“The images depicted here are very disturbing and are not in line with the high standards we hold our officers accountable for,” Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna said.

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It’s time to literally put your money where your mouth is.

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Motivated by the Black Lives Matter protests sweeping the country, Terry Crews took to Twitter on Thursday to further apologize to Gabrielle Union for not having her back when she was fired from America’s Got Talent.

“If we are to move forward as a people we must do the work required to heal the relationships in our community first,” Crews wrote in a five-part thread as he sought to make amends after he denied seeing racism on the set of the NBC talent show. In fact, Crews said it was the most “it was the most diverse place I have ever been in my 20 years of entertainment,” according to Entertainment Weekly. After facing a backlash for not backing Union after she was the first to support his sexual harassment claims, Crews apologized although without saying Union’s name.

That incident occurred back in January, and it seems to have been weighing on Crews because, this time, he made it a point to specifically apologize to Union by her name while acknowledging his privilege in a “society that has sexism built in.”

It is in this light I want to make further amends with Black women, and in particular @itsgabrielleu,” Crews tweeted, “for not recognizing the privilege I have – especially in the workplace- and adding this fact to my earlier apology.”

You can read Crews’ full apology below:

Crews’ apology arrives on the heel of his continued championing for Black causes. The actor joined his Brooklyn Nine-Nine costars in donating $100,000 to the National Bail Fund, which has stepped up its work as protesters are being rounded up by police. Crews also stopped by CNN on Wednesday night where he spoke with Don Lemon about the murder of George Floyd.

During the quarantine, Crews has stayed busy helping causes like Guy Fieri’s Restaurant Employee Relief Fund, but as he told us last month, he looks forward to getting back to work on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which could address the pandemic in its upcoming season.

(Via Terry Crews on Twitter, Entertainment Weekly)

The best new hip-hop albums coming out this week include albums from rising stars, like Iann Dior and Sleepy Hallow, and established vets, like Flatbush Zombies and Run The Jewels. It’s been a difficult week and a few albums, like Smokepurpp’s long-awaited Florida Jit, were pushed back. Many artists feel as though releasing now would be a bad look. However, Run The Jewels bucked that trend by releasing their RTJ4 two days early as an antidote to the exhaustion many feel after the past 10 days of protests — and as the perfect soundtrack to them.

Here are all the best new hip-hop albums coming out this week.

Flatbush Zombies — Now, More Than Ever

The Brooklyn trio has had a relatively quiet couple of years since they released their 2018 full-length, Vacation In Hell, participating mainly on the Beast Coast posse collection, Escape From New York. They got back to basics with “Iamlegend,” the first single from their upcoming EP. They’ve since been rolling out the project’s tracks one at a time on social media, preparing to keep the Zombies brand alive.

Iann Dior — I’m Gone 2

The 21-year-old SoundCloud product has been busy over the last few years building his buzz alongside 10K Projects and star-making producers Nick Mira and Taz Taylor. He released his debut project Industry Plant in November last year, with plans to follow up with I’m Gone just a half-year later. Album single “Sick And Tired” featured Machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker and reached Billboard‘s Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart.

Run The Jewels — RTJ4

Ahead of the release of their fourth project, Run The Jewels producer El-P said that the duo was inspired by the legacy of classic four-album runs from groups like EPMD. While a series of unfortunate events, including the coronavirus quarantine and a sample clearance issue, threatened to derail the rollout, the group was not only able to finish their timely project but also release it early as a response to anti-police brutality protests sweeping the nation. In addition, they’ve made it free to download and provided resources to donate to organizations fighting police violence.

Sleepy Hallow — Sleepy For President

The Brooklyn drill movement continues its inexorable rise to mainstream attention with the latest release from Sheff G’s “right-hand man.” He popped up within the last year and has already begun to make a name for himself, featuring on Pitchfork‘s “The Ones” column and receiving attention from Genius, XXL, and more. Sleepy For President is his chance to distinguish himself from his BK peers as the movement’s constituents go from underground rabble-rousers to rising stars.

