Is your goal at this point to be known more as an R&B singer or a porn star? I just want to be known as an entertainer. My passion and my love for anything I do is just for the art of it and the entertainment of it. I ain’t gonna be no porn star, but pimpin’ ain’t dead and we’re just out here having fun. I want people to capture the fun of it; the realness of life and the young people coming up. I wanna showcase that in its rawest forms. Didn’t the company that put out your sex tape with Kim Kardashian offer you a deal to do a couple more? Yeah, yeah. I don’t know. There’s so much money on the table and sometimes when the offers get real high you’ve gotta think about it twice. So it’s still up for grabs. There’s so many opportunities in that business to make money with different products and merchandising, so you’ve gotta rethink it sometimes and figure out how you can brand it in a way where you can stay in the commercial lane and still cross over into [the adult industry] and make millions and millions of dollars for your company. Isn’t that what it’s all about? Your porn ventures have prevented you from doing other things music-wise? A lot of the commercial opportunities are limited now, but a lot more opportunities in different areas are more open now. I’m just growing up and really living my life. I never wanted to candy-coat nothing in my life. I always wanted to be honest. Now that it’s on blast, I’m not gonna turn around and play the victim. I’ma put it out there in a major way to let people know how real my life is. I think a lot of people can relate to it. If I can just be honest and be me, I think everything else is gonna fall into place. Was the Ray J/Kim sex tape something you planned? It came out on its own through a company called Vivid. I’m cool with them now because we made a lot of money together. After shit hit the fan, we just tried to figure out how we could all make money and just let this shit die out. It was about making sure we saw some kinda profit from it, cause the shit just got too big. It was out of the control; the fuckin’ tape was everywhere. We had to make sure we put some money in our pockets from that. So it wasn’t something you’d intended to release to the public? Nah! My intent was to tape it with her. That was for my eyes to see. Is that a frequent hobby of yours? Nah! Nah! I just shot ‘em with her. I don’t really have like a library of sex tapes or anything. (laughs) How much did you make off the sex tape? It’s a million dollar business. I made more money in 2007 then I’ve made in my whole career, and it’s only gonna get better because I’ve got my head on straight. I’m not out wild’n and takin’ it for granted. I’m focused. I’m putting my team in play. I’m really gonna strategically try to keep elevating and taking it to another level business-wise, so I can’t wait to see what happens. You’ve been linked to Lil Kim, Whitney Houston, a lot of celebrity females. Whatever the public sees, they create their own stories from it. I’ve just got friends in my life that go out with me and have a good time. So that’s all it is, and people just create whatever they wanna create on top of that. I heard you have a book coming out about all the women you’ve slept with. Nah, that ain’t true. That’s some snitching shit. That’s not what my book is about. My book is about my life in growing up. It’s about drugs and abortion and relationships gone bad and violence and gangbangin’ and cheating. That’s what the book is about, not about who I slept with and who I deal with in my personal life. It’s really just talking about the past and shit that young people go through in life but never really get a chance to express themselves. I’m just putting it on the table and maybe it’ll help somebody. Maybe they’ll see something about themselves that they can change, just like I’m doing. The internet rumor said that the book is called “Sex Machine” and you’re talking about the 1,100 women you’ve slept with. Every week somebody’s making up something about me that’s totally inaccurate, and it confuses me because I wonder where they’re getting this stuff from. They’re not getting it from me or my publicist or the people that work with me, so I don’t understand who comes up with these crazy stories. You’re working on a new album too, right? Yeah, the album is called Rated R and it’ll be out in March or April. My new R&B music is way to the left. It’s marketed for the streets and for all the women out there too. It’s not just catered towards women; it’s catered towards everybody that likes to go to the strip club, get drunk, smoke, and have a good time. That’s what this album is all about. This time, I’m gonna be in the deep trenches of the ghetto and I’m gonna be on the other side in the crossover market. I’m trying to touch everybody with this music. That’s my mission. The book will be out around then also. I’m almost finished writing it.
