Ray Lavender: Yo! What's pop lockin' mayne.

MiddleChild: Nothing much Ray. Chillin. What you up to?

Ray Lavender: You know what man, I'm at the house. I'm in Atlanta right now. Chillin. Looking out my back yard.

MiddleChild: In the "A"! I just left the "A" man.

Ray Lavender: Oh yea. You just left Atlanta?

MiddleChild: Yea man. I was down there hanging with some friends. It was a gang of us.

Ray Lavender: Yo. It ain't nothing like the "A" my man.

MiddleChild: It's a great place to visit, but I always get lost. Always. I hate the 285 and the 85 and...

Ray Lavender: It's a big circle. How you get lost?

MiddleChild: Man! I always make it around that circle, but gas ain't cheap anymore. (both laugh)

Ray Lavender: You got that right. We need to talk to somebody about that.

MiddleChild: We need to get that together. So you got the single "Stay" popping off.

Ray Lavender: Yea man.

MiddleChild: That's my song. I am feeling it, but I got to ask you what happened with "Put It Down" cause that was my song for real for real.

Ray Lavender: Oh man. You're one of the many that pointed that song out. I was beating my chest about that song man. I was like King King ain't got nothing on me man. Somebody put this song out. They were like "Ray, it was on T-Pain's album. We get it. We got that you gon turn em round, spin em around and put it down. We got it. Now let's grow up a little bit. Let's get our grown man on real quick." And I get it. I understand it, but T-Pain is popping and I wanted him to introduce the next Konvict and I'm the next Konvict. So it didn't turn out that way and we put "Stay" out and we gonna work with "Stay". "Stay" is a monster. I'm not mad at "Stay" at all.

MiddleChild: Can't even be mad at it. I saw some pictures from the set of the video. Tell me a little bit about the shoot.

Ray Lavender: OOO WOOO. It's like a movie man. If you walk in on the middle of this video, you're not going to understand what's going on. You'll be like "What's going on? Why is everybody looking at each other? Did something happen?" And something did happen. What happened was me and my girl had a falling out and we broke up. She was checking out my phone and another girl called and she dumped me. So it was my fault. I messed up. You know how we do. So instead of me swallowing my pride I was like "I'll go get me another girl". I went and got another girl and we had this mutual friend that invited us over to dinner, so when I get over there with my new girlfriend I walk in and I see her sitting down with her new boyfriend.

MiddleChild: She moved on to huh? (laughs)

Ray Lavender: So I'm like "Wait a minute. Hold on. You sitting over there with my girl." And you can see it when I walk in me and her...we catch eyes and she getting all nervous and she walks out. Now I got a girl on my arm but I'm looking at her like "Hold on. Who is this dude you got with you?" And that's when I realize "Man. I messed up. My girl is with somebody else right now." That's when it kicks in. You know how it kicks in for us. It don't kick in until too late. So that's when I'm like "Hold on baby. This girl right here don't mean nothing to me. I know he don't mean nothing to you because you love me. We talked about this. Give me another chance. Please find a way to stay with me." So at the end I get my girl back.

MiddleChild: Okay. A little love story. A little epic love story. I can't wait to check that out.

Ray Lavender: Yea. We need that. I miss that.

MiddleChild: I know right. That's what I have been discussing with most of the male acts I've been talking to as of late. Why do you think in this day and age it's hard for the male face of R&B to be as strong as it once was like say the 90's?

Ray Lavender: I mean the reason it's so hard is because hip-hop took over. They think R&B left, but R&B hasn't left it's just a change in times. We miss the authentic sound of R&B like the Marvin Gaye "Let's Get It On" and all of that, but I mean just like when times change the music change. And we do need some change in music because if today's music sounded like how the old music did it would be kind of bland and boring. We just need to add a little pepper and salt to the food to spice it up a little sometimes, but we still need that authentic R&B. We gotta have somebody that's really singing. We gotta have that and that's where some of these other artists come in at. We can get some of these artists together and get with a live band and folks would sit down and pig out all day. Go back to the oldies and some of the new and go with a live band and a live voice and we don't even have to play a CD. The ones who can just sit and sing all day. So we still need those guys and I'm one of those guys that can add that authentic R&B, but I can also be the salt and pepper. I can go in the club. A lot of these R&B guys can't go in the club and do that grown man stuff. I'm one of them ones. Like R. Kelly is one of them ones. He can go and step off in the club and after he set it off in the club he can go to the Super Dome and sang "Happy People". I'm that guy. I'm another one. I'm a lion just like those. R&B ain't went nowhere. It's just a change in time.

MiddleChild: It happens huh?

Ray Lavender: Yep. Like back in the day we used to wear Cross Colors. You wouldn't wear that today. We have new things to wear now. (both laugh) It's just a change in times. It ain't went no where.

MiddleChild: So speaking of which, you kind of made a reference to clothing. So tell me what's up with Konvict Clothing, man?

Ray Lavender: Oh man! I am wearing these clothes so well. They got me modeling. Every time you see an advertisement for Konvict Clothing Line, you see Ray Lavender and that is what it is. I am so grateful that Akon made me the face of the clothing line. The clothing line is hot. I mean we got high end jeans and it's on point. They look very...as a matter of fact I got some on right now.

MiddleChild: I hear you. We can get those online right?

Ray Lavender: You can order them online. Yes sir. And they look very good.

MiddleChild: Well I will be sure to check some out. I've seen the ads. So maybe I'll get me a pair so I can rock them the next time I'm in Atlanta.

Ray Lavender: Yea man. Come through. Come through.

MiddleChild: That's a deal. So when can we expect the video premiere for "Stay"?

Ray Lavender: Ooh wee. You know what? I been tryna...I can't leak it. I'm not gon do it. I'm not gon do it. (laughs) As much as I want everybody to see this I gotta wait. We gonna walk it on in June. Me and Akon are gonna walk on 106th and Park and premiere it, but as soon as we get our weight up it's gonna be out. So be expecting the video. It's a really great video man.

MiddleChild: Will do. Well it's Black Music Month so I have to ask you what Black Music means to you.

Ray Lavender: Oh man. You know what? We have all of this music and they only gave us a month, but music month means a lot to me anyway. It's where I come from. My roots. My background. Music is what I love. It's what I believe. It's what I do. So for them to take a month and put it aside for music, it's a great honor for me to even be a part of as an artist.

MiddleChild: That's good stuff. Well I appreciate you playboy. Everything I have heard from you has been the business so I'm looking forward to this Ray L. album.

Ray Lavender: That's what's up man. I really appreciate it. Keep bigging your boy up man and I got ya.

MiddleChild: No doubt. Holla Ray.

Ray Lavender: Have a good one.