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Joseph Lewis Thomas (born July 5, 1972), usually credited simply as Joe, is an American R&B singer and record producer. Early life and career Joe is a native of Morris, Georgia and later moved to Opelika, Alabama. The son of two preachers, Joe spent much time in church singing, playing guitar, and even directing the choir. He was influenced in his early career by gospel performers such as The Winans, Commissioned, and Vanessa Bell Armstrong. Joe also grew to love soul legends such Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye as well as contemporary stars such as Bobby Brown and Keith Sweat. Joe graduated from high school and continued to sing and write music while working at occasional temporary jobs. Finally, he traveled to New Jersey, hoping to make connections in the music industry. While working at a gospel record store and continuing his music education through a local church, he met producer Vincent Herbert and recorded a three-song demo tape. He signed to Polygram/Mercury and in 1993 released his album debut, Everything. This album produced a minor hit for him and he was subsequently released from his contract. Joe also had a song called "All the Things" that appeared on the soundtrack to the Wayans Brothers film Don't Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (the brothers later used songs from Joe in loves scenes in their various films over the years). This song was the only smash hit from the entire album. Joe then signed to Jive Records for his 1997 album, All That I Am. This proved to be his breakthrough album, reaching #13 on the. Billboard 200 album charts and number 4 on the R&B charts. The hit singles from this album included the Top 5 R&B/Top 20 pop hit "All the Things Your Man Won't Do", the Top 5 R&B/Top 40 pop hit "Don't Wanna Be a Player", produced by Rodney Jerkins, and "The Love Scene". "Don't Wanna Be a Player", produced by Rodney Jerkins, was also featured on the Booty Call soundtrack, helping its success. All That I Am eventually went platinum in the US.[citation needed] Joe remixed a duet by Barry White and Tina Turner called "Never in Your Dreams" and wrote and produced debut albums by Ideal and Déjà Groove in the late 1990s. Joe also sang on the remix of Big Punisher's "Still Not a Player", produced by Knobody, which interpolated Joe's "Don't Wanna Be a Player". Joe sang the background vocals on Brandy's track "Angel in Disguise" on her sophomore 1998 album, Never Say Never. Joe appeared on the track "Thank God I Found You" with Mariah Carey which appeared on her Rainbow album. This song was released as the second single and came a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. This track also became a hit internationally, helping to raise Joe's profile in other parts of the world. 2000-2007: Rise to Success In April 2000, Joe released his third album, My Name Is Joe, which became his most successful album to date, reaching the top of the R&B album charts and #2 on the Billboard 200, eventually selling more than three million copies.[citation needed] This album was also his first to make an impression outside the US. It featured the Top 5 R&B (#2) and pop (#4) hit lead single "I Wanna Know", which also reached the top 40 in the UK and Australia. The second single released was "Treat Her Like A Lady", which enjoyed moderate success. The third single, the Roy "Royalty" Hamilton & Teddy Riley-produced "Stutter", was #1 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B/Hip-Hop Tracks chart, and part of the Top 10 in the UK and top 20 in Australia. Mystikal appeared on the remix of the single, which sampled The Pharcyde's 1992 hit "Passin' Me By", which in turn samples Quincy Jones' Summer in the City. The Better Days album was released in 2001, reaching #32 on the Billboard 200 and #4 on the R&B chart. It featured two singles, "Lets Stay Home Tonight", which reached #18 on the US R&B chart, and "What If A Woman". In 2002, Joe did another collaboration with Mariah Carey on the remix version of her first single "Through the Rain" from her album Charmbracelet. The song also features vocals from Kelly Price. He also recorded a track called "God's Work" which was not released but appeared on a sampler on Jive Records. Joe recruited high profile guests for the And Then ... album released in late 2003. R. Kelly wrote the track "More and More", which was supposed to be on his Loveland album. G-Unit features on "Ride Wit U". The singles from the And Then ... album included the Top 20 R&B hit "More and More", "Ride Wit U", and "Priceless". A Double A-sided single "More and More" and "Ride Wit U" made the Australian top 40 in July 2004, as well as #12 in the UK Singles Chart. And Then ... reached #26 on the US album charts and #4 on the R&B charts. Joe's sixth album, Ain't Nothin' Like Me, was produced by Tim & Bob, The Underdogs, Cool & Dre, Bryan-Michael Cox, and Sean Garrett. The album featured guest appearances by Nas, Fabolous, Papoose, Young Buck and Tony Yayo; and was released on April 24, 2007. The first single was "Where You At", written by Sean Garrett and produced by Chrisclusive featuring rapper Papoose. The video for the single was shot by music video director Billie Woodruff. He was confirmed to be one of the judges on Making the Band. Joe performed a cover version of "Before He Cheats", a Carrie Underwood hit, as a Pepsi Smash exclusive on Yahoo! Music. He changed the lyrics to fit a male's perspective and titled his version "Before I Cheat". After recording for 11 years on Jive Records, Joe discovered a pattern of stalled promotions and adjusted radio play all linking to one man, R. Kelly. In a surprising interview with EURweb’s Lee Bailey this week, the R&B star talked about his shocking discovery after leaving Jive Records earlier this year, which is also home to R. Kelly. Calling the singer/songwriter out as the man behind stalled records and promotion, Joe says “R. Kelly was very instrumental in making a lot of decisions when it came to my records being played on the radio, He would make a call to the radio station or to the label and say, 'Hey, this Joe record is too hot right now. Ya’ll need to pull that back.' And they would oblige.” Joe is not the first R&B crooner to address R. Kelly, Ne-Yo who was booted from R. Kelly’s tour last year, sued the ‘Pied Piper’ in January as a result of a highly publicized “feud” that R. Kelly allegedly had with the singer. Kelly was reported to have had a problem with the attention Ne-Yo was receiving as an opening act and promptly removed him from the tour shortly after it started. Since his 1997 sophomore “All That I Am,” Joe and R. Kelly have released albums and singles under Jive around the same time including 2003's “And Then” and “Chocolate Factory” respectively. Ironically, R. Kelly produced Joe’s hit single “More & More” which reached #15 on the R&B charts that year followed by the G-Unit collaboration “Ride Wit You.” Despite their work together in 2003, Joe says R. Kelly put pressure on Jive executives and radio stations to pull back on promoting his records when the singles appeared to be getting too much attention. “He did try to make some decisions when it came down to my records being on fire, and climbing up the charts and on the radio stations” says Joe. Now that Joe has a new home with Kedar Entertainment/Universal, where he will release two new albums, he says, "It's incredible that now I get the opportunity to, I don't know, maybe pay R. Kelly back in some sort of side bar kind of thing." He does stress however, that he did not know what was truly going on until after he left Jive six months ago. Joe released his highly anticipated album "Joe Thomas, New Man", independently on September 23, 2008, and his second independent album, titled Signature, was released on July 14, 2009 in Japan and the US. It was name iTunes Best R&B album of 2009. He is also working on a record with singer Ayoade Adeyinka. 2010 - Joe has collaborated with Keith Sweat featuring on the song entitled, "Test Drive." This appears on Keith's newly released June 2010 album. For booking info please call 214-729-3092 October 2010 - On European Tour

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