Isn’t it kind of weird to be writing an autobiography when you’re only 26? I’m trying to do everything I can do to better my brand and just keep the company going up as far as financially and successfully overall. So whether it’s writing a book or putting out two or three albums or doing movies or whatever, if the money’s long, we’re gonna entertain it. Superhead gave you a good review in her first book. It is what it is. I don’t really even pay attention to it. I just do me. I didn’t read the whole book cause I wasn’t really interested but as far as my chapter, yeah, I checked it out. Did you feel like it was an accurate description of your relationship or exaggerated to sell books? It’s all entertainment. That’s how I’ma leave that. It’s all entertainment. What’s going on with you and Whitney Houston? She’s working on her album right now. That’s all I know. She’s focused on her album and I’m focused on mine, so we haven’t got a chance to spend a lot of time together. Are there any other celebrities you’re planning to make a sex tape with? Nah, I don’t plan to make a sex tape with nobody else, but it’s a whole lot of women that I would tape if I had the chance. I don’t wanna say no names. It might mess it up for me. What do you think of the controversy around Hip Hop music, the critics who say that the lyrics and videos are disrespectful towards women? It could only be disrespectful if the women didn’t want to do it. We’re not making them do it. If everybody is all on the same page, that’s not disrespectful. This is America. If it’s a free country and we can say what we want and do what we want – freedom of speech – then why are people trippin’ about what we’re sayin’? Just don’t listen to it. I listen to Hip Hop every day. I love it, and I love gospel music too. I go to church and I still go to the strip club. It’s nothing wrong with that. Just be yourself and be honest about your relationship with God. Live your life and have fun. Do you have any advice for our readers when it comes to safe sex? Safe sex is the most important thing. I’m in discussions with a few condom companies to do big things promoting safe sex, so I’m definitely gonna be on the panel for safe sex in 2008 and I’m gonna be one of the faces out there promoting it. I’m looking forward to getting that message out to all the youth and to all the adults. It’s really real out there and you’ve got to be careful. You’ve got to strap up. So you’ve got porn companies and condom companies fighting over you. Where did you get the hustler’s mentality from? It’s just my hobby. I’ve been independent for like four years with my own company Knock Out. We do features with niggas in the hood for $10k, $5k, all kinds of different numbers. We vibe with everybody, and that’s my hustle game. I try to touch everybody in every market, and once people can really feel my vibe and get to know me, they’ll understand my passion for being successful as an artist and somebody that can keep you entertained. That’s what I wanna do. I just wanna keep entertaining the world. I think 2007 proved that Ray J can really shake the whole industry up with entertainment without even singing a song, so in 2008 it’s gonna be triple that. Any other hustles you want to plug? I got this mixtape coming out called DJ Kay Slay presents Ray J Uncut. That shit is so graphic and so real and so X-rated that I think it’s gonna cross over into some other shit as far as my fans. I got a song on there called “No Porno Shit” and we’re shooting an uncut video for it. It’s gonna be crazy, uncut, just nasty; a lot of cameos, a lot of naked women. If y’all love looking at naked women and niggas getting drunk, having a good time on a yacht and a mansion, then this is for y’all. I’m doing two more with Jimmy Henchmen and Czar Entertainment. I got a single coming out with Yung Berg through my label Knock Out and Koch, and I just did a deal with Shaquille O’Neal last week. Is there anything else you’d like to say for the sex issue? This is for the sex issue? What did I say that was about sex? You were just asking me stuff about Whitney and [Lil] Kim. That ain’t about sex. (laughs) I thought you were gonna ask me some nasty stuff. I thought you were gonna ask me some stuff that was graphic, sexually. I was really gonna get into it, you know? This was like a Teen People interview. Okay, fine. Do you like to eat pussy? Yeah. Hell yeah! You’ve gotta see the tape. I was doing it on there. See? You want me to ask you graphic questions but then you don’t wanna answer them. OZONE MAG // 69