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

LeBron James has been incredibly vocal on social media over the past several days as protests over the death of George Floyd take over the country, even going so far as to return to his past criticisms of Laura Ingraham of Fox News. The tweet from James centered on the difference in coverage between his comments on social justice and police brutality differed from Drew Brees’ recent comments, at least on Ingraham’s show.

Rather than argue with Ingraham, James reminded his followers that he won’t stop until he sees change in the world.

After infamously demanding that James “shut up and dribble” after James’ spoke out against president Donald Trump in an episode of “Rolling with the Champion,” Ingraham pivoted dramatically in defending Brees’ (a white quarterback) right to speak out.

“He’s allowed to have his view about what kneeling means to him,” Ingraham said. “He’s a person.”

The stark contrast was brought to light in a viral tweet with more than 9 million views. But it’s more than just the language used by Ingraham. When James voiced his opinion about the failings of Trump, Ingraham mocked him and called into the question the value of the voice of “someone who gets paid … to bounce a ball.” Yet when off-base remarks on protesting and racial justice came out of the mouth of Brees, Ingraham found it necessary to let her viewers know that Brees was a human being.

There is a big critique of Ingraham that could go here if this was, in any way, an earnest position and not a bad-faith attack that stems from what both Brees and James said, in addition to the color of their skin. However, it’s not hard to see through what has led to the variance in approach to the two athletes’ stances on topics outside the sports world.

In 2016, Saturday Night Live Weekend Update anchor Michael Che starred in his first Netflix stand-up special, Michael Che Matters. His set contained a hilarious take on why some people have a problem with the phrase “black lives matter.”

“As a country we just can’t agree. We just fight about everything. We can’t even agree on black lives matter. That’s a controversial statement,” Che says in the clip below. “Not matters more than you. Just matters. Matters! Just matters.”

“That’s where were starting in negotiations,” he continued. “We can’t agree on that shit? What the fuck is less than matters? Black lives exist? Can we say that? Is that controversial?”

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Michael Che “Black Lives Matters” Stand Up Comedy | Laugh Into Tears

www.youtube.com

Che recently appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers and discussed the bit in light of the term’s resurgence after the murder of George Floyd.

The comedian says he he’s “happy that people like the clip, but it’s also kind of a bummer that it’s still relevant,” adding it makes him feel like “the guy who wrote ‘Amazing Grace’: You’re happy you hear the song, but every time you hear it you’re like ‘Oh no, what happened?'”

It’s been four years since his comedy special. Unfortunately, the term “black lives matter” is still controversial.

“After a while, you stop worrying about why they don’t want to give it to you and you get to the point where you just demand it,” he told Meyers. “We’ve been asking for so long that people are at a point where they don’t want to ask anymore, and that’s kind of the reality and it’s sad.”

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Florida State coach Mike Norvell has yet to coach a game with the Seminoles, but managed to get the locker room turned against him on Wednesday night when he issued a statement claiming he had individual conversations with “every” player on the roster about the protests about George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police.

All-American defensive tackle Marvin Wilson quickly responded to that statement, calling it a lie, and saying that he and his teammates were “outraged” at Norvell making such a claim, when in fact, each player received what Wilson called “a generated text” and many did not have anything resembling a deep conversation with the coach.

Norvell issued an apology for his mischaracterization of what happened on Thursday, saying he applauded Wilson standing up and apologizing for using the word “every” when that was not in fact the case.

Norvell’s apology went beyond just that statement, as Wilson gave an update on Instagram on Thursday about a team meeting they held in which he was a leader and helped enact a three part plan of action for how the program will work to help the Tallahassee community, particularly the black community, through scholarship opportunities, registering the entire team to vote, and fundraising for local schools.

“We met as a team today, coming together and we’re going to do three things,” he said in a video he posted on Instagram. “One, everybody on the team is going to be registered voters [and] we’re going to have our say-so in the next election.

