b. Joe Lewis Thomas, c.1972, Cuthbert, Georgia, USA. Raised to sing gospel by his minister father, Joe is another at the cutting edge of the commercial hip-hop/R&B crossover. As a youth he decided to move away from vocal, guitar and piano chores at his father's church and relocated to New Jersey, picking up a whole slew of new jazz, soul, R&B and hip hop influences in the process. He was eventually discovered singing in a Newark church by R&B producer Vincent Henry. He was employed regularly in local studios to add his various musical abilities to records cut in New York studios for swingbeat acts like SWV and Hi-Five. Others who used his services included Toni Braxton, TLC and Vanessa Bell Armstrong. The success of his debut album, and the Top 30 UK single 'I'm In Love', encouraged his new label Mercury to employ him in a dual role as staff producer for their black acts.