Black Music Month: 20 of the best Hip Hop/R&B duets ever

What's better than one feature? Three! At the height of Brandy's career, she had three of the biggest female rap stars do a remix to her chart-topping hit. She revealed in an interview that she could barely keep her composure, but she learned so much from this collaboration.

This GRAMMY-nominated song can be played anywhere, at any time and it's sure to get your on your feet.

Both versions of this song (the live Jill Scott version) and the classic studio version featuring Erykah Badu are iconic, which is rare. Both ladies even performed their version when they faced off during VERZUZ last year.

Only if you had the DJ Clue mixtape or was an avid radio listener would you remember this gem. The original version featuring Jadakiss was good, but it didn't stand a chance against the Roc-A-Fella remix. This released during a time when remixes were more than just an additional verse on the original.

This is a perfect song. Despite us being robbed of a music video, when Usher, Luda and Lil Jon link up, only great things come out of it.

Another perfect song. Despite being on the Romeo Must Die soundtrack, this is usually regarded as a standalone track. Also, X and Aaliyah had undeniable chemistry in the visual and is definitely a cultural staple.

This is easiest a top love song within the culture. Long before Ghostface and Teyana Taylor were portraying goals in the "Gonna Love Me" (Remix) video, we had Mary and Meth practically exchanging vows over the Motown classic.

Back when music videos felt like mini movies, enter "Honey" from Mariah's 1997 album, Butterfly. And just when you thought the moment couldn't get any better, enter Bad Boy sliding through on the remix, which she, herself, admitted is one of her favorites. Fun fact: after making amends with The Notorious B.I.G., he was supposed to appear on the remix, but he passed away prior to recording.

Ahh yes, famous couples making music together— relationships end, but music is forever. Nelly & Kelly were too cute and Kelly typing a text on Microsoft Excel is history. For every good girl who loved a bad boy, this was the anthem.

City High isn't talked about enough, but their 2001 hit, "Caramel" made it hella cool to be 5' 5" with brown eyes and a smile like sunshine. You may not remember the first time you heard the song, but you just know that one day you knew all the lyrics.

This song has always been one of X's most notable, but 2019's #DMXChallenge breathed new life into it. Not to mention, if your name was mentioned in the song, it was a very big deal.

Top 5 Lil Kim verses. It also samples Roberta Flack's "Hey, That's No Way To Say Goodbye" and Lil Kim's "Queen B****." The track is impossible to skip and this is another song that deserved a visual.

"No, No, No (Part I)" is damn good ballad from the original DC4. However, the masses gravitated to the Wyclef Jean remix. Both versions, though, dominated airwaves and had commercial success (domestically and internationally).

This remix was the biggest hit of Pun's career. In a 2004 interview with XXL, Joe revealed that Pun presented the idea to merge their two originals tracks: Joe's "Don’t Wanna Be a Player," and his "Still Not a Player." Pun essentially told him, "Let’s make magic happen." The rest is history.

Did you know this song is featured on The Fast and The Furious soundtrack? If it wasn't for this, we wouldn't have the version we love available to stream. Both Lil Mo and Vita need their flowers for floating on this track. Not to mention that Vita is one of these female rappers who doesn't get praised enough for the work she's done in Hip-Hop, but we will say they 100% understood the assignment.

Mariah's earliest crossover from Pop/R&B into Hip-Hop wasn't easy. She, along with Corey Rooney (the A&R at the time), revealed some felt "anyone could do that," but she asked her team to trust her. Also, the rapper demanded a large sum of money upfront and showed up late to the recording session. He even maxed out the company credit card "shopping" for the video shoot. However, the final version of the song became a cult classic.

Not only were Bow and Ciara relationship goals way back when, but if you could sing the chorus in one breath, you're a superhero. Writer/author Danyel Smith thoroughly broke down Ciara's career as the leading lady in Crunk & B on her podcast, Black Girl Songbook and threw in the fact that this song made the most radio success in Bow's entire career. It was that one.

This song has MySpace profiles popping. Truly, Soulja had nerve dropping viral hit after viral hit. It also came at a time when you either knew Mike Jones' number or Soulja's (678 999 8212); bonus points, if you knew them both.

Unlike most of these songs where the woman usually brings the R&B flare, this time it was the opposite. Rapper Remy Ma snagged Ne-Yo for a duet is a personal all-time favorite. From Remy's debut, There's Something About Remy, this single charted with no promotion. The visual may have gotten shut down due to some disagreements between Remy and her label, but this is still one of her best songs to-date.

This is the only version of this song we acknowledge and we did save the best for last. Not that this out ranks the aforementioned hits, but we're ending this list on a high note. You cannot listen to this song and not be in a feel-good mood. Left Eye's guest verses were some of the best and in case you didn't know, this song was a massive commercial success.