In 2004, Florida punk-pop band Yellowcard played in the background of old-school challengers smashing hotel rooms on The Inferno and contributed music to that season's opening titles before the biggest year of their career. Five years later, the cast of Real World Cancun helped coordinate Spring Break appearances in Mexico by emerging dance music duo LMFAO before "Get Crazy" became synonymous with Jersey Shore and "Party Rock Anthem" took over 2011's playlists.
This latest tale of a music act appearing on an MTV Reality series doesn't involve an emerging artist getting their big break towards getting global recognition, but is a story that was lost in time and took until a return of two of its members to The Challenge a few years ago for us to dust off this story. As this flashback is being posted, it has been a decade & a half since one of the most-notable albums of the 21st century, which was released by one of the co-subjects of this post.
Here - and unlike Yellowcard, LMFAO and a then-unknown Lady Gaga who had Lauren and Whiten work on her stage outfit on a 2008 episode of The Hills, the artists featured here were more well known at the time than their later counterparts in the pop, rock and dance genres. This was before they released two albums in one that propelled them into the mainstream and brought the South to the forefront of hip-hop. And the cast who share top-billing on the marquee would ultimately produce four Challenge champions, including the only Challenger ever to win four straight titles.
When you have a renowned cast of a past and pioneering MTV Reality series get to perform in front of a group that was ready to become the biggest stars in the world, then you have the story of when OutKast Invaded Road Rules.
In 1991 two 16-year-olds, Andre Benjamin and Antwan Patton, first got to know each other at a mall in the Atlanta section of East Point. Dre lived with his dad after he and his wife divorced, while Antwan had just moved to Atlanta from Savannah as one of eleven siblings. Both went to arts-based Tri-Cities High School and participated in lunchtime cafeteria rap battles, where their common passion for hip-hop eventually brought them together, and to the attention of local producers Organized Noize. The guys had wanted to call themselves "2 Shades Deep" or "The Misfits," but after finding out those names had already been taken they looked to a thesaurus to find a synonym for the ladder... thus, "outcast" was picked, and they changed the spelling to "OutKast."OutKast, Organized Noize and a rapper who they all went to school with, Goodie Mob, would form the Dungeon Family who would help to bring the South to the hip-hop game. And before Andre and Antwan would receive their high school diplomas, they had signed a record deal with Babyface to become LaFace Records' first hip-hop entry, and they were first introduced to the world on a remix of TLC's "What About Your Friends" that same year. It didn't take long for OutKast to top the charts themselves with their own tracks and their '94 debut album Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik that went platinum, followed by their first major award in Best New Rap Group at the 1995 Source Awards. But it was of them being booed that became as big a story as when East and West clashed.
In response to the night that changed them and their genre forever, OutKast would then begin to take control over their image - exchanging cornrows for non-combed hair, their lifestyle - embracing fashion, being vegan and not smoking pot - and their music. Their sophomore joint, ATLiens, embraced a more dub and reggae-inspired sound in exchanging the usual hip-hop stereotype for a futuristic style straight out of Area 51, earning them a Top 5 album and more respect among hip-hop fans on both sides of the country. Their third album, Aquemini, would do even better: a broader subject matter, and a more soul, trip-hop and electro-inspired sound would bring them a platinum album and #2 on the Billboard 200.
The best would be yet to come for OutKast: Halloween 2000 saw their fourth album, Stankonia, drop to positive reviews, and saw the duo take on the task of broadening their appeal beyond Atlanta and right into the mainstream. And the single that brought them into the pop consciousness was "Ms. Jackson": a track about breakups and divorce and added a pop hook - and made reference to Andre 3000's breakup with Erykah Badu. It went to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart, #2 on the UK Singles Chart and earned them their first MTV Video Music Award. Next came "So Fresh, So Clean" with Sleepy Brown and Snoop Dogg, followed by two Grammy Awards for Best Rap Performance by Duo/Group and Best Rap Album. But an even-greater profile was yet to come.
