DCBLOG ExtraTime: Some Gravy & A Rich Shore Kid Come Walking Into a Club...

BY DC CUEVA 

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Instagram @YungGravy

Tomorrow night, the MTV Reality focus will turn to the show that became the most popular in the channel's history... and to something that's not happened in its second life since the last act of its original series a decade ago. When the Family Vacation relaunch of Jersey Shore took off back in the spring of 2018, one person was missing when the originals of Seaside Heights gathered back in Miami - and mostly out of fear that she might get into it again with her ex turned baby daddy... but that will change when Sammi "Sweetheart" Giancola will finally join in on the antics of the Sitch, Snooki & friends. And that leads us to this first installment of this fall 2023 cycle of ExtraTime, which has its roots in something a bit different from the land of fist pumps, but has a spiritual link to it of sorts.

In two of America's biggest pop culture events held fifty-one weeks apart in the month of February and in the same region, a homage was paid to the one musical genre that has influenced generations of fans and our modern American culture more than any other in hip-hop. In February 2022 in Inglewood, CA, Super Bowl LVI represented its biggest moment yet when Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, Eminem and 50 Cent shared the stage with R&B queen Mary J. Blige at its halftime show, taking place in one of hip-hop's major hubs of Los Angeles. A year later up in downtown, the 2023 Grammys also gave an ode to the genre's 50th anniversary as LL Cool J, Run DMC and more legends took the stage... a long way from when it was shunned from the spotlight of "Music's Biggest Night."

Across the country is another hotbed of this world of Atlanta, Georgia, where the success of OutKast, Ludacris, Future, 21 Savage, T.I. and Lil' Jon led The New York Times to call the ATL "hip-hop's center of gravity." The city's hip-hop culture also serves as the basis of multiple Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning FX series Atlanta, which chronicles the lives of a pair of cousins as they try to navigate their rise up the ranks in the music industry, similar to Empire on former sibling FOX. And mirroring what has been happening the past decade, a number of artists who call North Georgia home have become active in local and national political movements, from Black Lives Matter to voting rights.

What do these two worlds of hip-hop and the MTV Shore franchise have in common? Last year, they collided for one weekend when the man at the heart of its most-recent addition got to party it up with one of its biggest stars to break out into the mainstream to celebrate a birthday... and all that star got to do was to sample someone who first made a name for himself some three decades ago. That's all part of that time when Some Gravy and a Rich Shore Kid Came Walking Into a Club...

Inside MTV Reality: Welcome to Buckhead Shore

BY DC CUEVA                        

■ @DC408DXTR  @ IG/YT/SC/TB/TK

For the first time in three years, it's safe to say that this is a busy but amazing time to be a MTV Reality show fan... and fitting for the thirtieth anniversary of when this incredible saga began in the Big Apple, Summer 2022 will be an absolute treat. Right now, the focus is on the second half of Season 3 of The Challenge All-Stars as a field complete of finals veterans continue to battle it out in Panama, and the drama of a show that got a head-start on the sultry level in Ex On The Beach is wrapping up its Season 5 return. And if you're a history nut in the reality sense, then you just enjoyed drama of another kind in seven strangers getting back together in New Orleans in the third Real World Homecoming.

This summer will be quite an adventure: once the 4th of July firework smoke clears away, yet another spinoff of the fifth major pro sport will take to the big stage and to the bigger platform of terrestrial free-to-air network television when CBS hosts The Challenge: USA, starring its reality stars from Big Brother, Survivor, The Amazing Race and Love Island. On Paramount+, still another competition show with reality stars from across the wide world of this genre will begin a week before when Jersey OG Angelina joins those from other Shore iterations and beyond for fun and games on All-Star Shore. And on the MTV channel itself, the Hamster will also grace Thursday nights once again as the 11th overall season of Jersey Shore continues with the resumption of Season 5 of Family Vacation.

Now, let's be honest here: I might not have been big on the Shore franchise as much as a Challenge, Real World, or even the dating shows. But fall 2017 changed all that and reaffirmed my interest in the wide array of MTV fare when Floribama Shore debuted... and over our four seasons with them, we most definitely got to enjoy the company of Nilsa, Gus 1.0, Aimee, Codi, Jeremiah, Kirk, Candace, Kortni and Mattie. But as the first one on that list is enjoying the life of being a married mom much like three of her Jersey counterparts as well as Candace joining her as a mom, the torch of friends, fun, drama, and in their case - Southern style - is now being passed on this summer to a new generation of Shore kids... and it's all right in Kirk's very own backyard in Northern Georgia.

In the past year, the city of Atlanta has celebrated a world championship when the Braves won baseball's World Series, and then a national title when the Georgia Bulldogs took the College Football Playoff... and the champs have just reminded everyone who they are with a 14-game winning spell. The region has already become a hotbed when it comes to film & TV production as "The Hollywood of The South" including hosting the most recent new season of The Real World, which you only got to watch if you have a Facebook account. And now, the Dirty South is about to become the venue for the newest addition to the global Shore family, as we're about to welcomed to Buckhead Shore, as uptown ATL will play host to what should be another summer to remember... and then some.