Offset mourns the death of his great uncle. His great Uncle Jerry died from the complications due to COVID-19, according to Billboard and other sources.
"Smfh this corona s**t done killed my great uncle." he wrote on his Instagram account. "Rip uncle Jerry damn man," the rapper added. He also asked for prayers for his family.
His wife, Cardi B, spoke her disappointment at the late closure of borders to stop the pandemic. "They put capitalism, money, trading, goods, before our health," she said in an Instagram live interview with Bernie Sanders as reported on Billboard.
Cardi B's single, "Coronavirus" about the virus was recently added to Billboard's charts. The song came from her rants on Instagram. She, along with DJ iMarkeyz who arranged the song, pledged to donate the proceeds from the song for the families affected by COVID-19 pandemic.
Cardi B's Coronavirus Rant
Cardi B's new hit "Coronavirus" sold 3,000 copied in the week until March 19. In addition, the song also picked up 626,000 on-demand streams on the same period on the United States. She also said that the situation about the COVID-19 pandemic was real. She slammed President Trump and his administration on how they handle the situation. Cardi B added that the move to send positive asymptomatic people to their homes is not a good idea especially if they are living on apartments that have many people, according to an article on Billboard. In an Instagram video, she appealed for unity to fight the spread of the virus. Cardi B also slammed racism and xenophobia against the Chinese.
The singer also said regular people with coronavirus indications did not get proper treatment. She criticized how an asymptomatic ordinary person is not getting tested but if the person is a celebrity, he or she will be tested right away even without symptoms.
Gene Shay dies of Coronavirus
Legendary folk DJ Gene Shay died due to the complications from COVID-19. He was 85 years old. He was known in Philadelphia as one of the DJs who helped boost the careers of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, and others. Roger LaMay, station manager of WXPN-FM told Billboard that he was hospitalized for weeks before his death.
According to LaMay, he is considered to be a "giant" due to his influence on music and he also shared his amazement about Shay's ability to do it for six decades. He is the host of the weekly radio "Folk Show" that ran from 1968 to 2015.
Shay, aside from being a DJ, also started the popular Philadelphia Folk Festival. His daughter, Rachel Vaughn told Philadelphia Inquirer and Billboard on Saturday that he died in Lankenau Medical Center in Wynnewood.
"He was so generous in spirit," LaMay added. "I loved the guy."
COVID-19 Update
As of this writing, according to Worldometers.info and the Johns Hopkins University, there are more than 2,410,000 cases with more than 165,000 deaths and more than 633,000 recoveries. In the United States, there are more than 760,000 cases with more than 40,000 deaths and more than 71,000 recoveries.
