Joe

After 11 years on Jive Records, R&B singer 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 "Miss Independent" 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 1993 debut "Everything," 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 to 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's highly anticipated album "New Man," the follow up to his 2007 effort "Ain't Nothin' Like Me" is due for release September 22nd. Another album, currently untitled, is expected to hit stores next year.