DC ExtraTime: Rihanna and Drake Are Challenge Fans?!

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

On this DCBLOG site, along with the usual weekly episode coverage we have also made it a point to cover just about every link of sorts between the people who star in these MTV Reality shows and the broader world of pop culture as part of our ExtraTime franchise. It's through this that, over the past eight years, we've featured many of the biggest figures of our time from around this complicated world of ours and those who aren't as well known but who still feel you're gonna want to meet.

It was a year ago this week that the world as we knew it changed, and for those of us who wanted sports in our lives we had to revert to not having any of those for a period of time. And it led to The Challenge to take on the mighty task of being that one sport that was going on in the American landscape, and Total Madness no doubt clicked with diehard fanatics, reality viewers & sports-hungry fans during the unprecedented shutdown of athletic activity in stadiums, arenas & other sporting venues in this country.

Among those who have been on The Challenge in the past few years, we have featured so many of these link-ups of pop culture and the fifth major pro sport. There's been NFL and NBA MVP's, the baseball Hall of Famer who's just broken up with his global megastar fiancé, reality stars, musicians and beyond. It represents perhaps proof that this show is getting more of the overdue recognition it deserves after the attention it's had in the past twelve months, and it has even garnered two just as recognizable fans -- just as we tonight got to mark the annual celebration of Music's Biggest Night: the Grammy Awards.

It has been over a decade & a half since the emergence onto the pop scene of Robyn Rihanna Fenty from the Caribbean country of Barbados, but all of us better know her by just her middle name. After recording demos and starting her career as a teenager, she first made waves in 2005 when "Pon de Replay" brought her to radio airplay by label Def Jam, and her first two albums charted in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200. But when her third album Good Girl Gone Bad dropped in 2007 along with lead single "Umbrella," it vaulted her into a spot she has never left since: an elite in the music industry.

Rihanna has continued to garner many chart-topping albums and tracks, collaborating with the likes of Jay-Z, Eminem and Calvin Harris, and garnering over a quarter-billion sales of her records, nine Grammys, 13 American Music Awards, 12 Billboard Awards and more. She also shortlisted by Forbes and Time magazines on their annual lists of influential people and highly-paid celebrities, and she is also the one who has made her mark on the fashion world among other ventures outside of music headlined by her Fenty clothing line and being an ambassador for her homeland.

Over a week ago - and for the first time since after Final Reckoning, many of those from this season of The Challenge gathered in New York City and MTV's Times Square studio to tape the reunion special for Double Agents, which will dish out all the juicy stuff once the final verdict is rendered in Iceland as does the $1 million in prize money. And as he did for the virtual at-home gathering for Total Madness last summer, the Reunion hosting duties will be left in the hands of former NFL wideout Vernon Davis as he presides over whatever will go down with those who'll be there in person and who'll check in from both home and overseas for the UK contingent.

And while they were on the streets of the Big Apple in partying it up after filming that reunion, much of the cast got to run into Rihanna... and this comes after RiRi gave Instagram follows to Josh, Kam and Kaycee... 

@rihanna with some of the challenge cast members 👀👌🏻 #TheChallenge37 #MTV pic.twitter.com/xEp7J2ZBbT

— The Challenge MTV (@Challengemtv___) March 7, 2021

The recent re-integration of the parent companies of MTV parent Viacom and CBS, one whose seeds of that was planted in part by Big Brother houseguests like Josh joining The Challenge, is one that now has a key pillar in their battle with the big giants of the media world be unleashed in the launch this month of Paramount+. That doesn't include the big events that have aired on its various networks including tonight's Grammys, last night's Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards, last month's Super Bowl and this week's NCAA March Madness... and not to mention, Oprah's interview with Prince Harry and Meghan.

The array of programing familiar to those who watch MTV, CBS, Nickelodeon, VH1 and other channels in the VCBS family also harkens back for some of us to a hit brought to the world by those up north. For generations of young Canadians, they have grown up with the teen drama franchise known as Degrassi, which spans several TV series, specials and made-for-TV films following teenagers who live on a street that bears the show's name in Canada's largest city of Toronto. Degrassi grew a following south of the border in the U.S. on public television and then on Nickelodeon and Netflix.

The franchise has had an immense impact as one of Canada's most successful entertainment imports, but there's no bigger alum of Degrassi than Aubrey Drake Graham, who is known to everyone also by his middle name. He first began as an actor on Degrassi: The Next Generation spending six seasons on the fourth generation of the franchise before turning his attention to music as a rapper, singer and songwriter upon the release of his first mixtape. By 2010, Drake dropped his first studio album Thank Me Later to the top of the Billboard 200 in America, and so began his ascent to the top of the hip-hop world with all of his subsequent albums debuting atop the charts as has many of his singles.

One of those singles that's topped the Hot 100 is "Work" which he collaborated on with Rihanna, among the many notables that have set records in the streaming verse as well as digitally as he nears 200 million in total record sales. From having the most Top 10 hits on the singles chart, the most songs that have charted south of the border, having that famous week where he occupied a quarter of one week's singles chart and having a lengthy spell in the barometer of American music... and winning over 40 major awards along with being a notable on the Toronto Raptors sideline, that's pretty dope.

And something that's also pretty cool is that, when you look over the nearly 2,500 accounts that Drake's Instagram handle @ChampagnePapi follows on there of an account that boasts 77 million followers, you might say that the one who we grew up playing former basketball star Jimmy Brooks is just as big a Challenge fan as Giannis Antetokounmpo. Not only does he follow Aneesa on there, but also Cory, CT and show host TJ Lavin, as well as the official @ChallengeMTV handle. This even prompted the show's Twitter handle to also change its name to "Bad Gal TJ" as a result, similar to when Are You The One's social accounts professing their love for Kehlani after she confessed to being an AYTO stan.

When she got that Insta follow from RiRi, the Killa Queen wrote in her stories, "When the MF queen Rihanna follows the queen 😭🙏🏼❤️. I love her & feel so special/blessed. My ultimate favoriteeeeee. My island girl ✨." And when he got that follow from her Josh could only contain himself, "Rihanna f___ with me!"  F___ the haters 😂."  And when Cory found out about Drake following him he reacted, "That's right people my idol, my boy Drake hit me with a follow🙌 Somebody who I've looked up to for a long time I appreciate it big homie continue to keep us motivated! 🙏🏼"

The fact that we now have two of the biggest stars in the world being part of Challenge Nation now continues to serve as proof of how this show has grown over this time and in recognition, just as all three are still in contention for the cash. And in doing this brief ExtraTime bit, do Drake and Rihanna get together in some room in the city to watch this show together? We're just wondering...

- I AM DC

#DCBLOG