Jay-Z can sell millions of records, buy a team, build a stadium and marry the hottest star in pop and R&B. But there is one thing the Jigga Man will never do: collaborate with legendary singer Sade.
In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Sade said that Hov and other hip-hop heavyweights have approached her about rapping over her beats over the years and she has repeatedly spurned their offers. Others have clamored for Sade to pour her honey-smooth voice on their rap records, but she has deftly sidestepped those as well.
What gives? The reason Sade hasn’t and won’t collab with even legends in the game is not what you might think. Turns out that despite being beloved worldwide, being blessed with breathtaking beauty and selling tens of millions of albums, Sade is actually extremely shy.
“I’m too scared they’ll find me out. It’s like The Wizard of Oz. They’ll find out there’s nothing there,” she said surprisingly. “As for collaborations, I’m collaborating with the band [to] do what we do. I see myself as a member of this band who does these songs that we write.”
Wow. Sade’s humility is almost scary. You’d think that if there was any artist who had accrued enough musical capital to be at least a little arrogant, Sade would be one of them. There are so many artists in the game who don’t even qualify to carry Sade’s nail polish container, yet their heads swell up like microwave popcorn bags when they spit out one hit — one that they didn’t even write or produce, at that.
Now, if you want to remake or sample some of Sade’s smash hits like “Smooth Operator” or “Sweetest Taboo,” then Sade says she will work with you. One of the most recognized singers of all time says that sampling her songs will not cost you a grip.
“When it comes to sample clearances, I’m probably the cheapest chick in the West,” she says.
–terry shropshire
