Joyce Irby talks about career, upcoming book, new projects with Bobby Simmons

Joyce "Fenderella" Irby is best known as the bassist and co-lead vocalist of the 1980s all-female band Klymaxx. She originally signed on with George Clinton's P-Funk crew as "Fenderella". In 1989, she scored a solo deal with Motown Records and had 3 charted Billboard singles, most notable "Mr. DJ" with Doug E. Fresh which peaked at #2. Irby relocated from Los Angeles to Atlanta in the late 1980s and since 1986 began attempting to engineer the rise of Atlanta as an urban music center by soliciting major record labels and producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and L.A. Reid & Babyface to form regional offices in the Atlanta area. Irby's greater impact may have been the result of her signing a young Dallas Austin as a songwriter and producer in 1988. Dallas produced the first TLC and Boyz II Men projects while still signed to Irby's company Diva One Entertainment. As an artist developer she signed child star Sammie Bush, and made a deal with Dallas and Capitol Records which launched Sammie's career when he was 12 years old. Irby also signed Lloyd (The Inc) as an 11-year-old and developed and guided his career through four major record deals (Warner, DreamWorks, Magic Johnson Music/MCA, The Inc/Universal). Irby gave multi platinum writer/producer Jasper Cameron his first songwriting deal. In 2012 Irby scored a top 5 Billboard hit as a co-writer with the Fat Joe/Chris Brown song, "Another Round". An avid animal lover, Irby started her own charity "Jams For Animals", to raise consciousness and promote kindness to animals through music and video.