Anthony Hamilton and Ledisi are among the most decorated voices in adult R&B, but both artists had to wait years for Grammy recognition. Hamilton has received 17 nominations and won once, in 2009, for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance, sharing the award with Al Green for their duet. Ledisi earned 13 nominations before winning in 2021 for “Anything For You.” Her later nominations brought her career total to 16.

On Friday, Aug. 7, both singers released new duets, and both arrived with music videos. Hamilton appears on Lindsey Webster’s “Best In Me,” while Ledisi supplies the vocals for Boney James’s "I Belong To You." The releases highlight a defining strength of both careers: each artist has repeatedly made a major impact by stepping into someone else’s song and turning a collaboration into a signature performance.

Boney James brings Ledisi into a new era

Boney James released “I Belong To You” with Ledisi on vocals and James handling production. The slow, polished ballad is the first single from A Simple Man, his 20th studio album, scheduled for release Oct. 2 on Concord Records. The album also features guitarist Larry Carlton.

James and Ledisi last appeared on the same tracklist in 2004, on the GRP compilation Forever, for Always, for Luther. Ledisi performed “My Sensitivity (Gets in the Way),” while James contributed “Wait for Love.” Their new collaboration takes a different approach: where the earlier pairing leaned funky, “I Belong To You” is a restrained adult-contemporary showcase built around Ledisi’s controlled power and James’s smooth saxophone.

James has spent three decades as one of the leading figures in smooth jazz, a format that remains influential even when it receives less mainstream attention than pop or hip-hop. TheUrbanMusicScene counts 20 number-one singles for him on the smooth-jazz chart, underscoring the depth of his radio audience and the commercial reach of his catalog.

Ledisi enters the collaboration after one of the strongest periods of her career. She released two albums in 2025: the R&B project The Crown and For Dinah, a tribute to jazz and blues vocalist Dinah Washington. Both albums contributed to Grammy nominations that lifted Ledisi’s career total to 16. She also performed at the Super Bowl and headlined a world tour during the same period.

How “Best In Me” became a duet

“Best In Me” was not originally planned as a Lindsey Webster and Anthony Hamilton collaboration. Webster and Hamilton were first expected to remake “Two Hearts,” the Stephanie Mills and Teddy Pendergrass classic, for Webster’s seventh album, Music In Me. Those plans changed, and Stokley ultimately recorded the song instead.

Webster and Hamilton later reconnected at a fundraiser in Charlotte, Hamilton’s hometown. During that meeting, Hamilton suggested that they create an original song together. The result, “Best In Me,” began as a solo composition for Webster before Hamilton joined the recording.

The final credits list Webster and Hamilton alongside Keith Slattery, Lorenzo Johnson and Rob Chiarelli.

Released in February, Music In Me is the first album in Webster’s catalog built around duets. After seven albums centered on her solo voice, she made collaboration the project’s central idea, bringing Hamilton and Stokley into the album’s vocal lineup.

The move also fits Hamilton’s long history as a sought-after guest vocalist. He sang the hook on Jadakiss’s “Why” and has appeared on recordings by Nas, Rick Ross and Carlos Santana. His duet with Jill Scott, “So In Love,” spent 18 weeks at number one on the adult R&B chart. Hamilton established himself as a solo artist with Comin’ From Where I’m From in 2003. The platinum album earned five Grammy nominations but no wins, setting the pattern for a career in which his influence often exceeded his trophy count.

Why these adult R&B duets still matter

Neither “I Belong To You” nor “Best In Me” is designed primarily for a fast-moving streaming playlist. These songs are more likely to find listeners through adult R&B and smooth-jazz radio, concert stages, Blue Note rooms, casino venues, festival sets and personal recommendations. That network resembles the older radio-single ecosystem, when one broadcast could introduce a song to a national audience in a single afternoon. Many records outlasted the careers associated with them because radio gave them repeated, communal exposure.

Streaming algorithms are effective at extending familiar listening habits, but they rarely provide the context that makes a collaboration meaningful. They cannot know that a Boney James record may become a family road-trip staple, or that Hamilton’s verse could persuade a listener to buy a concert ticket months later. The case for human curation guided by a clear point of view remains especially strong in adult R&B, where catalog depth and vocal interpretation matter as much as immediate chart momentum.

Touring provides the final connection. James has Blue Note dates scheduled into the fall, while Ledisi has been promoting her recent work on tour since the spring, beginning in Atlanta. Hamilton has spent two decades filling theaters with a catalog that radio continues to support. In those venues, a saxophone solo can draw applause and a sustained vocal note can change the atmosphere, responses no skip button can measure.