"Sleeping with the One I Love" is a song recorded by American recording artist Fantasia for her fifth studio album, The Definition Of... (2016). Written and produced by R. Kelly, it was released on May 26, 2016 as the album's second single. Fantasia recorded the track as a way to expand her "rock soul" sound, which she had introduced on her previous release Side Effects of You (2013). She also used the song, and the album as a whole, to assert more creative control over her career.
A soul and blues ballad, its lyrics revolve around a woman's search for love, while being torn between her boyfriend and her lover. Media outlets had varying interpretations of the song's genre and content, with several attributing it as an example of soul and blues and describing it as containing jazz influences. Inspired by her past, Fantasia recorded the track to express her gratitude for getting through her past, negative relationships to grow as a person and form a more healthy romance. Commentators compared "Sleeping with the One I Love" to Ben E. King's 1963 single "I (Who Have Nothing)", James Brown's 1966 song "It's a Man's Man's Man's World", and Shirley Bassey's music, while Fantasia herself found similarities with her own 2005 single "Free Yourself".
Critics responded positively to "Sleeping with the One I Love", praising Fantasia's vocals and her collaboration with R. Kelly. It peaked at number seven on the Adult R&B Songs Billboard chart for the week of July 2, 2017. It was Fantasia tenth top-ten entry, and the second of the album's two top 20 singles, with "No Time for It" (2016) being the first. Fantasia performed the song during a July 28, 2016 concert broadcast on BET and the Fantasia & Anthony Hamilton: Live in Concert. A music video, directed by Derek Blanks, was released on June 26, 2016. Inspired by the American comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black, the visual features Fantasia playing various characters in their pursuit of love while incarcerated. It received positive feedback from media outlets.
Background and recording
While recording her fifth studio album The Definition Of... (2016), Fantasia sought to have more creative control over her music and image. Frustrated with the amount of record label interference in the past, she described executives' plans to determine her sound and style as "prostituting the artist’s gift", and wanted to avoid such influences for the album. Fantasia explained that the album would expand on the "rock soul" sound that she introduced on her previous release Side Effects of You (2013). She had defined "rock soul" as covering multiple style of music, describing it as an attempt to combine her soulful childhood singing in church with "a certain side of [her] that wants to tap into that whole rock world".
"Sleeping with the One I Love" was written and produced by R. Kelly. During the early stages of production for The Definition Of..., Fantasia posted several videos on her social media accounts of her recording sessions with Kelly. In promotional interviews, Fantasia said that the album was initially produced by another artist who she “really, really, really loved", but she switched to a different team for the final product. She explained: "Sometimes, when you work with producers who are artists, it’s very hard, They are doing their thing … and things got a little chaotic.” Derrick G. Kennedy of the Los Angeles Times speculated that Kelly was the producer mentioned by Fantasia.
The instrumental parts of the song were recorded by Thomas Carillo at the Kennedy Compound in Hollywood. Fantasia's vocals, produced and arranged by Ron Fair, were engineered by Fair and Pat Thrall at Faircraft Studios in Brentwood, California. Abel Garibaldi and Ian Mereness provided additional programming and engineering for the track. Dan Higgins arranged the horn section, which was engineered by Fair and John Schacter. Donnie Lylie provided additional music direction and played the guitar for the instrumental, while Steve Genewick handled the engineering for the string portion.