Joe Smooth

Smooth is a musician and producer, who has worked as a remixer, producer, engineer, and writer. He has earned gold and platinum record awards for his work, work behind the scenes with Grammy award-winning artists. Notable artists he has worked with include Bros, Whitney Houston, Donnell Jones, Destiny’s Child, Sisqó, Frankie Knuckles, Marshall Jefferson, A Guy Called Gerald, Lil Louis, D’Bora, Tyree Cooper, Fast Eddie, Fingers Inc., Art of Noise, Sterling Void, Pet Shop Boys, Janet Jackson, the Style Council, New Order, and Steve Hurley. He launched a new record label in 2015, Indie Art Music, and has topped digital charts Traxsource and Beatport for song sales.

In October 2004, “Promised Land” appeared in the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Within the game, the song could be heard playing on the fictional House Music radio station SF-UR.

Smooth gained international acclaim with the release of his late 1980s tracks “Promised Land” (featuring Anthony Thomas), “They Want to be Free,” and “I Try.” He is best known for “Promised Land,” which spoke of how humans, as brothers and sisters, should unite in love and thrive in paradise. Joe Smooth’s song has been covered several times and is still played today. Originally released in 1987, it peaked at #56 in the UK Singles Chart in February 1989 following the Top 40 success of a cover version by The Style Council. An album of the same title became available in 1988, and a music video was produced for the single. A follow-up album, Rejoice, was released in 1990, which featured the hit single “They Want to be Free.”

Joseph Lorenzo Jr. Welbon (born May 9, 1964), known by the stage name Joe Smooth, is an American house music producer and DJ who gained international acclaim during the late 1980s and early 1990s. By the new millennium he held the reputation of working with acts like Destiny’s Child, Ludacris, New Order, Whitney Houston, and many others across genres. He is often credited as essential to the creation of house music as a genre and became an influence to major groups like Daft Punk, who often remixed Smooth’s music during early live shows. Joe has earned gold and platinum record awards for his work. In 2015 he started his own record label, Indie Art Music, focusing on producing pop in all genres and all areas of the music industry.