“… No. 2, we’re going to go forward and we’re going to do different fundraisers and things like that to help … give money to organizations that help send black kids to college because we need more doctors, we need more lawyers, we need more politicians, we need more people with say so of color.

“No. 3 thing we’re going to do is we’re going to do more fundraisers to help kids around Tallahassee. You know, I’ve been in Tallahassee for four years and so many schools around Tallahassee are behind the poverty line, bro. It’s so many schools. You’ve got some schools that are almost 100% on free lunch. You’ve got … fifth grade kids taking care of their first or second grade little brother or sister. Going home and their mom is out working all night trying to provide to keep the lights on at night, know what I’m saying. … It really ain’t fair. … Me being a man of color, I want to be that change.”

Wilson goes on to say they need to be encouraging and lifting up black children, telling them they are special and valued, both boys and girls, and have an important story to tell the world. It is an impressive statement from the senior defensive tackle, who thanks Colin Kaepernick for being one of the first athletes he can remember stepping up and speaking out in this manner. Wilson’s message is important, but so is how he went about this, as it can hopefully show other college athletes that they have important voices that can enact change within their program and push those in power to give back to the community.

[h/t Orlando Sentinel for transcription]

Previously on the Best and Worst of NXT: Shotzi Blackheart almost killed herself on live television, Tegan Nox began a second job as a pizza delivery person, and Kurt Angle somewhat randomly officiated Matt Riddle’s farewell match inside the NXT FIGHT PIT. All caps.

If you’d like to read previous installments of the Best and Worst of NXT, you can do that here. Follow With Spandex on Twitter and Facebook. You can also follow me on Twitter, where everything and everyone is terrible.

And now, the Best and Worst of WWE NXT for June 3, 2020.

Best: Johnny Curtis Of Mars

Firstly, in an increasingly darkening world full of hatred, division, and wrestling shows behind plexiglass with berated PC students not clapping well enough for everything in an otherwise empty building, it does my heart good to see Breezango back. Fandango getting hurt again so quickly after returning from injury was disappointing as hell, and I only wish a real Full Sail crowd had been there for him and Tyler Breeze dressing up like goddamn fashion astronauts.

Secondly, the moon landing entrance was faked.

And, suddenly, they’re the number one contenders to the NXT Tag Team Championship and will get a title match! Sorry, let me run that through WWE’s Google translate; they’ve earned the right to a future title opportunity. Is that right? Do I need to add something about brands?

I really would’ve loved to have seen either the Undisputed Era or Oney and Twoey earn the Future Title Opportunity. Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch have a great connection to Imperium through Burch and NXT UK, and Undisputed Era vs. Imperium from Worlds Collide is still my favorite match of the year so far. Well, my favorite actual match, assuming we consider Stadium Stampede more of a theatrical event than a “wrestling match.” At the same time, though, it’s good to see Breeze and Fandango get an opportunity right out of the gate to re-establish them as a (possible) top team, even if it’s just to give Imperium a brutal win against fan favorites before running into tougher competition.

Honestly, I just want good things for the final NXT “winner.” Even a big win to set up a big loss is better than what they were doing before the injury, which was escorting Jaxson Ryker’s garbage ass from horrible wrestler to horrible manager.

This Drake Maverick Situation

I don’t know what else to say about this.

It’s bad if they pretended to fire Drake Maverick and actually fired dozens of others during the middle of a global pandemic (while reporting profits and being “largely unimpacted” by the virus), saw Drake understandably crying about it on social media, and decided to turn it into a story where he “works harder than everybody else” to earn back his job. It’s bad if they did the same thing but actually fired Drake, and then changed their minds at the expense of everyone else they released or furloughed. It’s bad that they quietly stripped Jordan Devlin of the Cruiserweight Championship due to travel restrictions he couldn’t possibly get by while insisting there are no penalties for choosing to stay at home during quarantine. It’s bad that this feels like it was a photo op for Triple H. It’s all just casually callous and capitalist as fuck at a scary time where those are two of the biggest problems facing our country.

