is …Reflections on My Life on July 21st that he wrote while going trough his treatment, but he announced the re-airing some of the best episodes from the archives of the epic quiz show.”For the first time ever, we are going to open the Jeopardy! vaults and take another look at some of our favorite episodes, including the very first Jeopardy! show I ever hosted, mustache and all,” he said. Trebek hopes to be back in the studio taping new shows as soon as the restrictions due to COVID-19 are lifted. We will know the world is starting to heal when we can once again give answers in the form of a question.

You can help the fight against cancer whether it is making a donation or volunteering by visiting the American Cancer Society.

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Jhene Aiko Makes The Best Of Turbulent Times In Her Warm ‘Summer 2020’ Visual

Almost three years went by following 2017’s Trip before Jhene Aiko delivered her third album Chilombo. The album has lived up to expectations from her fans and currently stands as one of the best R&B releases from the year. Using the deluxe album trend to give fans even more music, Aiko announced back in May that she would premiere the album’s deluxe version in the following weeks. Clearing a few obstacles that delayed the deluxe album a few months, Aiko shared it this past weekend. In addition to the updated album, she also delivered a new video for one of its new tracks, “Summer 2020.”

The track serves as an extension of the interlude that appears on the original version of Chilombo. In the video, Aiko reflects on the rollercoaster year 2020 has been while thanking and showing appreciation toward her significant other who has made it easier to push through difficult times. Making the best of the turbulent year, Jhene blows bubbles and cools off in a small inflatable pool and the serenity of nature surrounds her, bringing a warm vibe to the visual.

Aiko’s “Summer 2020” video serves as the latest visual effort from Chilombo she previously released a video for “Happiness Over Everything” with Miguel and Future as well as an animated visual for “B.S.” with H.E.R.

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A Woman Went Viral On Twitter For Learning That Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim Exists

Perhaps its the pure boredom of life in quarantine or the evolution of wild right-wing conspiracy theories that has everyone searching for vast conspiracies these days. The latest, which cropped up this weekend and went viral on Twitter, is that Cartoon Network has a programming block called Adult Swim.

A woman, known on Twitter as @soonergurl74, posted on Saturday night a video she found highly offensive because it appeared on the usually kid-friendly Cartoon Network. She claimed the video was of “witches abusing babies” and part of a widespread campaign to trick children into watching disturbing images. The clip was from the networks’ late-night block of Adult Swim content, which is usually rated TV-14 or above and has existed since since 2001.

Adult Swim isn’t new, though its hours have extended in recent years to begin at 8 p.m. and run until 6 a.m. The block has been a showcase for a lot of adult animation, including Rick and Morty. It’s existed for decades, and the idea that it is an attempt to subvert the thinking of children is pretty silly. The name of the block is a reference to the very idea that children should be out of the proverbial pool, and there’s a content warning played between the block’s infamous bumps that reminds people that children should not be watching.

A second tweet, which went out when a lot of people pointed out that Adult Swim is A Thing and has been A Thing for A While, doubled down on what she believed to be a vast conspiracy at play at Williams Street in Atlanta, saying in part “when the darkness is exposed, the demons start panicking.”

The moment drew a lot of reaction online, especially from people who know that sometimes cartoons are made with adults in mind.

As many pointed out, it’s not like “Cartoon Network after 8 p.m.” is the only place you can get adult animation these days, either.

It’s a funny viral moment because a woman overreacted when learning about the existence of Adult Swim, sure, but it also goes to show just how small, coincidental things can quickly get blown out of proportion and into something much greater if people aren’t careful. Just last week the home goods company Wayfair became the subject of a viral conspiracy that children were being trafficked in expensive cabinetry that coincidently shared names with people. Believers in the Qanon conspiracy theory — which states that leading Democrats are part of a worldwide cabal of child predators and sex traffickers — are currently running for congress. The woman whose tweet went viral has a Qanon hashtag in the bio of her now-protected account, so it’s clear she’s into this kind of thing and believed she stumbled upon the next big conspiracy. It’s a slippery slope, and it really is as simple as someone not knowing a thing exists and then wildly grafting the pieces together to will something into existence.

If Adult Swim really is part of a vast conspiracy, though, the least they could do is get us some new episodes of Home Movies.

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NFL Players Launched A ‘We Want To Play’ Campaign, Calling Out The NFL’s Lack Of Safety Plan

Beginning Monday, NFL players are set to begin reporting to training camp with rookies and veterans arriving later in the week.

However, there is not currently an agreement between the NFLPA and NFL regarding a testing or health and safety protocol with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is obviously a significant impediment to the NFL season despite the league’s insistence that games go on as planned. Despite being the league that has had the most time to come up with a plan for how to proceed, they have apparently spent that time hoping and wishing that this would all just disappear rather than planning and preparing a comprehensive strategy for testing and what happens when (not if) players test positive during camp.

