Ray J now a little bit worried his Kim Kardashian sex tape might have destroyed this timeline
"Everything would be different… Probably more people would be going to college.”
Aux News Kim Kardashian
When we think about actor, musician, and three-decades-and-counting “television presence” Ray J, our mind typically goes to three things. 1) He is Brandy’s brother! 2) His moderately successful 2006 R&B hit “Sexy Can I.” And, of course, 3), his philosophical grasp of the concept of branching timelines, as expressed through his mused worries that he might have seriously messed up our current reality by making a sex tape with Kim Kardashian back in 2003.
Ray J got to pontificating about the societal influence of said tape—marketed in 2007 as Kim Kardashian, Superstar, and released by Vivid Entertainment, with both Ray J and Kardashian ultimately receiving profits from the release—on a recent installment of Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast. In the Ray J-Kim K Theory Of The Multiverse, that tape is, in some ways, the linchpin of 21st century media: “How different would we all be?” he asks at one point. “How different would this whole fucking 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.”
That is a lot of power for some camcorder footage of a trip to Cabo San Lucas to have placed upon its humble shoulders, but, amazingly, we can kind of see where Professor J is going with this particularly wild branch of chaos theory. Without getting into conspiracy theories—they’re out there, of course—the tape undeniably raised Kardashian’s profile just as Keeping Up With The Kardashians was launching; her career, meanwhile served as an obvious template for the influencer culture to follow, creating a new breed of often very lucrative celebrity for people to pursue. Can we say, definitively, that the number of people who went to college in the last 20 years wasn’t affected by its existence? Who can say how that little butterfly flaps, huh?
Anyway, Ray J himself is not happy about the whole thing: When Sharpe asks him whether he’s embarrassed by the tape now, he answered with a blunt “Yes,” citing his children as the primary reason.
[via THR]
37 Comments
“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.”Dude, what? OnlyFans is how a lot of people pay for college these days.
Those ladies have you hook line and sinker, eh?
The Tates really have you hook, line and sinker, eh?
are you from Canadian OnlyFans?
“…the tape undeniably raised Kardashian’s profile just as Keeping Up With The Kardashians was launching…”That’s a Kardashian-esque dishonest public relations reframing. The tape was released in February 2007 after years of much discussion and hype. This notoriety from the sex tape *caused* the greenlighting of KUWTK in July 2007, which launched in October.
Her profile was raised as it was launching. You’re reaching.
It launched *because* her “profile” was raised – by the tape. You’re floundering.
I was trying to point out that the sentence doesn’t necessarily suggest the discrete sequence you’re refuting, but I’m good not arguing with someone who is both so on top of the Kardashian timelines AND would choose “Frasier Crane” as a name. Have a blessed day.
I think the more succinct point is that KUWTK would not exist without the sex tape. And Kim was just copying Paris in the first place.
It might have existed, because apparently (I looked this up now) the family had already been pushing for a show, with one or more brother having been on one of those shows already, but it likely wouldn’t have been a hit without the notoriety.
Add in the poorly-kept secret that it was Kris Kardashian/Jenner who initially shared the tape. Kim, as we recall, was working for peak-fame Paris Hilton at the time, who had also built her famousness off a sex tape. They basically drove a bus straight through the shamelessness gap (releasing your daughter’s sex tape is quite something) and repeated the Paris Hilton blueprint (sex tape -> reality show) to a T. And it worked!
There was an interview with Ray J a while back were he said, with all sincerity, that that sex tape was one of the most significant things to ever happen in history. He’s not very bright.
I mean if we add “for the worse”, it could be right.
I mean, the Kardashians are certainly one of the biggest reasons “influencer” became a viable career path, which I do see as a net negative on the world, so I see where he’s coming from. And that sex tape did move Kim (and her family by association) from a Z-list celebrity to… well, I don’t even wanna go as high as D-list, but certainly higher on the alphabet. Of course, if it wasn’t her, certainly someone would’ve eventually since the Keeping up with the Kardashians was far from the first reality show about “celebrities that aren’t really famous for anything” (nor the first about people with leaked sex tapes), and the internet has been getting exponentially stupider since the rise of social media, but maybe we could’ve had a few more years before the world went totally down the tubes.I will give Ray J credit for one thing, the title of his reality show For the Love of Ray J was hilarious to me and I still have friends who use it as a substitution for “for the love of God” as a phrase sometimes and it still makes me laugh my ass off every time.
I wil never forgive him for making the Kardashians famous through the power of his penis and her gigantic ass.
Wow talk about living in a bubble of self-importance. I didn’t even know about the video until like last year.
*sarcastic applause*
Can we call him Ray, or can we call him Jay?
“Please, my father was J, just call me Ray”
‘” Can we call him Ray, or can we call him Jay?”’How does he get a J at the beginning of his surname? I mean Brandy is his sister and her surname is Norwood.(researching)Oh, I see the J comes from Junior but still shouldn’t it be Ray N.?
Don’t worry, champ. People aren’t going to college because it’s becoming increasingly unaffordable. In fact, OnlyFans is probably responsible for paying a few people’s way through college.
Well, that is something for me to pontificate when I masturbate to that sex tape for the 1,000th time. What!? It’s a hot tape!
It really wasn’t. It was incredibly boring. She just kind of lays there like a dead fish.
I know nothing about Kim Kardashian, but of course she’s a starfish. Says it all.
I got a Community notification for this??#666seasonsandapissmovie
Well, we can thank that video for Chris Pratt’s Park and Rec outtake. So for that alone I’m glad it happened.
Well, for one thing, he wouldn’t be a guest on Club Shay Shay in 2024 if not for that tape.
Huh, I’m just now finding out that Ray J sold his stake in Raycon.
Does he still own stock in Raytheon?
You can call it Raytheon or you can call it Jaytheon…
It’s not often you see someone posit that their biggest contribution to humanity was a net loss for everyone, and not just those involved. I don’t know if more people would be going to college, but yeah, we’re all definitely worse off for him unleashing the Kardashians on us. My kid had a friend who’s failing most of their subjects and they doesn’t care because they apparently “know” they’ll be a famous influencer and they think they don’t need school to do well at it.
Also that’s total bullshit that KUWTK was in development as the tape came out, you should take that out.
you should take that out.That’s what she said.
This guy gives himself too much credit. Any other guy might have been chosen.
R&B Singer Greatly Overestimates the Power of His Penis
This is an article truly worth of the AV club brand. Well done.
To be fair we branched from the ‘real’ timeline when Dubya won the US election in 2000 …at this point we’re many many limbs away , I mean ‘Trump’ ffs ..
“When we think about actor, musician, and three-decades-and-counting ‘television presence’ Ray J”Which we never do, so…