Drake Maverick is one of my favorite performers in the company, full stop. He should have his job. El Hijo del Fantasma is an all-time top five luchador for me, and seeing him pop into WWE and win championships makes me happy. The Drake story, in a vacuum, has been really well done aside from some iffy “obstacle” finishes I didn’t really vibe with. The tournament was entertaining. The finals were good.

In case this all sounds really severe, man, there are more important things to worry about right now than WWE being terrible to the independent contractors they won’t even hire on as employees, but I need my wrestling television, at least right now, to not remind me that we’re all under the thumb of some rich asshole who can change his mind on a whim and put us on the streets, and who might change it back if we just keep working as hard as we can. It’s like looking into a mirror to see your reflection pointing back at you, laughing. Also the mirror’s on fire.

To put it more succinctly, from the voice of someone who knows way better than me,

Worst: Welcome To Friday Night NXT

Candice LeRae and Mia Yim open the show in a match that was promoted last week, only for it to end a few minutes in by double count-out. That brings out people for a big brawl, which leads directly into Candice and Johnny Gargano against Mia and Keith Lee to set up Gargano vs. Lee at TakeOver, and a six-woman tag. The tag version of the opener also only goes about four minutes. It’s certainly a utilitarian way to spend the first 15-ish minutes of your show, and more or less the image that played in my head when they said NXT was going to leave the Network to air on USA Network opposite Dynamite every week.

No matter how much we disagree, WWE thinks that bad carbon copy of a carbon copy of a carbon copy of that mid-90s ECW trick where the matches bleed into one another is the best possible way to open their shows. Even NXT. My sweet, precious, niche NXT. [puts head in hands]

Also On This Episode

After another way too short match between Cameron Grimes and Bronson Reed — this week’s two hours had four matches under four minutes long — Karrion Kross shows up and “Doomsday Saitos” Reed to send a message to Tommaso Ciampa re: Sunday. At the risk of saying a match should be short when I literally just complained about matches being short, I hope Kross throws Ciampa at the ground three or four times at TakeOver and just pins him. I’m pretty ready to move on from the Gargano and Ciampa everything.

Aliyah and the Robert Stone Brand angle, together at last! Next week I hope they face Bull Dempsey and Jaxson Ryker, managed by the power couple of Kona Reeves and Eva Marie.

Give me a show where Dexter Lumis speed-draws caricatures while the Stranger Things music plays, please and thank you. There’s something very pro wrestling about the character, “serial killer, but also he’s nice and draws cartoons!”

Finally, Isaiah Scott wins a Cruiserweight Championship tournament losers bracket match against Tony Nese, who still isn’t great but boy, does he have abs. Nese is being managed by Jack Gallagher now, making me wish NXT would go full end-of-WCW and have Nese and Gallagher team up with the Singh Brothers, Brian Kendrick, and maybe Drew Gulak to form the 205 Live Millionaire’s Club. They could go up against Fantasma, Scott, Grimes, and KUSHIDA as the 205 Live New Blood. Let Drake Maverick be a Diamond Dallas Page type and float between them.

As a quick side note, this week’s column sounds SUPER pessimistic, and I’m sorry about that. Some of it’s real life, some of it’s mental illness as a few of you have helpfully messaged me to declare, and some of it’s just that NXT turning into a Wednesday version of Raw or Smackdown and still pretending it’s the “alternative brand” to the main roster is a bummer. It just makes me sad. This would’ve been a really good episode of Smackdown. But for NXT? I can’t.

Best: Top 10 Comments Of The Week

Not A Crook

TRIPLE H: “This is your official release, you need to sign this before you leave.”

Mr. Bliss

“And then 2020 hit and it was all downhill from there”

Rhea Ripley speaks for all of us.

Dave M J

“Somebody call Tom Pritchard because we’re about to witness some heavenly bodies!”

