Battle was born in Macon, Georgia, and trained as a licensed minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
After being placed for several months in quarantine for suspected tuberculosis, he lost faith in the church while retaining a love of gospel music, and turned to paid employment.
He held various jobs in utilities and in the automotive industry, and moved with his family into the Brewster Project near Hastings Street in Detroit.
He also set up other record labels, including Battle and Von, and recorded many of the blues musicians who frequented Hastings Street, including John Lee Hooker, Baby Boy Warren, Louisiana Red, Washboard Willie, Little Sonny, Eddie Burns, Joe Weaver, Memphis Slim, One String Sam, and Little Willie John; gospel singers including Brother Will Hairston; and jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell.
[1] By the mid 1950s Joe's Records was a focal point of the Black Bottom community, a popular meeting place for black entertainers, and the location of a notable photograph of John Lee Hooker with guitar in hand, taken by French blues historian Jacques Demêtre and used on several later compilation albums.