Meet The Parents 

On March 1, 2023, rapper Joey Bada$$ premiered the music video for his infectious groove, “Show Me.” His co-star was actress and singer Serayah. In the clip, the pair played a couple in love, captured in vignettes of them cuddling on a boat, lounging in bed as she filmed him on a vintage camera, cruising in a drop-top, and navigating the ups and downs of a relationship, a Love Jones-inspired moment. Their undeniable chemistry, emanating from the screen, sparked early rumors that the two might be more than just co-stars. Now, two years and two spring seasons later, they’re preparing to start a family together.

“I’m great, honestly. At the finish line,” Serayah (or Ray, as he calls her) says about the journey of carrying her first child with Joey (or Jo-Vaughn, as she calls him). This is his second child, as he has a daughter from a previous relationship. As they create their family home in his native New York, preparing to welcome a baby boy, Serayah, a Cali native, has been nesting, moving past initial nerves and feeling “ready now” for this next chapter. Joey’s doing his own form of nesting — setting up a 529 account, making investments, and planning for the future.

“We both turn 30 this year. I turned 30 in January, she turns 30 in June. So naturally, there’s a lot of transitional things happening in our lives, and it’s very, very symbolic at this point in time right now,” he says. “It’s just the beginning of a new chapter.”

Before discussing the future, it’s important to highlight how their love story began. It dates back to 2021, when the two first met on a boat during a mutual friend’s birthday party.

“I saw her and I remember thinking to myself like, ‘Wow, I’ve never seen a woman so beautiful,’” he recalls. “She was just strikingly gorgeous, and her aura was just kind of radiating.”

Though Joey was immediately captivated, he played it cool. “It was really just a silent thought. But it was definitely a very distinctive feeling that I’ve never felt before.”

Serayah, for her part, also felt something special. “He was definitely the most mysterious person I’ve ever met, but also very magnetizing,” she says. “And something about him also spoke loudly without speaking at all.”

It took a year for them to reconnect and “link up,” but when they did, the chemistry was undeniable. “It was that same energy, this unexplainable magnetizing energy without us really doing much or saying much,” she recalls. “That’s what sparked the fire for me.” Joey felt similarly, drawn to her. “Her energy just felt so pure to me, and I just loved how I felt when I was around her. So that’s really what it was for me — I found myself wanting to talk to her, wanting to hang out with her, wanting to see her often.”

Before long, they were falling in love, doing the things everyday couples do — crashing on the couch for TV marathons (their current faves include Forever and the series Interview with the Vampire), hitting up new restaurants for date night (they love Italian and sushi), and working out to stay fit. “It’s one thing about us,” Joey shares, “we’re going to eat, and we’re going to exercise.” It’s all about balance. 

They’ve become a favorite young Hollywood power couple, their chemistry on display at events and all over Instagram, while privately enjoying the simple pleasures of a Netflix-and-chill night at home. It’s peak monogamy, a far cry from where Joey was just a few years ago. In 2021, he publicly embraced polyamory, a relationship style also favored by artists like Ne-Yo and Kofi Siriboe. But love has changed his outlook. 

“That was where I was at in my life at the time,” he reflects. “I was very much living a lifestyle of a bachelor and it just aligned with what I was doing. But I met Ray, I bought a home, and it just changed my perspective. It definitely shifted, and the dynamic that I wanted changed. So I’m very much monogamous now, and I don’t discourage or disagree with anybody going after polyamory or whatever if that’s what you want to do. But this is where I’m at now and this is where I feel secure.”

Life continued to surprise them as they focused on their committed, exclusive relationship. In 2024, while filming a project in Atlanta, Serayah had a telling moment.

“I was on set, and they brought fried chicken for the cast and crew, and I just was repulsed by the smell,” she says. “I remember thinking, I know that’s chicken and I can smell it coming from the hallway. And I just was like, that smells so gross. But I didn’t understand: Why do I feel like this stinks?”

It turned out she was pregnant. Fried chicken became a food aversion, and sweets, which she didn’t usually lean into, a craving. She began embracing the changes when an offer came, one that would allow her to announce that she was expecting during one of the biggest times of year: New York Fashion Week. 

