Although Ray J may be known more for his sex tape with Kim Kardashian than his music nowadays, he’s been in the music business since his teens.
Recently, the younger brother of Brandy spoke to Rhapsody.com about his experiences growing up – some involving meeting Hip Hop legends.
“We walked in one day and Faith was sitting on Pac’s lap while Pac was
writing a verse. It was like, “What the f*ck is going on?” That was one
of the craziest sights, dog. Faith was in Pac’s lap. I was like, “What
the fuck? I know I’m not? Is that? It can’t?” Three weeks later, “Hit
‘Em Up” came out. There’s a couple of people that came up out of that
camp. Bow Wow was in Snoop’s camp. Keyshia Cole was always through
Death Row in her younger days. I used to see Keyshia all the time in
there with Pac. I’m not hating on nobody. I got love for Faith. That
was unbelievable, during the time of the East Coast-West Coast beef.”
Ray J continued, and spoke of his favorite memory of Tupac: “I always just hung out with Pac and smoked and chilled. He always used
to give young niggas advice to just work hard and never give up on your
dreams.”
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“He was just a funny dude,” said Ray J of Pac. “He always cracked jokes on whoever had bad
breath or nappy hair. I used to spend more time with Snoop and Suge.
[Snoop] used to come pick me up and I’d tell my dad I’m going down the
street to do my homework. I would just come back later and pass out.”
The singer also recalled the last thing the west coast legend ever said to him: “I seen Pac the day before they left. Suge bought Snoop, Pac, and Dr.
Dre Rolls Royces. I think they all caravanned. The last thing Pac said
was, “Aright, little homey, we out.” A day later I found out he got
shot.”
Ray J was even lucky enough to see another Hip Hop legend, The Notorious B.I.G., right before he died. “I was with Big two days before he died. I smoked two or three blunts
with Big. We watched a Lil Kim video. He talked to me about some real
shit. He was gonna get on the remix for “Everything That You Want” off
my album and then two days later he was dead. He invited me to his
hotel. Cease picked me up.“
“Big was hella-cool. He was talking about how big Lil Kim was gonna be.
And that was right when that video came out for “Crush On You.” He
showed me the first version of that. I walked in [his room at at the
Four Seasons] and the nigga had some shorts on and a tank top getting
his hair cut. He was just a real nigga.He did some shit on [Brandy’s TV
show] Moesha. So [his crew] came up like, “Biggie wanna get you high.”
We sat back and smoked. I got his number. The nigga hit me the next day
to come to the hotel. So me and my homey went up there and chilled. I
was about 16. The day he died I seen him with Puff. I tried to say
what’s up to Puff, but Puff didn’t see me. Then I seen Big and he was
like, ‘What’s up, my nigga.’ I hugged Big and the nigga smelled like
soap. That’s all I remember. He just smelled fresh like, ‘Damn, he a
big nigga but he smell like soap.’“
