In Stop The Presses! we share some of the more ridiculous press releases we receive at The A.V. Club.
There are ridiculous press releases, and then there’s a 9,420-word transcript of a press call with Ray J. The rapper/reality-TV star/sex-tape enthusiast is hosting something called Bad Girls All Star Battle, a spinoff that takes “all stars” from the trashy reality series and adds the element of physical challenges to win a $100,000 grand prize—all under the watchful, supportive eye of Ray J. Ahead of the show’s premiere, Ray J hopped on a conference call with writers to answer questions like “Do you agree with Kanye’s statement at the Met Gala that Kim K. is awesome?” and “How does it feel to be as popular as you are at this point?” and “You are the perfect fit because they are the baddest Bad Girls and you are the baddest bad boy. So can you elaborate on that a little bit more?”
Many of them attempted to get Ray J to talk about other stuff, but he stayed remarkably on-message—regarding Kardashian, “Independent women are awesome”—greeting them with salutations like “All love and affection, hello,” and sending them off with valedictions like “All right, thank you, blessings.”
Some of it didn’t work out:
Ray J: (Unintelligible)…
((Crosstalk))
Reporter: (Unintelligible)…
((Crosstalk))
Reporter: (Unintelligible)…
((Crosstalk))
Reporter: (Unintelligible) in the building. Man. What’s going on?
((Crosstalk))
Ray J: (Unintelligible).
And…
Journalist: There’s a girl watching—a woman. She’s not that girl though. She says, “My man wants me to be a bad girl.” What does she do? Give us…
Ray J: So what’d you say? I didn’t—so I didn’t—I'm trying to figure—I'm trying to understand.
Journalist: Follow. Follow. Follow.
Ray J: Yes, I'm trying to follow you. I'm trying to follow you, Love. I'm trying to follow you.
But he was able to answer others. The best way to experience the long, awkward conversation is to read the whole transcript, but here are some excerpts:
On how the show has helped him personally:
Ray J: It has just helped me become more honest with the people around me and things that I want to know, so as far as control and authority, it just stepped my game up you know 1,000%.
On his favorite bad girl:
Ray J: I don’t have a favorite because that would be wrong, but I do—I have you know—I have my different—like we all have different things that we laugh about whenever we can on the show. Like I have to for sure keep the authority going and keep a straight—keep my mind straight and make sure everything is running smooth, but all the girls are cool, man… They are all my favorites.
Oh how working with the Bad Girls inspired his writing:
Ray J: I would come up with different concepts just being around you know the bad girls battle set and just being around all kinds of cool people. It definitely inspired me to write.
On if he wanted to hook up with any girls from the show:
Ray J: Oh, no. No. I'm—you know, I'm totally—this is professional, man. Like I plan on doing this for however long, you know, the ride goes. So you know the saying. I don’t—where I—you know. But all of the girls are hot. I'm not going to even front. They’re beautiful girls. But for me, I got to stay professional. I got to lay out the blueprint, and then they got to execute.
On his favorite moment:
Ray J: Well, I had a chance in one situation where I got a chance to just have a good conversation with the girls and we had a chance to talk about why they were, you know, there to win the money and what was their reasons, and I think there was—that was the time where I got emotional. Where you know, my heart was touched… I fell in love with why they, you know, were there.
On the inspiration behind his hit single “I Hit It First”:
Ray J: Just real life situations. I mean, we having fun. At first we was playing around, and then it turned into something. So it’s like for me, I do music that’s true—that’s straight from the heart, and that’s where it came from.
There you go: When Ray rapped, “Candles lit with that wine, money still on my mind / And I gave her that really bomb sex,” that came from the heart. Fall in love with why the bad girls, you know, are there May 21 on Oxygen.