Oh my god, 83 stars, Beth Phoenix!

troi

It was really hice of HHH to rehire Drake Maverick at severely reduced pay

Birdman

HHH just tricked him into signing a 180 day non-compete

Taylor Swish

Rhea loses one match and turns into Batman after having his back broken by Bane.

notJames

This will go a long way toward turning Dexter Lumis into… a draw.

The Voice of Raisin

After that performance in the cruiserweight tournament, the Premier Athlete’s going to be relegated to the Second Division Athlete next season.

EvilDucky

This episode of NXT has had FAR too much Pat McAfee and Sam Roberts for anyone’s liking

Baron Von Raschke

Aliyah v. Santana? Is this NXT Xplosion?

The only other things from the show worth noting are the PRIME TARGET videos, which sound like they’re created by a vengeful Terminator. They’re pretty good, at least from a conceptual standpoint, but footage of Io Shirai narrated by Sam Roberts is as close to enjoyment hypothermia as I’ve ever gotten. Undisputed Era being jerks at dinner during a pandemic is pretty amazing, though, not gonna lie. I guess you can eat however you want when your girlfriend’s a dentist. Also, wait, can Velveteen Dream actually commune with the ghost of Prince? When the hell did THAT start? Hahaha, how is that even okay? It’s like Razor Ramon calling on the ghost of Scarface. Is it really a magic mirror, or does Prince live inside Tough Enough Patrick like The Fiend lives inside Bray Wyatt?

AND HOW DID HE GET A MAGIC MIRROR AT ALL, HOW MANY SUPERNATURAL MIRRORS DO THEY HAVE AT FULL SAIL??

Anyway, that does it for this week’s Best and Worst of NXT. Sorry it got kinda heavy and downtrodden this time around. We’re not sure you ever actually read this part or do what we ask (or if you even scroll down through the top 10 comments of the week), but hey, it would really help us if you commented down below and shared the column if you liked or laughed at anything. The world’s tough, and that makes this kind of thing a lot easier.

Join us this Sunday for TakeOver: In Your House, featuring:

• Adam Cole vs. Velveteen Dream
• Keith Lee vs. John Wrestling
• a six-woman tag team match where Shotzi is not allowed to springboard to the floor
• Tommaso Ciampa getting got by the Spooky Clockmaker
• a priest vs. a demon
• Charlotte Flair! and others

See you then.

If nothing below suits your sensibilities, check out our guide to What You Should Watch On Streaming Right Now.

The King Of Staten Island: HBO First Look (HBO, 10:00 p.m.) — Judd Apatow’s upcoming comedy starring Pete Davidson (in a role that takes inspiration from his pre-SNL life) will get a straight-to-VOD on June 12. Before that happens, HBO’s giving a 15-minute preview of the movie co-starring Bill Burr, Marisa Tomei, and an NYC-focused Easter egg of a co-star.

Council Of Dads (NBC, 8:00 p.m.) — The Tom Everett Scott-fronted series rallies its central group together when a family members needs emergency surgery, and an adoptive parent-situation will transform lives.

In The Dark (CW, 9:00 p.m.) — Murphy’s on a drug mission, Felix is dealing with a predicament, and Gene’s tossing out some serious talent that could impact Murphy’s mission.

Blindspot (NBC, 9:00 p.m.) — This crazy tattoo show’s still going strong, this time with a chemical weapon-wielding terrorist group taking the team back to its fledgling FBI days.

We’re Here (HBO, 9:00 p.m.) — The queens’ production schedule is thrown into chaos by the pandemic in the Season 1 finale, but they’ll make things “werk” no matter what.

The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Graham Norton, Luke Combs

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert: Andrew Ross Sorkin, John Malkovich

Jimmy Kimmel Live: Mark Ruffalo

Late Night With Seth Meyers: Christine Baranski, Taika Waititi

The Late Late Show With James Corden Anna Kendrick, Alanis Morissette