But along the RV ride across America - and characteristic of what was a regularity during Road Rules' entire run, Seattle-area blonde Kendal Sheppard found herself attracted to Florida jock-geek-partyer Eric Jones. That was part of a season that saw the group begin their ride by going on a Polar Plunge in diving into winter's cold water to grab the RV keys, rolling cars like what we see on Fear Factor, got down at The Citadel with the military, posed with birthday suits on in New Orleans, ate a gross-out dinner in Texas, escaped straight jackets from above, and took on a trust fall from hundreds of feet above in the last mission. They even had two faced off with Team Real World on a mini-Challenge hosted by Jonny Moseley, where afterwards the girls went to the Palms to handcuff Steven to the same hot-tub that was the scene of that famous threesome. And they also met the boy band O-Town, the group that was the original subjects of the first incarnation of Making The Band.
In Week 4 of the Roadies' trek across America, they find themselves in OutKast's backyard of Atlanta, and at an area historically black college, Clark Atlanta University on the outskirts of downtown. For that week's mission - and as in past Road Rules seasons and what Real World would do three times, the show looked to the web and MTV.com to pick a team that would make up the opposition and whose goal was to prevent the $6,000 at stake to be given to the Roadies that easily.
For Shane, he realizes how hard it can be to get every step correct and he says, "This is a lot harder than I thought it could ever be. I thought I could pick it up real easy - and I'm having a worse time to learn this stuff." Sarah adds, "This mission is definitely for me. This is my time to prove myself to the group in being a valuable asset. It's got a performance element, which is something that is one of my strong suits. It's my time to shine."
While the Campus Crawlers are a team, the dot-commers have a clear leader in vibrant Texan Sam, joined by Houstonian Nicole, SoCal natives Patricia and Ashley, Pennsylvanian Mike and Atlanta native Mike. Unlike their counterparts they have to come together in just a day instead of a few weeks as it is on the RV, who gets to use the stage and their hotel room to rehearse while the webkins have to resort to the band room to practice. Shane realizes the hard nature of getting to practice all the complicated dance moves that comes with a big performance... and on top of that, he feels awkward about the coupling taking place on their RV, and decides to use snarky dialogue to take it all out.
When the big night comes, it means having to step things up in front of the bright lights. The auditorium is filled to capacity, and the audience gets to see two different teams with two different styles. For Team MTV.com, they lack the grace and synchronization of their counterparts but make up for it in their energetic style and having fun, as they should for such a solid performance. For Team Road Rules, they feel the kind of nerves anyone who has stage fright has of getting to perform in front of a large crowd... but while their performance isn't as crowd-pleasing, they do produce a more intricate & crisper performance than their counterparts -- and Eric and Shane also take off their clothes for good measure.
And for Shane, the group having to unite at the right time would make the difference: "That teamwork we learned at The Citadel carried on at Clark Atlanta University because we had to come together as a team, and made us work together to win this. It feels good to be part of a team... it feels even better to be part of a winning team."
And after we saw them engage in some slap warfare on the RV, Shane also returned with Darrell to Invasion and introduced his fiery persona to those who watched that season and the 2018 half of the trilogy on Vendettas and Final Reckoning, and Champs vs. Stars II in between. And we can't forget about Kendal, who's become the most active Tweeter of her original RR cast, despite having done only one Challenge in being part of that winning Road Rules side on The Inferno with Darrell, Abram, Katie, Veronica, Timmy, and long-forgotten alumni of past years Holly and Christena. And Kendal herself was recently featured in the latest craze of shows that investigate the paranormal, which we will tell about later this month before the new season of Total Madness begins.
As for Andre 3000 and Big Boi, them appearing on that stage with the road warriors came during the time in between regular albums where they dropped a Greatest Hits compilation. OutKast collected another Rap Performance Grammy for one of the three original tracks off of Big Boi & Dre Present... Outkast, "The Whole World." And they were fast at work of what would come next in what would their biggest international breakthrough.
