Detroit, stand up. One of your own just teamed up with a Grammy winner to breathe new life into a song every R&B fan knows by heart.

Kem — the Detroit R&B star behind one of the smoothest slow jams of the 2000s — has released “Love Calls (The Alkemy Session),” a fresh reworking of his signature 2003 breakout hit, arranged by Grammy-winning pianist Robert Glasper. It dropped Friday, November 13, on Kem’s own Kemistry Records, with the official music video premiering on Kem’s YouTube channel at 10 a.m. ET that morning.

If the original “Love Calls” was the soundtrack to a thousand quiet-storm nights, this version is its grown-up, jazz-soaked second act. Glasper’s arrangement keeps the song’s heart intact while giving it the kind of harmonic depth only he can bring — and it works because both men are operating at the top of their game.

Here’s why this one matters beyond a single song: it’s the first preview of ALKEMY, a full joint album from Kem and Glasper. No release date for the album has been announced yet, but the single is the opening move — and if this is the tone they’re setting, R&B fans are in for something special.

Kem’s résumé speaks for itself. The Detroit native’s Intimacy: Album III debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 back in 2010, and “Love Calls” has been a staple of grown-folks R&B ever since. Glasper, meanwhile, is one of the most decorated musicians of his generation, a Grammy winner who moves between jazz, hip-hop, and R&B like the borders don’t exist.

For Toledo, this is a regional story through and through. Detroit is an hour up the road, and its music scene has always been ours too — Motown, techno, and now Kem’s velvet-smooth R&B getting a Glasper-grade upgrade. Put it on, turn it up, and let Detroit remind you why it never misses.

Source: stupidDOPE

Kem in 2023. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.