JoJo Talks Jodeci Reunion
April 16, 2001 -- JoJo (Joel) Hailey, half of the brotherly R&B duo K-Ci & JoJo, reports that fans attending shows on their upcoming concert tour will see "plenty of old-school R&B and a lot of energy." He also promises "some surprises."
"You might even get Jodeci here and there," he reports. Jodeci, of course, is the mid-'90s R&B sensation that went on hiatus five years ago. But K-Ci and JoJo reunited with bandmate Devante Swing on their new album, X, producing the tracks "Slip & Fall" and "Get Back," and the big news is that that's led to a full-scale Jodeci reunion that will likely yield an album later this year, with a tour to follow.
"We're just in the studio; we've recorded eight songs already," says JoJo. "It sounds like the old stuff, with just a little bit of 2000. There's different sounds now, and the way you make a song is different than what you would've done before. Plus, on past Jodeci records, it was mainly Devante doing the writing and singing; that's different now, because [K-Ci and I] produce more, we wrote more, we're doing more on there, along with Devante. But it's still 100 percent Jodeci; if you're a Jodeci fan, you're going to love what we have." The band also includes Dalvin DeGrate, who released a solo album, Met.A.Mor.Phic, last year.
The Jodeci reunion is just part of what's been an eventful and headline-grabbing six months for K-Ci & JoJo. X is the Charlotte, N.C.-bred brother act's third joint, following two platinum predecessors, but it's been accompanied by some controversy. K-Ci is facing 23 counts of indecent exposure and one count of lewd conduct in Los Angeles for allegedly exposing himself during the duo's performance at a radio station's Jingle Ball concert. JoJo says the case against his brother is "still ongoing," but he expects it to be resolved soon. "Stuff is going to be settled, and he'll do some community service, from what I understand," he says. "It's going to be OK. Everybody says he ran and left the building, but he always leaves as soon as we get offstage. The thing is, [the police] came at me first, and I'm, like, 'What are you talking about?' A lot of people don't know the difference between us. But by the time we figured out everything, [K-Ci] had left the building."
JoJo says the duo has also settled another outstanding matter, a copyright infringement suit filed by Ed Townsend, a performer, songwriter, and producer who alleged that K-Ci, JoJo, and some collaborators plagiarized his 1957 hit "For Your Love" on "Just for Your Love," a track from their 1997 album, Love Always. JoJo says the matter has been settled out of court and that Townsend is "getting what he wanted" (i.e., royalties) but contends that any similarity between the two songs is purely accidental.
"That was ridiculous," JoJo says of the suit. "We never heard an Ed Townsend song in our life. We never heard that record of his. And he was going to sue us for a song that was three albums ago? He must've run out of money or something. But there's only so far you can go with that stuff, really; it was easier to just settle it and move on."