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 Articles · Photos · Promotional · Reviews · Tour · Miscellaneous 2002 April: Vibe 
Funky Momma Link to Larger Version of Photos: Photo 1 | Photo 2 Her experimental soul albums had the urban avant-garde buzzing, but the general public slept. No matter: As a devoted mother and wife, Joi finds all the recognition she needs right at home. Joi Elaine Gilliam Gipp floats like a cool breeze into the Express Bowling Lanes, hand in hand with her 6 year-old daughter, Keypsiia. The alley is in Buckhead, Ga., a bucolic suburb of Atlanta, but Joi, 31, isn't your average suburban mom (the cherry red suede platform boots are the first giveaway). Keypsiia seems a tad peeved not to have Mommy's full attention, until Daddy, Joi's husband, Big Gipp of Goodie Mob, arrives to roll (literally) with his girl. They are one mighty fine looking couple, fiercely committed, alternative-soul-family-good thing for Joi, given that her career had brought her more pain than pleasure since her 1994 debut, The Pendulum Vibe. She admits to being hurt when her album sold fewer than 50,000 copies, but, she says, " I wasn't really tripping, because I had all the bad who's who muthafuckas digging me." Her second album, Amoeba Cleansing Syndrome, was shelved after her first record label, EMI, folded in 1997; she has devoted the intervening years to marriage and motherhood. But the effect of Pendulum lingers. Joi has a cult-like following that will surely hail her return in the guise of Star Kitty's Revenge, her superb, new, genre-defying mix of soul, classical, and rock n roll. She's confident that larger audiences are now ready for a dose of her unconventional brand of funk. "I remember when EMI would be like, 'Make Joi more like Mary J. Blige,'" says longtime friend an collaborator Dallas Austin. "They just didn't get it." But as Macy Gray and Erykah Badu struck platinum, the music industry started to recognize NeoSoul as a viable genre. Then, when Dawn Robinson left Lucy Pearl, Raphael Saadiq asked Joi to join the group. The trio plans to do an album next year, but right now Saadiq has high hopes for Joi's solo project, for which he produced several tracks. "Bubble gum is always gonna be chewed, there's nothing anybody can do about that," Saadiq says, "But the songwriter is coming back. And Joi takes people by storm." 
Though Joi longs for more exposure, she realizes that remaining underground affords her extra time with her daughter. Keeping her family intact is important to the singer because her own was so fractured. She was raised middle class in Nashville by a single mother after her father, Joe Gilliam Jr., on of the NFL's first black starting quarterbacs, walked out of her life when she was 5 and into a life of drugs. Joi wrote "Jefferson St. Joe" which appears on Star Kitty, three months after her father died at age 49 of a cocaine-induced heart attack. "Just because he was trifling, doesn't mean I didn't love him. He was just a fuck up, and I understood that." Having a stable home life tickles Joi, a reformed party girl who arrived in Atlanta on a wing and a prayer after dropping out of Tennessee State University. "I didn't have shit!" she says, "A couple of changes of clothes and maybe $10." Before moving to Atlanta, Joi had supported herself by stripping at an after-hours spot in Nashville; she even coaxed her girlfriends into joining her. "Everybody started calling me Madame Eve," she says. "But regardless of whatever kind of craziness I was into, I never stopped singing." Joi's creative process was briefly stalled after Keypsiia's birth by a severe case of postpartum depression, for which Joi declined medication because she was breast-feeding. "It was very hard to focus," she says. "I didn't even know how to do for myself. I just knew how to take care of my family." Joi credits her maternal instincts for bringing her back prefessionally after such a long hiatus. "It's the whole lioness vibe," she explains with a laugh. "I've got a lair to protect." Ans as if on cue, little Keypsiia runs over to embrace Mama. When asked to describe her mother as an artist, baby girl does so swiftly and succintly. "A superstar," she squeaks. To Joi's ears, that's real music. Original Text: Erica Kennedy |
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