There’s no denying that when Kim Kardashian’s sex tape with then-boyfriend Ray J came out in 2007, the world of pop culture was forever altered. It wasn’t just Kim who found fame, but the entire Kardashian-Jenner family, as they launched their reality show and took the first steps to what would become an empire worth billions of dollars. Nobody is more aware of just how big that tape’s impact was — and continues to be nearly two decades later — than Ray J himself, and he made some pretty bold claims about how things would be different if that leak never happened.
Ray J sat down with Shannon Sharpe on his podcast Club Shay Shay, where the Love & Hip Hop alum got philosophical about the butterfly effect his sex tape with Kim Kardashian had on the world. Ray J said:
How different would we all be? How different would this whole fucking thing be? How different would the industry be? How different would the wheel roll? Everything would be different. We would all be different. All of us. Everybody in here would be different. We would have on different clothes.
With Kim Kardashian finding fame, and her siblings also establishing brands within the fashion, makeup and lifestyle industries, is it possible that everything down to our clothes would be different if Kardashian never rose to anything more than Paris Hilton’s closet organizer? Ray J didn’t stop there, either, saying:
Probably more people would be going to college, and, you know what I’m saying, getting an education to be successful. There might not be any OnlyFans and all the things like that, all the opportunities like that. So are we a part of the cure or are we part of the disease? I don’t fucking know, all I know is I’m just trying to make it right.
Kim Kardashian was not the first celebrity to have a sex tape, but the heights she’s been able to reach by capitalizing on the fame from it are unrivaled. Still, it’s actually hilarious to think about it in those terms. Are young men and women choosing to pursue influencing careers or start OnlyFans accounts in lieu of a college education because they’re inspired by Kim Kardashian: Superstar? I guess I’ve heard crazier ideas.
Ray J previously said he and Kim Kardashian both received an initial payment of $400,000 plus 12.5 percent of the profits (which were reported at $1.4 million in the first six weeks), and they continue to see money from it all these years later. Pornhub reported in 2017 that the former couple earns a percentage of the sex tape’s earnings, with one site alleging that Ray J earns around $360K per year and Kardashian getting at least that much, if not more.
The sex tape was so successful in boosting Kim Kardashian’s career that rumors have circulated for years (perpetuated by Ray J, no less) that she and momager Kris Jenner were behind the leak to begin with — a claim that Jenner took a lie detector test to dispel.
It’s impossible to know how far-reaching the effects of Kim Kardashian’s sex tape are and how different our wardrobes and careers might be in that alternate reality. Thankfully in our current reality, we get to continue to see Kim’s whole clan on the 2024 TV schedule, with new episodes of The Kardashians every Thursday with a Hulu subscription.
