In the four years since Ray J released his last album, nothing has changed more than his image. He decided to put his thug life behind him and focus more on being a positive role model.
And the person who helped him find this new image, believe it or not, is Death Row founder Suge Knight.
Ray J, 24, has known Knight since he was 13 years old. While driving around with Knight at a point during his four year absence from the music industry, Ray J noticed that all Knight listens to is classic R&B music, from the Isley Brothers to Marvin Gaye. That’s when Ray J realized his true calling.
“If somebody of the magnitude of Suge with this hardcore image is listening to R&B stuff, I can’t run away from who I’m really supposed to be,” Ray J tells andPOP.
So when Ray J releases “Raydiation” on Tuesday, expect a more soulful side to the singer, who is more worried about changing the world for the good than impressing his associates on the streets.
His last album, “This Ain’t a Game,” was released on Atlantic Records, the same label his sister Brandy called home. He only lasted one release with Atlantic, and then started shopping for a new deal. He also started working on a duet album with TLC’s Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes before she died in a car crash in 2002. Ray J contemplated signing with Dreamworks, an independent label, and even Death Row, before deciding that if he wanted the perfect deal, he’d have to create it himself. So he helped start Knockout Entertainment with Brandy.
But that four year break wasn’t wasted in meetings with labels that went nowhere.
“I had to find myself,” he says, on the line from Los Angeles. “I went through my time of just living my life.”
Nothing was harder to find, he says, than his image.
“At the time, coming from my environment in Carson, I always had a street mentality. I wanted that to show in my music and in my attitude. But as you get older, you understand what being positive is all about and how much more powerful you can be doing that.”
The result is what he calls a more “sensual” album.
“Vocally I’ve stepped it up.” His last album was non-stop hip-hop music made for the clubs, with more rapping than singing. “This time I have club bangers but I’m displaying a mature sound. The notes I’m hitting from top to bottom are more challenging for me and I think all singers out there. I want them to feel my pain and feel my passion.”
Guests on the album include R. Kelly, Mya and Fat Joe, while production comes from Timbaland, Kelly, and a familiar face to the Norwood family, Rodney Jerkins, who has helped Brandy score some mega-hits.
“His chemistry with Brandy was so solid and she always kept telling me, ‘you have to get in with Rodney again.’ He’s an angel,” he says of Jerkins, who produced four tracks and an interlude on “Raydiation.”
Brandy, who is an executive-producer on the album, also appears on a track, the politically-charged “War is Over,” which he says is calling out not just President Bush but all world leaders.
“It’s speaking on the war on politics, the war on drugs, war on everything. There’s a lot of fighting. We’re speaking about peace. We want peace with everybody. I think that song’s going to help a lot of people.”
Some artists are hesitant to get political on their albums, feeling that it is not their job to bring up political issues, or fearing that they may be alienating fans with opposing views.
“I feel like you have to fight for a cause. You have to have peace. That’s what everybody lives for. If I’m wrong for that, then kill me!”
Besides promoting his album, Ray J continues to be a VJ on BET and just landed a role on UPN’s “One on One” sitcom.
“I’m going to get enough sleep when I’m dead.”