With the NFL not even considering a bubble like the NBA and MLS, there must be an even more aggressive testing policy in place to make certain the virus does not spread in camps and at NFL venues, and that apparently doesn’t exist. Under the current CBA, teams can still force players to report this week (and appear set on doing so) without an agreement between the two sides in place for the pandemic, but there is clear and understandable concern on the side of the players about whether they can do this safely.

On Sunday, players made a coordinated social media effort to draw attention to this issue, while also focusing their messaging around a “#WeWantToPlay” hashtag to ensure they aren’t painted as the side trying to keep football from happening. Players from around the league, including many of the NFL’s stars, posted messages indicating their frustration with the NFL’s lack of a coherent and clear plan for health and safety while noting they hope the league can get that in place soon so they can safely report to camp — noting that the difference between this and other inherent health dangers of football is that this is something that they could bring home to their families.

It is truly remarkable, in the worst possible way, that the league has had months to consider and come up with a plan for this exact moment and has simply not done so — at least, to the extent that they can provide such an idea to the union for approval. There seems to have been a “wait and see” approach that extended far beyond the reasonable timetable to do so, as the past month and a half has seen cases spiking around the country once again, which was very clearly not going to result in business as usual.

The players, which have never been the most solid union in sports, seem to be as together as they’ve ever been on this issue and that’s a place of strength. The question is if this leads to swift action by the NFL, or if the start of camp will be put into jeopardy by a lack of planning.

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Beyonce Shared A Star-Studded Trailer For ‘Black Is King’ Ahead Of Its Disney+ Release

Exactly one month ago, Beyonce released her latest song “Black Parade.” The song celebrated Black ancestors, a fitting theme for the Juneteenth holiday that the song arrived on. Using her platform to continue the celebration of Black people, Beyonce announced on her website the following week that her upcoming Black Is King would debut exclusively at the end of July on the Disney+ streaming platform. Giving fans another look into the upcoming film, Beyonce debuted a trailer ahead of its release.

The trailer, which clocks in at just shy of a minute-and-a-half, features appearances from Beyonce herself, JAY-Z, Kelly Rowland, Naomi Campbell, Tina Knowles-Lawson, and more. Pharrell Williams and Lupita Nyong’o among others have also been confirmed to appear in the upcoming film. Shot in different areas such as New York, Los Angeles, South Africa, West Africa, London, and Belgium, the trailer features Beyonce tending to the young children while also showcasing the lives of the children and other members of the community.

Black Is King will also double as a visual album for Beyonce, her first release since 2019’s The Lion King remake, a movie she starred in and produced the soundtrack. Upon announcing the Black Is King film, she also revealed that the upcoming film will reimagine the lessons given in The Lion King remake in order to help “today’s young kinds and queens in search of their own crowns.”

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A Felony Charge Against YBN Cordae From A Breonna Taylor Protest In Kentucky Has Been Dropped

It has been four months since Breonna Taylor was tragically killed in her own home by Louisville, Kentucky police officers. In the four months since, officers have yet to be disciplined for her murder and as a result, protests have been nonstop in the months following her death. Many have taken their protest to the front door of Kentucky attorney general, Daniel Cameron, who has brushed off requests to have the police officers arrested from everyone from notable celebrities like Beyonce to hundreds more gathering daily in Kentucky.

Some of those protesters, 87 people including YBN Cordae, were arrested on a felony charge of intimidating a participant in a legal process. According to NBC News just a few days removed from the protest and the arrests, though, Jefferson County attorney Mike O’Connell has dropped the felony charges on all protestors.

Despite maintaining that the charges were reasonable, O’Connell said in a statement, “in the interest of justice and the promotion of the free exchange of ideas, we will dismiss that charge for each protester this past Tuesday.”

Other notable names from the Kentucky protest included rapper Trae The Truth, Houston Texans wide receiver Kenny Stills, and The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Porsha Williams.

[via NBC News]

YBN Cordae is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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‘The Last Dance’ Is Officially Now Streaming On Netflix

One of the bright spots in the world of sports over the past few months was the five weeks that we had The Last Dance in our lives, ESPN’s documentary on Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. There were legitimate questions to be asked about the journalistic integrity of the documentary, given Jordan’s involvement in the production — with some like Horace Grant taking issue with his and others portrayal in it.

Still, for its faults, it was highly entertaining to watch and brought basketball fans together for five Sundays at a time when there were no live sports to otherwise take in. Since airing, the doc has lived on ESPN+ in the United States, with Netflix co-producing and owning international rights from the beginning. Now, the massive Netflix audience here stateside will have a chance to watch the 10-part documentary as the streaming giant announced on Sunday morning that the series is now available on their U.S. platform.

The documentary initially shattered ESPN records for viewership of original, documentary programming, but now it will have a vastly wider audience that can dive in and take that trip down memory road — or learn a lot of these stories for the first time — with Jordan as the leading voice. For those that already watched, but may not have an ESPN+ account, it’s a chance to rewatch some of your favorite episodes — maybe dial up Jordan gambling on pitching quarters with security guards or the Bulls-Pistons rivalry episode.