Fall 2003 saw the duo release the double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below: two solo albums for Dre and Big Boi, the former being more broad-based and the other rooted in traditional Dirty South hip-hop. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, reached Diamond status from the recording industry for selling 10 million copies, and produced two mega-hits: "Hey Ya!" by Dre and "The Way You Move" by Boi, collectively spending ten straight weeks at the top of the Hot 100 singles chart. They became the first hip-hop songs to cross over to adult contemporary radio, all part of a year that saw them win several awards and perform at the following year's Grammy's in 2005.
It would take nearly two decades before Atlanta would again take the MTV spotlight again when The Real World took place in an acclaimed, back-to-basics season that was streamed on Facebook - but then again, some memorable castmates from most recent seasons of MTV Reality have come from there too.
But on this night, a city that once hosted the world's greatest athletes was the venue for a group of six Roadies to take the stage in front of two hip-hop heavyweights who would then become mega-stars. A group of Roadies took on a group from the internet, and danced their way past them by a bare margin en route to starting a journey that brought them to many Challenges and four of them to be titlists. And the duo who judged them? Well, they became legends in their own right.
Stories like the one you've just seen is presented from the angle of ExtraTime - DCBLOG's way of highlighting the shows you love and its stars with original storytelling offering a detailed look at the most-talked about moments of TV's most fascinating reality ecosystem and stories from this world you can't get anywhere else. It's only part of our view Inside MTV Reality, with weekly episode coverage, social reaction and more, including our next endeavor of The Challenge: Total Madness, which begins after our recap of tonight's winter finale of Siesta Key this weekend.
If you like you've read, bookmark us and like, comment & share our posts on the social media platforms of your choice, and include the hashtags #DCBLOG & #SeeForYourself in your posts to @DC408Dxtr... and thanks for reading.
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#DCBLOG
Some Pictures Courtesy: MTV.com
As for Andre 3000 and Big Boi, them appearing on that stage with the road warriors came during the time in between regular albums where they dropped a Greatest Hits compilation. OutKast collected another Rap Performance Grammy for one of the three original tracks off of Big Boi & Dre Present... Outkast, "The Whole World." And they were fast at work of what would come next in what would their biggest international breakthrough.
Fall 2003 saw the duo release the double album Speakerboxxx/The Love Below: two solo albums for Dre and Big Boi, the former being more broad-based and the other rooted in traditional Dirty South hip-hop. It debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200, reached Diamond status from the recording industry for selling 10 million copies, and produced two mega-hits: "Hey Ya!" by Dre and "The Way You Move" by Boi, collectively spending ten straight weeks at the top of the Hot 100 singles chart. They became the first hip-hop songs to cross over to adult contemporary radio, all part of a year that saw them win several awards and perform at the following year's Grammy's in 2005.
But on this night, a city that once hosted the world's greatest athletes was the venue for a group of six Roadies to take the stage in front of two hip-hop heavyweights who would then become mega-stars. A group of Roadies took on a group from the internet, and danced their way past them by a bare margin en route to starting a journey that brought them to many Challenges and four of them to be titlists. And the duo who judged them? Well, they became legends in their own right.
🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵
Stories like the one you've just seen is presented from the angle of ExtraTime - DCBLOG's way of highlighting the shows you love and its stars with original storytelling offering a detailed look at the most-talked about moments of TV's most fascinating reality ecosystem and stories from this world you can't get anywhere else. It's only part of our view Inside MTV Reality, with weekly episode coverage, social reaction and more, including our next endeavor of The Challenge: Total Madness, which begins after our recap of tonight's winter finale of Siesta Key this weekend.
If you like you've read, bookmark us and like, comment & share our posts on the social media platforms of your choice, and include the hashtags #DCBLOG & #SeeForYourself in your posts to @DC408Dxtr... and thanks for reading.
#DCBLOG
Some Pictures Courtesy: MTV.com
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