EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Ray J Reveals Why He's Leaving 'Reckless Ray' Behind

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
Back to school is busy enough. The last thing you need is shopping that makes it harder. Whether you're moving into a dorm, your first apartment, or just getting organized for the semester, Wayfair makes it easy to get everything you need in one place. Furniture, bedding, storage, decor, study essentials, all at prices you'll love, with fast shipping before move-in day.
Get everything you need for back to school season. Shop wayfair.com today. Wayfair, every style, every home.

**Tawanda** (0:38)
Welcome back to The TMZ Podcast. I am Tawanda here and I have a very special guest today. This is someone who I consider a brother now. We have gotten super close over the years.
And Ray is just honestly, he is one of a kind. Every time I talk to this man on the phone, I am literally in tears. I am joined by none other than the icon, Ray J. Dan, I called you a icon.

**Ray J** (1:03)
That's a lot.

**Tawanda** (1:04)
That's a lot.

**Ray J** (1:04)
I mean, unc is a lot. I kind of, that's not okay. Right, I'm still here, I'm still like, you know.

**Tawanda** (1:11)
Thank you for coming, finally.

**Ray J** (1:13)
Thank you.

**Tawanda** (1:13)
It took me, I have been trying to get you in the studio for a good months.

**Ray J** (1:19)
Well, I've been all over the place. I know. I got to, now I got to go in and like deep, deep training.
So I wanted to make sure that I stop by and make sure we got it done in this, like time capsule that we're in now, into the next.

**Tawanda** (1:36)
Training, I don't, I've told you time and time again, after that last fight, we saw you where, oh boy, knocked your ass out so fast.

**Ray J** (1:45)
I don't think I got, it was a knockdown.

**Tawanda** (1:47)
Knockdown? It was a knockdown. It looked like you were like seeing stars.

**Ray J** (1:51)
I was definitely seeing stars.
And there was a lot of them in the audience, too. I saw A, B and D, I saw Chris Brown, I saw Ruby Rose, I saw Neon, fucking six, I mean, it was definitely, I saw stars. They were everywhere. Stop looking over there. They were everywhere. I'm looking everywhere.

**Tawanda** (2:11)
Yeah, don't stay.

**Ray J** (2:12)
So you just want me to look at you?

**Tawanda** (2:13)
Type shit. Okay.

**Ray J** (2:15)
I looked everywhere on all my interviews, but that's fine.

**Tawanda** (2:16)
Okay, well, you usually have my sunglasses. Well? Are those the glasses that don't break?

**Ray J** (2:21)
These break.

**Tawanda** (2:22)
Those break?

**Ray J** (2:22)
Yeah, but I'm working on the unbreakables right now.

**Tawanda** (2:24)
You're working on the unbreakable?

**Ray J** (2:25)
Yeah, because the last glasses I had, and shout out to Charles Coppleman, he passed away, and shout out to Jenny and the whole family. But they have a brand called Bunny Eyes, EYE with a Z, Bunny Eyes, and that's where the convertible drop went. And the unbreakables with Speedy just evolved, but these are from CBS.

**Tawanda** (2:47)
Oh, God. I think maybe don't do the unbreakables. I think we're good. I think all glasses are gonna break, so.

**Ray J** (2:55)
No, you're gonna love these. They're made with this new sandpaper and goo and a needle kind of experience.

**Tawanda** (3:05)
It sounds real sturdy.

**Ray J** (3:06)
It's not okay.

**Tawanda** (3:07)
But anyways, back to you. You said you gotta go train. You got knocked out in the last boxing match.
You was a super hot fire. He I don't remember. I bet.
But you went to you were hospitalized after this. Your doctors told you, you know, you do not need to be going out there doing things like this. You don't need to be fighting. You already got a bad heart. We'll get to that a little bit later.

**Ray J** (3:30)
But a little bit later. Yes.

**Tawanda** (3:32)
OK, we'll get back. We'll get to it. But why fight again?

**Ray J** (3:39)
Well, I'm getting older.
And you want to go out with a bang. You want to go out with a bang, knowing that you're going to advance or you should advance into just a new routine, physically, mentally and spiritually, right?
These are kind of like the final reckless moments that I'm going to have, leading into like this new wave. And that's if God allows me to continue to live, right? Then eventually you got to start switching it up. And so that's where I'm headed to. And before I do that officially, you know, you just want to scratch everything and check everything off your bucket list and just do some crazy shit before you make that transition. So that's where I'm at now.