When hip-hop fans talk about their favorite rappers, the name Joe often pops up — Fat Joe, Joe Budden, etc. But don't forget about the singer Joe. The R&B crooner is making moves all around the hip-hop community these days.

"I love hip-hop," said Joe, who recorded the classic "Still Not a Player" with Big Pun in 1998. "What I listen to most of the time is hip-hop. I identify with a lot of what they talk about, their lifestyle. I connect with that."

Last year Joe made a connection with the G-Unit, and he recently hooked up with the aforementioned Fat Joe and Joe Budden along with mixtape king DJ Kay Slay.

"It's real fun. That connection was sort of made through my record company," Joe said of teaming with the G-Unit for "Ride Wit U" off of his album And Then ... and "Wanna Get to Know You" from the G-Unit's Beg for Mercy. Joe said he and 50's team are headed for Miami soon with a video crew.

"We gonna go out there and shoot 'Wanna Get to Know You' and I'm probably going to shoot my video for 'Ride Wit U' while we're down there," he said. "It's gonna be a nice little time in Miami. I don't know [the exact concept,] but we're gonna keep it real sexy with a lot of women and fly cars. It'll be a nice, beautifully shot video and we're going to keep it real 'hood at the same time."

Although Joe and G-Unit didn't record either of their collaborations in the studio together, he said he's had a chance to hang out with them and bond.

"I was in New York, they was in Atlanta I believe," he said of the recordings. "That's how it goes nowadays anyway. It's hard to get the schedules to work out. When I got their record I was like, 'Man, this is crazy.' Just to have the hottest hip-hoppers out right now on your record is an always a bonus. [When they heard] the [chorus] I did for their record, they was like, 'Ah, this is crazy, we gonna have to use this for a single.' It's been a blast."

Joe will be heard with another band of thugs soon. He sings on "Not Your Average Joe," a track off Kay Slay's upcoming second LP, The Streetsweeper Vol. 2: The Pain From the Game, which also features Fat Joe and Joe Budden.

Just like his rapper friends are candid about their experience, Joe wanted to come the same way on his latest album, And Then ... "I was like, 'I wanna talk about my life. I want people to see where I'm going.' Not a lot of R&B does it. The record company was a little skeptical. I kinda wanted to take a record and go there — make a record for the streets and that my fans could still love. I still wanted to have them classic Joe joints like 'Priceless,' but I still felt like the album had to be underground, kinda 'hood."

Joe will be teaming up with fellow crooners Ginuwine and Jagged Edge for a tour starting next month (see "Ginuwine, Jagged Edge Join Forces To Seduce The Country").

"There aren't a lot of R&B tours going on now," he said. "At this point in the R&B game there's not a lot of egos. It's a lot easier now for us to be like, 'Let's go out here and get this money.' We gotta do this. This is our lifestyle, touring is what we do. If we can do it together, it's gonna be even better."

Joe and the G-Unit will perform together on "Saturday Night Live" this weekend.