R&B producer and singer Teddy Riley helped introduce Johnny Kemp to the world in 1988 with the hit single “Just Got Paid.”
On Friday EURweb reported that Riley bid farewell to his friend and collaborator during a concert as part of this weekend’s Tom Joyner Foundation Fantastic Voyage 2015, the report says. Kemp, who died suddenly on Thursday in Jamaica, was slated to perform with Riley on the cruise, the report says.
“There’s one thing that I want to tell everybody here,” Riley said, according to the news site. “There was another surprise that was supposed to been here with us tonight. And he [Johnny Kemp] came all the way because this is what he wanted. He said to me, ‘lil’ brother, I’ma make it. I don’t really want to make it but I’m gonna make it, I’ma be there.’ His last text to me was, ‘See you in a minute, we are going to have a lot of fun.’ And he got here, he got to Jamaica. When he got to Jamaica he was stopped and it was only because of a few words that he said that revoked him from getting on this ship.”
Riley continued, according to EURweb: “And I feel really bad because he went out doing something and making the attempt to do what he was born to do. He’s a star, now he’s a star with our God. He’s resting in paradise right now.”
Kemp, 55, is survived by a wife and two sons.
Read more at EURweb.
Also on The Root: “R&B Singer Johnny Kemp Dead at 55”