“The stars just aligned. We didn’t coordinate or plan anything out,” she says of revealing her growing bump while strutting down the runway for lingerie brand Adore Me in February 2025. “An opportunity came to me to walk in the Adore Me fashion show and I disclosed to them that I was, I think at the time, around five or six months pregnant. When they said that they were fine with it, I was like, ‘Okay, well maybe this is the opportunity, and this will be the moment.’ And me and Jo-Vaughn, we just agreed on it and it honestly was the most beautiful way. I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way. I was really big on not making my reveal feel contrived or forced. So I felt like it was really just God aligning.”

Since then, they’ve been preparing for their son’s arrival — including a babymoon of sorts at Ma Maniére, a beachside resort in South Carolina — and helping his 7-year-old daughter adjust to the idea of being a big sister.

“I can’t say that she’s excited,” he admits. “I think she’s processing, you know what I mean? I think she’s like, ‘I got to share my daddy now?’ But I already know she’s going to come around and she’s going to be a great big sister once he gets here. She’s going to be super hands-on.”

As they await their son’s arrival, they’re also making time for their careers. Joey recently released a freestyle called “The Finals,” and wrapped up Season 4 of his hit Starz series, Power Book III: Raising Kanan, and has “a bunch of music coming.” Serayah’s latest single, “IDFN,” has been heating up, and she has two film projects on the way: a Tyler Perry and DeVon Franklin production on Netflix called R&B and a horror film titled Goons for the summer. 

Both parties see themselves as artists who love balancing film projects with their need to express themselves on wax. 

“It comes naturally,” Joey says of his musical talents, which is how he was introduced to the world. But in the years since, he’s had high-profile acting roles, including in the 2020 Academy-Award winning live-action short, Two Distant Strangers. “I’m always making music on the fly. With film, it’s like you got to set things up. It takes a lot more preparation and I don’t plan on backing down from film opportunities at all. I actually plan on leaning into them a lot, but I don’t think that’s going to necessarily take away from me expressing myself creatively when I feel fit.”

Serayah, who first broke out on Fox’s Empire, recording music for the series and releasing two EPs on her own, agrees. “For me, I like to explain music for me as an outlet. I’ve created so much music that is not even out. So there’s just a space there for release with music that comes. It can come anytime of the day.”

They plan to collaborate musically soon, but for now, they’re focused on their greatest collaboration yet — building a family.

“I think we’re excited about doing things our way with something that’s equally important to both of us individually and collectively, and that’s having a strong family structure, especially a strong Black family structure,” he says. “Breaking those generational curses and setting an example for the future.”

For her first child, Serayah is looking forward to all the milestones and ways in which her life will be changed by their little one. But he’s already had an incredible impact in the womb.

“It’s been a fully spiritual transformation for me. There’s been so many things revealed to me and there’s a sense of clarity and a natural instinct to just want to do all things,” Serayah notes. “I feel like I’m a purpose driven person in general, but it’s more of an emphasis now on what moves makes sense and how that affects the unit as a whole. And I think that that’s something that has definitely transformed me, especially as I’m turning 30 soon. Living my whole 20s just for me, this has been a full transformation now getting ready to parent and be one of the sole people responsible for another human being. So it’s definitely been a transformation, but a beautiful one.”

PRODUCTION CREDITS

PHOTO
Photographer: AP @anthonyprinceleslie
1st Assistant: Wayn Reid @Theecurrent
Digital Tech: Isan Monfort @isanstudio
Gaffer: Carlos Collado @lado_thelastlightbender
Retoucher: Nadia Selander @nadiaselander
Executive Assistant: Shaniah Francis @ni.franciss

STYLING
Stylists: Aaron Christmon @aaronchristmon & Marquise Miller @marquisemiller
Market Editor: Deonna Bolden @_dbold
Stylists Assistants: Emari Campbell @emaricampbell & Shaheed Whitfield @nazeerwhit

GLAM
Serayah MUA: Thynna Wagenblast @makeupbythynna
Serayah Hair: Lanae Witter @naedidmyhair
Joey Grooming: Tenelle Veira @tenelleveira
Joey Barber: Michael Powell

EDITORIAL
Post Production: @nadiaselander
Production + Set Design: @hashtag_bre
Location: ESSENCE Office
ESSENCE, VP, Content: Nandi Howard @itsnandibby
ESSENCE, Creative Direction: Karissa Mitchell @alistkariss
ESSENCE, Creative Operations: Breanna Hall @hashtag_bre
ESSENCE, Art Director: Isaiah Stewart @isaiahmikhail
ESSENCE, Editorial Assistant: Mecca Pryor @meccuhh
ESSENCE, Writer: Victoria Uwamarogie @ghostwritervic