Out from under the heavy shadow of his older sister’s singing success, Ray J has created his own self-sufficient fame. And while he still struggles to gain respect within the industry and media after being known as “Brandi’s little brother” for so long; this singer/ actor [and ex boyfriend of Kim Kardashian] doesn’t mind being laughed at; because all the while he’s laughing his way to the bank.

After selling his infamous sex-tape with Kim and making millions, then penning a deal for his own record label, Knockout Entertainment [a multi-million dollar collaboration with Epic/Koch Records and Shaquille O’Neal’s Deja 34 Entertainment company] Ray J is now focused on his fourth album All I Feel, which features guest appearances by The Game and Styles P, among others.

HipHopDX caught up with the self-proclaimed joker to talk about all the juicy details of his romance with Kim, his feelings towards her new boyfriend [NFL player Reggie Bush], his beef with Chris Stokes and Marques Houston, Lil Kim, and the many sides of the man we call Ray J.

HipHopDX.com: So you got the new single out “Sexy Can I,” it's doing pretty well on radio right now…can you talk a little bit about how the collaboration with Young Berg came about?
Ray J: Berg and I was friends. We met and just became friends and I was featured in his video, I did a cameo for “Sexy Lady.” And then we started working on some music together. I told him I wanted him to get on my album whenever I got a chance to get down. So in creating “Sexy Can I,” I knew he had a song called “Sexy Lady,” so I wanted to keep the sexy movement going. So I told him to get on the song and he came in and made it magical.

DX: Is the recent mixtape, Un-Kut, a reflection of how the album sounds?
RJ: No way. Not at all. On the mixtape, I wasn’t even singing at all. I did like a two-second vocal.

DX: Let's talk about some of the lyrics, because I have to admit I’m a lil mad at you right now. [Laughs]
RJ: Uh-oh. [Laughs]

DX: On “Snakes in the Grass” you say such beautifully eloquent lines as “so here’s a little weed and a little bit of E and stuff/ make sure you don’t bleed and stuff/ make sure it’s not your bloody week, you slut.”
RJ: Yeah, make sure you don’t do that shit…

DX: umm… there also the classic, “She told me at 3 o’clock to meet her at the Pizza Hut/ she was real freaky, told me do her in the butt/ so I did her in her butt, butt/ right in the back of the Pizza Hut, Hut.”
RJ: Yeah

DX: Ummm...oh, then there’s the poignant, “I'm feelin like a kicker and im bout to kick a punt in a nasty lil bitch wit a pretty lil' cunt”…what the hell is that all about Ray J? Like, seriously.
RJ: It’s like you said, those were some great lines! “I’m feelin’ like and I’m bout to kick a punt in a nasty lil' bitch wit' a pretty lil' cunt.” That is just classic right there! If Biggie had said that, that woulda been like the biggest line of the year!

DX: I mean, I hope we can both recognize you're no Stevie Wonder , but did you have to go that deeply into the lowest gutter?
RJ: [Laughs] Listen, it was for free!

DX: [Laughs] So you pay for what you get?
RJ: Nah, but it was some free shit! It was straight for the streets, it was straight for entertaining the cats into that dark, nasty world. And that’s where I was at that time. That was the world I was living in for those few months and in that song I was going through that with my girlfriends always being in that [menstrual] week. It was an everlasting week and I just kept getting irritated. [Laughs]

DX: Talk to me, honey, is it a cry for help? You sound like someone with a lot of anger and pain. Did one too many females break your heart?
RJ: Yeah, I been heartbroken a 150,000,000 times…nah, I’m just playin’. [Laughs] I just play around. I don’t really have any seriousness or none of that shit.

DX: But with lyrics like that I really wonder what your parents think of your mixtape. Especially with your father, Willie Norwood, being a Gospel singer.
RJ: I mean, I don’t really play that for them. They might hear a little bit of it and cut it off. They don’t really like listening to that though. But I got some nice heart-felt songs on my album though. Heart-felt ballads, great concepts and situations…it’s totally different that the mixtape; those are two different sides to me.

DX: Now on another track “Settle the Score” you have quite a bit to say and you even call out names. There’s the quote “Fuck Chris Stokes, and fuck Marques Hou/ 'Cause niggas is some bitches, tryin’ to clone the crew/ Some bitches told me they do each other in the booty/ Ain't no denying that them niggas is fruity” … where does this beef stem from?
RJ: I mean…I was just sayin’ that some bitches told me that…you know [sings] “Some bitches told me they do each other in the booty/ Ain't no denying that them niggas act fruity” Continued on page 2 »