Joe Preps

This past weekend R&B veteran Joe performed for Harlem Day. After a 30 minute performance of some of his biggest hits, including "I Wanna Know," "More and More" and "Why Just Be Friends" he sat down with BET.com to talk about his forthcoming studio album The Good, The Bad, The Sexy. BET.com: Your catalog of hits is one of the best from the 90s and 2000s. What is your favorite song to perform live? Joe: It's pretty much all of them. I mean if they know any song, any song that they know is always good to perform. The hardest shows to do are those that no one knows what you are singing. But when they know it word for word every song is good. You are gearing up to release your 10th album next month. A lot of artists that came up when you did are no longer around. What is your key to longevity in this business? 50% of that is just being humble. The rest is hard work, commitment, dedication. Having a good team around you. Being business savvy and at the same time not losing focus of what really got you involved in the music game in the beginning. Your love for music. I still hold true to that. When I hit the stage I want people to feel something. Which is very important. When I go in the studio, the process of recording is not just for fun. I want to make something that is going to give you goosebumps. We had a chance to preview a couple tracks from the album. One track by the name of "Drink Up" really sticks out. A really sexy record. You've been known for making love making songs but this one goes all the way there. What made you turn up the sexy? I think I'm a little more mature. A little growner now. I'm allowed to say certain things now *laughs*. I'm allowed to get away with certain things. I'm going kinda hard on "Drink Up". It's the only record I really go that hard on. I mean really hard. I'm talking about bussing it wide open. I don't know if you know what I mean by bussing it wide open. That record is bussing it wide open. I love it. It's a beautiful thing. It's grown folks music. We know you don't listen to your own music, so who do you listen to when you are 'bussing it wide open'? Sade. That's number 1. Her greatest hits. She's got the most beautiful collection of music. You just put it on and song after song. I don't know if anyone has the greatest hits Sade but it's the greatest collection of love songs and just vibe. You put it on and it's a wrap. You don't have to be in a, I guess you can say romantic mood for that either. Just on a relaxing vibe. You wanna just chill in the jazucci. Your muscles are sore and you put some Sade on and it's real smooth. I love her. You are really lowkey when it comes to your personal life. No one knows who you are dating or anything. Why do you keep that part of your life separate? It's not a purpose thing. I just don't like to be all up in the blogs. Nothing against blog because I read them as well and I'm on certain sites. But I just don't want to be that guy spreading his world all over. You know just everything I do. If they happen to catch me, no problem. I don't know. Maybe they aren't searching for me. I think it comes with a certain level of success when people really start bringing the cameras out and want to know everything and little detail about you. My fans are very mature and they don't really care about all that. Check out footage of his performance and more from our interview with Joe here. The Good, The Bad, The Sexy hits stores September 27th.

Bet.com