Ray J Reveals Shaquille O’Neal Invested $1.5M In His Music Career
Photo Credit: Frazer Harrison/ Mike Coppola
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Shaquille O’Neal once invested in Ray J’s music career.
During an interview on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast “Club Shay Shay,” the R&B singer-turned-entrepreneur reveals he received $1.5 million from the former Los Angeles Lakers basketball player to support “Sexy Can I,” the first single from his 2008 studio album “All I Feel.” The single featuring Yung Berg would go on to become a top 10 hit on Billboard.
O’Neal saw a big return on that investment, Ray J says on the podcast.
“He gave us $1.5 [million] for the ‘Sexy Can I’ project, which was the ‘All I Feel’ project, and ‘Sexy Can I’ was the record to lead off. It sold 8 million copies,” Ray J told Sharpe. “We recouped the number back for Shaq, and I don’t know five months, six months, and everything else has been profitable ever since, so shout out to Shaq.”
He added, “If you look at the ‘Sexy Can I’ video, you see Shaq in the video. He’s the one with the camera.”
Photo Credit: YouTube/ MNRK Music Group
O’Neal has distinguished himself as an influential businessman involved in a range of industries. That’s why Ray J believes assembling a smart team was the key to securing O’Neal’s interest.
“With Shaq, you always have really smart people around you,” Ray J said. “So, Money Mark [producer and musician], who is Shaq’s partner in this deal, he’s the one that told Shaq about this. And this was actually the first deal for Wack 100 [entrepreneur and manager] to ever even be in the game… So, Money Mark, Wack 100, we had another partner, and then Shaq. It was a h-ll of a deal, and again, any time I ever do deals, like I didn’t take the money from Shaq. The team did, and they were able to to make it work and structure it properly, and then it was a success. He made his money back, and he’s still making money from it, or somebody from the team, [because] I know I’m still eating.”
Samantha Dorisca is a Houston-based journalist and photographer whose mission is to impact communities through the gift of storytelling using the written word or visual media. She completed her B.A at The University of Texas at Austin and is pursuing a M.A at The University of Memphis. Her work can be found on platforms such as Houstonia Magazine, Girls' Life Magazine, and Blacque Magazine. Samantha mainly reports on tech, trends, and entrepreneurship.
