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If you're trying to sell music to a predominantly African-American audience and your sound can't be classified as "neo-soul", "R&B", or "hip-hop", you're a big risk for the record industry. Their feeling: if you don't fit into a simple category that fits the marketing-obsessed world of contemporary music, it's over, sweetheart -- hope you enjoyed it.
Joi is no stranger to such big-label, corporate-music-business baloney; she could probably go on for hours about the dire state of strong, creative women in the industry (where, let's face it, not even the likes of Courtney Love and Nellie McKay can get a record put out and promoted without substantial meddling). But, it would be too easy to make a career out of complaining, so instead, the enigmatic chanteuse is frenetically working her ass off, putting out records on her own terms (on her personal independent label, Joilicious) and busily performing her unique hybrid of funk-punk to small, but devoted crowds.
As prolific as she is unrecognized, Joi's diverse collaborations include work with George Clinton, Tricky, TLC, Robbie Williams, and Curtis Mayfield -- not to mention vocal contributions to just about every OutKast album since ATLiens. She's garnered a fat pile of four-star reviews from major music critics and even snagged a Grammy nomination for her work with Raphael Saadiq's side project, Lucy Pearl. Despite such superstar credentials, though, Joi has yet to find steady footing as a solo artist.
Her voice and image are arresting: she's a talented, imaginative, and sensual sistah who is unafraid to critique her detractors. She survived the big labels' shelving of her 1996 work, The Amoeba Cleansing Syndrome (featuring Fishbone as her backing band) and endured the improper handling of her 2002 signature record, the sex-drenched Star Kitty's Revenge. In the wake of those bitter disappointments, she's come back stronger and more independent than before. Of course, this year's Tennessee Slim Is the Bomb, co-produced by long-time pal Saadiq and Joi herself, was released to disturbingly little fanfare in late March, despite a built-in fan base and the best efforts of the singer's hometown crew.
Atlanta's music scene is one built on grassroots devotion; it's a town where everyone is trying to break through and everyone is helping out. The hometown reverence for Joi's new record was pretty obvious at the cavernous MJQ Concourse in mid-town Atlanta (which is shockingly like Brooklyn, if Brooklyn were cleaner, warmer, friendlier, and had sweet tea) as the singer performed a preview show in anticipation of her upcoming, multi-city tour.
Put together by Ms. Pink's homespun Reservoir Broads Productions, the evening was a clear labor of love for everyone in the mix -- the underground rappers mingling with skinny nerds wearing tight pants and the gorgeous women with mouths full of gold teeth shaking their asses alongside nebbish little tattooed freaks to some bumping, vintage Betty Davis pre-show.
When Joi took to the stage around midnight (wearing her signature plumed top hat, hot pants, and fuzzy orange wings), she roared into a playful cover of Davis' "If I'm In Luck I Might Just Get Picked Up", her magnificent swagger suggesting she might just be the love child that Iggy Pop and Josephine Baker never had. "We don't got no table, we've got some ghetto shit", joked Joi from the stage about her merchandise, or rather, lack thereof. "I loaded my pocketbook up with CDs, who needs one?". With a tight three-piece band backing her, the singer's arrangements took on a raw, bare-bones tone, the perfect backing for her new repertoire, which is filled with music's favorite vices: sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
No one in popular urban music (save perhaps the boys of OutKast and maybe the Roots) is using such straightforward rock guitar -- either as part of their live set or as a centerpiece for their recorded material. For sticking their necks out in such an innovative, brave way, Joi and her players must be commended. While her studio albums are slick and polished, her live show is full of immediacy and unfettered emotion. Knocking back a shot of Patron, the other-worldly singer lamented in an explicit improv, "Wasn't this pussy good enough for you? You'll never find another bitch like me", before launching into "Dance with Yesterday", a rue-filled, mid-tempo ballad rife with allusions to her recent divorce from Dungeon Family performer Big Gipp -- this event remained a consistent, provocative theme through the emotionally-charged evening.
Local hero Sleepy Brown took to the stage for a fuzzed-out, drowsy version of Joi's "Lick", a playful ditty about oral sex that is not afraid to get nasty and very, very explicit. As much as the Atlanta community has given to Joi, it can't be said that she doesn't give back -- she invited rapper Trauma Black to share the mic during a raucous rendition of "Say Say Little Fine Ass N**ga" and allowed one of pal Erykah Badu's favorite local singers, Treasure Tone (who raised the hairs on just about everyone's necks with commanding aplomb), to freestyle during the final bars of "Co-Stars". The collaborative performance highlighted the generous, supportive vibe of the city's community.
Not content to be placed in a box, Joi dedicated her final song to "all the stoners, the classic-rock lovers in the house", whipping up a slow-burning, erotic cover of Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused." During the bridge, Joi hit a glass-shattering high note that would make Mariah Carey run screaming for the hills. As she leveled the tone, she slithered over the stage with an unabashed sexiness that would make even Robert Plant blush.
It's really here, in her live performances, that Joi's vivid and warm personality really connects with it's audience. It's also here that her versatility becomes apparent: Joi can tackle any style of music, be it punk, gospel, or the blues. Don't bother putting a name on it; just sit back and enjoy the show, where everyone is welcome, especially the freaks. Just make sure and catch her live because, unfortunately, you are not going to hear her kind of music on the radio any time soon.
— 9 August 2006
