After gaining notoriety as a ganja gourmet and appearing on the November 1987 cover of High Times, he began writing "Chef Ra's Psychedelic Kitchen" in 1988 at the request of magazine editor Steven Hager.

Ra was a fixture of Ann Arbor's Hash Bash, speaking out about the benefits of cannabis for 19 consecutive years before his death at the age of 56.

[2] Though born in Charleston, West Virginia, by high school Wilson had moved to the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area.

The former features Ra's visit to Jamaica, and had a rare public screening at the 1998 Freaky Film Festival in Champaign-Urbana.

[7] Ra was featured in the short film Bumbaclots in Negril (1999) alongside fellow High Times staffers.