Beef Explained: Kim Kardashian, Kris Jenner, Ray J and that infamous sex tape

Somehow in 2022, we’re still uncovering more drama involving the Kim Kardashian and Ray J sex tape, which was released 15 years ago now. 

The sex tape made its way back into the limelight earlier this year after being discussed prominently in the first few episodes of the Hulu reality series, The Kardashians. This prompted Ray J to speak out and claim that it was Kim’s mother, Kris Jenner, who orchestrated the tape’s original release — denying The Kardashians storyline in an interview with the Daily Mail. Now, Ray J is presenting his side of the story once more via Instagram live. Below, we’ve rounded up everything you need to know about the resurfaced drama.

Kim Kardashian and Ray J’s original sex tape 

Kim and Ray J reportedly filmed the sex tape during a trip to Cabo in 2004, with their relationship lasting bwteen 2002 – 2006. However, the video didn’t become public until 2007 after rumours were spreading about footage obtained by Vivid Entertainment. In response to the rumours, Kim’s attorney at the time, Steven Kurtz, filed a lawsuit against Vivid trying to stop the release. Unfortunately for the reality star, it didn’t work and Kim Kardashian Superstar was released on March 21st, 2007. Founder of Vivid Entertainment, Steven Hirsch, revealed to Page Six in 2017 that neither Kim nor Kris were “involved” in the deal when the footage was first presented to him. According to the publication, both Kim and Ray J had to sign off on a deal before the tape could be released and were reportedly paid around $5, but Hirsh maintained that Kim fought very hard against it. “It was a very difficult deal to get done. Probably [the hardest deal we’ve done]. [Kim] did not want it to happen,” he said.

Stepping away from the sex tape for a moment, the relationship between Ray J’s family and the Kardashians hasn’t been the best. In fact, Ray J’s mother, Sonja Norwood, sued Kim, Khloé, Kourtney and Rob Kardashian for alleged credit-card theft. Although that case was later dismissed in 2009, after reportedly being settled out of court.

As time went on, the tape began to lose its relevance, though it did occasionally pop up in storylines on Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Ray J also capitalised on the scandal when he released two songs referencing the tape, ‘I Hit It First’ in 2013 and ‘Famous’ in 2016. 

The Kardashians rehashes the tape 

Once The Kardashians premiered in April, it didn’t take long for there to be a storyline revolving around the sex tape. In the first episode, Kim was shocked after her son, Saint, showed her a pop-up that supposedly featured Kim’s famously memed crying face. After clicking on the ad, there was allegedly an offer for a new Kim Kardashian sex tape. Kim didn’t waste any time and got her lawyers on the job, telling them “I am 99.99 per cent sure that no other tape exists.”

The drama continued in episode two when Kim tells Khloé, Kourtney and Kris that someone is threatening to release more footage, saying “Ray J’s manager is claiming he has a sex tape of us in Santa Barbara.” While discussing the issue with her lawyer, Kim declared war. “I have all the time, all the money, and all of the resources to burn this to the fucking ground.”

Kanye West returns Ray J’s computer to Kim

In the third episode of The Kardashians, West arrived at Kim’s hotel carrying a black duffel bag filled with a desktop computer and hard drives, which supposedly held the original footage. Kanye’s gesture had the entire family in tears, with Kris thanking the rapper.

Of course, Kim was incredibly grateful too. “I know Kanye did this for me, but he also did this for my kids,” she said. “I want to shield them from as much as I can, and if I have the power to, or if Kanye has the power to, like, that is the most important thing to me.” Following the release of the episode, the clip went viral and was posted to Hollywood Unlocked’s official Instagram on April 30th, where Ray J commented, “All of this is a lie smh — Can’t let them do this anymore — so untrue.”

