For a guitar theme to be so strong and a vocal riff so potent that it hits you while you’re doing the dishes, jet-lagged out of your mind and nursing sore feet after misguidedly trudging around in timberlands all day, the song that they come from has got to be something of a miracle track. And yet, once I finished scrubbing the rice pot and threw my boots off to one side, sat down at the computer and finally googled the lyrics that had been with me for half an hour or so, I found that they were the words to a Joe song. Joe, as his fairly nondescript name might suggest, is the kind of guy that is easily forgotten. How you make a living trading under such a commonplace name (not even thinking to stick the prefix ‘Fat’ on the front like that bastion of fat-rap did) is a mystery. Those who shorten their stage names to one word – a la Madonna, Aaliyah, Cam’ron or Shaggy – usually have some intense talent to flesh out their public personas where words fail, or at least, in the case of Shaggy, have a memorable enough shtick such that identification with the one word isn’t too much of a stretch. Joe is not short on talent (we’ll get to that later), but is not necessarily a shining light in the RnB world. Nor does his slick white tee, jeans and designer shades look make word association all that obvious. He does, however, have at least one song that makes it worth your while to remember the name.
Joe is actually Joe Thomas, the 38-year-old son of two preachers from Cuthbert, Georgia and the man standing behind a career spanning 18 years and 9 studio albums with guest work from the likes of Nas, Mariah Carey and ‘Shake Ya Ass’ Mystikal. The singer, once on Jive, now releasing material independently, even put out a greatest hits compilation in 2008, the zenith of which was ‘Ride Wit U’ – a kernel of RnB goodness, a time capsule of a song from an era (c. 2003) when the genre was simpler and didn’t require more than some sharply-tuned facial hair, access to a nice car and a couple of good looking girls. In a way that music hasn’t sounded since Jermaine Dupri’s So So Def launched the career of Jagged Edge with ‘Where The Party At‘ and contributed to Bow Wow’s early years and the formation of 3LW, Joe’s track takes advantage of a straightforward guitar sample and a great underlying melody to propel itself. Despite G-Unit’s (pre-The Game and his departure) appearance, gimmickry hardly figures in ‘Ride Wit U’. Instead, it is a dedication to good songwriting and a smooth chorus that gave Joe an international hit ten years into his career.
What impresses me most about the track is the way in which, just as the similarly named and similarly guitar-driven Nelly single of two years prior, ‘Ride Wit Me‘ did, ‘Ride Wit U’ relies on the strength of Joe’s ability to mimic the guitar riff to lend it memorable quality. But even Nelly’s first big breakout single indulged in the ‘Hey! Must be the money!’ refrain to help it lodge in the public consciousness. Joe’s track, by contrast, is weighed down by an overly-talkative 50 Cent, eager to stamp his authority on the track and a Lloyd Banks verse that blends so effortlessly into the intro that it needn’t have been included in the first instance. It is Tony Yayo and his slight speech impediment at 1’50″ that provides the greatest contrast to Joe’s warm textures and invigorates the track’s dynamism rather than being patently provided for that purpose and hurting it accordingly. Ultimately, though, it’s the way Joe effectively ‘rides’ a minimal, hand-clap supported beat that, for mine, grants ‘Ride Wit U’ entry into the modern RnB canon. On ‘Ride Wit U’, Joe doesn’t deliver anything spectacular, or anything, for that matter, that any number of other faceless RnB acts couldn’t replicate. But it’s precisely the ease with which he croons and the way in which the track sounds like one, effortless treatise on girls riding with guys in cars that makes it instantly appealing. RnB can get complicated and sometimes simple is best. Sometimes Joe is all you need.
Joe – Ride Wit U (Ft. G-Unit)
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