ESSENCE Festival is always full of surprise performances, and R&B veteran Joe made sure to make one of his festival performances a memorable one.
Performing at ESSENCE [festival] a few years back was pretty amazing for me. It was just around the time Mystikal had just gotten out of prison. He was fresh, fresh back on the scene and so excited and hot and ready to blow up whatever stage he had the opportunity to. So I put a call out to him and said ‘Yo, I got this big thing I’m doing down at ESSENCE…” and almost before I could even finish he was all over it, 100%.
By the time I got to “Stutter” (during my performance) — I wanted to make sure that I saved (that song) for last — it was just pandemonium. He came out, and the energy was high, and he just took that energy to a whole other planet. I think that was one of the most memorable moments for me because when he came out…I was the first guy to snatch him up when he was back fresh on his feet. It was a nice experience.
Joe is days from releasing his eleventh studio album Bridges. It’s currently available for pre-order on iTunes, and hits shelves June 23. Listen to the album in full below.