Ray J’s Daily Mail interview

Ray J then dropped a bombshell after his exclusive interview with the Daily Mail was released. He insisted in the interview that he “never leaked a sex tape in my life”, before revealing that the entire thing was “a deal and a partnership between Kris Jenner and Kim and me.” According to Ray J, it was he who first brought up the idea of releasing a sex tape to help boost Kim’s career. Once Kim agreed, he claimed that they enlisted Kris to broker the deal. “Once I pitched the idea to her, just playing around a little bit, that’s when she jumped on the idea, talked to her mom and it was out of my hands from there,” he said.

Ray J also stated that he’d never been in possession of the footage. “I never had a single one at my house — she had them all at her house. She’s always had all the tapes in a Nike shoe box under her bed,” he said. However, the singer did reveal that he provided some footage to West but maintained that it wasn’t any footage from the sex tape. As per the Daily Mail, Ray J handed West a laptop that contained “intimate photos and ‘mini videos” from their relationship. He also claimed that the computer contained “a lot of proof that we’ve been talking about over the years.”

 Also included in the Daily Mail interview are alleged Instagram DM’s between Ray J and Kim. Throughout the messages, Ray J discussed the sex tape storyline in The Kardashians, saying “we sat down with [redacted] and your mom and we planned all of this together.” In another message, he wrote, “You know what we did! Your mom controlled this whole sex-tape deal.” 

Kris Jenner denies negotiating the release of the sex tape, with Ray J responding via Instagram.

During an appearance on The Late Night Show with James Corden, Kris took a lie detector test. Corden asked, “did you help Kim release her sex tape?” to which she responded with “no,” which was validated by the test. “Oh, I like that. We cleared that up,” she said before moving on to the next question. Although this did not go down too well with Ray J, who took to Instagram to respond.

In the original post on September 10th, Ray J tagged Kim and wrote, “YOU [fucked] with THE WRONG BLACK MAN.” He claimed in the video that he originally contemplated going through the courts, accusing the Kardashians of “defaming” him but instead decided to schedule an Instagram live session instead. “We goin’ through receipts tonight, Kris. We goin’ through receipts tonight, Kim,” he said.

He also referenced the settlement between the Kardashians and his mother for fraud in the caption, writing “YOU STOLE ALL THAT MONEY FROM MY MOM AND SISTER — OVER 800k and YOU HAD TO PAY IT BACK BECAUSE YOU WERE GUILTY AND THE JUDGE ORDERED IT!!” He also claimed that Kim “NEVER SUED STEVE HIRSH FOR 5M BECAUSE WE ALL MADE THAT UP TOGETHER,” though reports confirm Kim filed a lawsuit against Vivid Entertainment in 2007. He concluded his post, saying that he was doing this “FOR MY KIDS.”

Ray J then went live on Instagram on Saturday (September 10th) evening, where he read directly from alleged text messages between him and West, supposedly showing his willingness to comply with the rapper’s requests. He also claimed that West asked to see the contracts, supposedly because “Kim don’t want people to know that she signed my deliverables [sic].”

He then again accused Kris of negotiating the release of the sex tape. He also claimed that there were three separate sex tapes purchased by Vivid, with Kris pushing for the release of one because “it gives my daughter a better look.”

Ray J stressed that he wanted fans to “demand for them to respond” and “demand them to admit that they’ve been fucking me over and they should immediately bow down to the facts and go ahead and apologize.” He added, “That will make me feel better than anything in the world.” Soon after, he got frustrated with those helping him with his presentation and left the room to find his other phone. After finding it, he couldn’t locate his DMs with Kim and the live feed stopped shortly after.

Ray J promises there’s more information being released soon

Ray J wasn’t finished just yet, though, as he returned to Instagram later that night to run through his DMs with Kim once more and showed that Kim had not blocked him. He walked through the alleged Vivid Entertainment contract once more and brainstormed possible lawsuits against the Kardashians. He finally decided to call it a night, saying “I got a lot more to show, but I’m gonna leave it at that for a minute.” He finished with a message for the Kardashians, saying “This ain’t over.”