Ray J has earned many titles in his careers such as singer, actor, and entrepreneur, but one platform he is likely most known for is reality television, and it seems the “One Wish” singer is profiting a lot more than anyone knows from that business.
On May 5, producer and talent manager David Weintraub appeared as a guest on Hollywood Raw where he spoke about growing up with celebrities and what he does for a living. During the conversation, Weintraub was asked by one of the hosts if Ray J was his highest-paid client. After he pondered the question for a few seconds he replied, “he’s one of our biggest clients,” then asserted that “he’s the highest-paid male nonscripted star in the entire scope worldwide of the television business.”
When asked how he does in comparison to Nick Cannon, Weintraub said, “We’re all making the same kind of numbers. Exactly.” He dropped a few other powerhouse names like Puff Daddy and Snoop Dogg that can be compared to Ray J but followed up with the statement, “You name a person in the upper echelon with multiple television projects on the air in production for multiple seasons, the conversation will always go back to Ray J.”
To elaborate, he said, “He just knocked out 70 episodes for VH1. In the pandemic. Did Nick Cannon do 70? No. Oh, he didn’t do any.” The news shocked the hosts so much that one of them, Adam Glyn, was curious to know “why does Viacom love Ray J?”
Weintraub responded, “I think the draw is that Ray is an actor and singer first, who has a bigger-than-life personality that came out second that then transformed into this kind of over-the-top pop culture celebrity.” He added that “everything he does is wild and newsworthy” and crowned Kim Kardashian and Ray J as the ones who “invented and paved this world for pop culture opportunities and television and brands and marketing and all of this celebrity underworld.”
Ray J is not only making money for being on screen for shows like “Love and Hip Hop” and “Marriage Bootcamp,” but he’s also profiting behind the camera. He’s credited as an executive producer for the Zeus Network reality series “The Conversation.” It looks like it’s time to start putting some respect on Ray J’s name.