DC ExtraTime: J-Deezy

 #DCBLOG's BEST OF 2017 

From Week 12 of The Challenge Invasion

BY DC CUEVA                     
■ @DC408Dxtr  @ TW / IG / YT

For a third of the Invasion final six, they have achieved something that's been historically difficult to do but has happened many times over the years on The Challenge. That would be of being a rookie competing on this show for the very first time, survive not only the first week where they would usually go into elimination and be the first ones out, and making it all the way to the end, to the final and the race for the cash.

   Nicole is competing on a Challenge for the first time and has made it to the end in her first go, and Cory made it to the final as a rookie on Bloodlines last year after a late charge at season's end to finish second. It has been a recent trend in the past few years -- Jenna, Zach, Devyn and Devin to name a few who've been in this spot before, and that offers the backdrop for this latest installment of "Catching Up With…".

Four years ago at this time, Season 28 of The Real World was airing, which took place in Portland, OR. It turned out to be the last RW season in its original format of just seven strangers living in a house with no surprise to worry about. Just like the St. Thomas cast before them, I gained a solid rapport with all the cast on social media, and a couple fellow MTV insiders, Andrew Kirk talked to all of them on his podcast, and Brian Cohen got his podcast start interviewing some of them and went to the reunion -- which was also one of the first Trifecta posts we got to do here at DCBLOG.
   As it also turned out, from a Challenge standpoint all but one of that group of eight would appear on at least one Challenge after encountering romance, drama and yes, the now-infamous fight we saw in the finale: Jordan competed on three of them and won his most recent - Exes 2 with Sarah; Johnny rode a wave of luck in the Draw to make it to the Free Agents final and finish second to Bananas, and four of the five girls -- Jessica, Averey, Nia and Anastasia -- have all appeared on The Challenge too (only the one who left early, Joi, hasn't appeared yet).

And then, there's Marlon Williams. In Oregon, he made a stunning admission to the housemates on the patio that while he had a depression a few years earlier, he told them that he had actually engaged in casual sex with a guy. He also reluctantly hooked up with local girls in the club, which caught the ire of his dad, which then forced him to go to church to confess his sins. He also got confrontational as well when he had become tired and despised of the actions, personality, brash behavior and insecurity of Jordan and got into a fight in the house kitchen. That got them paired up on that Challenge, and in allowing everyone else to take over the spotlight in Thailand, the guys flew under the radar and won two jungle eliminations. In the first in a double Hall Brawl matchup, they knocked off Leroy and Ty; and in the second they defeated Knight and Preston to make the final. In that final, their boat capsized in the Thailand sea in the first part of the final and did not make it the second half and got a $10,000 3rd place consolation prize.

As a young Texan, Marlon got to do what others aspire to do here in this land of Friday Night Lights: play high school football, and in the same Austin-area stadium in Pflugerville High School which served as the site for that renowned football film's TV series adaptation. He went on to Texas Tech University and became a nationally-ranked linebacker, making it to the All-Big XII team two times as well as celebrity status in Lubbock. You can check out a YouTube highlights reel of him here.
   Through having done some research on him, we happened to stumble upon the team picture from Marlon's 2009 senior year at Texas Tech. Marlon is kneeling down in about left center in the front row, right below head coach Mike Leach, who after becoming the school's winningest coach, was suspended and then fired for his role in inappropriate treatment of former football player and analyst Craig James' son Adam after he had suffered a concussion during practices for Tech's appearance in the 2010 Alamo Bowl.

Post-football and post-MTV, Marlon has become better known as "J-Deezy" -- a hip-hop artist who we saw him do his work in the recording studio during that season in Portland, which included inviting his Portland roommates to do cameo spots on a couple of his tracks. One of them is located below in "Lay Down" with Nia and Anastasia.

After his two MTV shows, J-Deezy has furthered his musical resume in releasing several tracks, mixtapes and albums... around a slate that also has his own clothing line and fitness program, in case he happens to get that call.  Below are some of his tracks, and at the end is his latest album, The Rebirth, which you can also get on iTunes.

- I AM DC