Ray J’s life in the spotlight has been filled with highs and lows including an infamous Kim Kardashian sex tape, public divorce, arrests, feuds and more
Ray J’s life in the spotlight has been anything but predictable.
Ever since he released his debut album Everything You Want in 1997, the singer has been making headlines for his personal and professional life.
While music was his first avenue into Hollywood, the “Sexy Can I” singer found a whole new level of fame when he entered the world of reality TV with shows like For the Love of Ray J, Brandy and Ray J: A Family Business and Love & Hip Hop.
“When I’m in real life, I’m just hella calm, I’m cool,” Ray J told BuzzFeed in 2014. “It’s all about business. It’s all about being on time. It’s all about being professional. It’s all about doing my job. And then the flip side to that is that I live a turnt-up life and my job requires me to turn all the way up, and so that’s what they’re gonna get, you know what I’m saying?”
That life has included many highs and lows that have often been documented for public consumption. Take a look back at Ray J’s bumpy road in the spotlight and what could be next:
A then-unknown Kim Kardashian began dating Ray J in 2003 after meeting him while working as a closet designer for his famous older sister Brandy. During their 3-year relationship, the couple made a sex tape that was released in 2007, the same year that Kim’s Keeping Up with the Kardashians premiered on E!. The footage would bring a whole new level of fame to both parties. “How different would we all be?” Ray J asked on a June 2024 episode of the “Club Shay Shay” podcast when envisioning a life with no sex tape. “How different would this whole f–king thing be? How different would this industry be? Everything would be different. There might not be any OnlyFans and all the things like that. All the opportunities like that. Probably more people would be going to college.”
Although Ray J found success as a musical artist — perhaps not as huge as his sister — it was a career he didn’t always see himself participating in. “I never really wanted to do the music thing in the beginning,” he said on an April 2023 episode of The Blackprint. “At the time, I wasn’t ready. I wanted to hang out with my friends. I just wanted to be a young kid exploring the world. I don’t want to say I was pushed to do the music.
