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Happy birthday to the smooth operator. On Sade’s 60th trip around the sun, CASSIUS rounds up 20 tracks that name drop the originator of sultry cool.
1. Wyclef Jean – “Rear View”
“Look in the sky
It’s no bird, it’s no plane, it’s just you
Staring in my rear view
Telling me the things that you wanna do
Listening to Sade Sweetest Taboo”
2. Prince – “S.S.T.”
“Or did you let them die in the rain?
Endless war, poverty or hurricane
Then it’s time for another groove
Like Sade‘s ‘Sweetest Taboo’”
3. Jay-Z – “All Around the World”
“Now I’m gon’ send her on her own little wish list
Anywhere in the world, anywhere for my girl
Forever my lady, blind crippled and crazy
A ticket and your favorite CD — sweet Sade”
4. Boyz II Men – “Perfect Love Song”
“Joe, R. K***y, Mary J., Faith, Mariah and Sade
Made the Whole world sing many times, many ways
But you are
You’re the perfect love song”
5. Nas – “The Makings of a Perfect B*tch”
“Gimme Sade‘s mystique, she gotta know her way in the streets
Like Billie Holiday in Harlem
Body from Ki Toy Johnson and Kenya Moore and Apple Bottoms”
6. Usher – “Love You Gently”
“Got that, got plenty, I got you
Do you say, ‘Play some slow ones’
Got that Sade, Al Green, and Marvin Gaye, too
To love you gently”
7. Rich Homie Quan – “Type of Way”
“My niggas been hustlin’ trying to make him something
Ain’t no telling what he’ll do for the paper
Soufflé, I’m straight, I steak my plate
Sade, I’m a smooth operator”
8. TWENTY88 – “Push It”
“You put that dress on for me tonight like it’s the Met Ball
Cancel all your other plans off
I’m gonna play this Johnny Gil, Vandross and Sade, and Goapele
And you gon use that mouth to take these pants off”
9. Tyler, The Creator – “OKAGA, CA”
“We in outer space
We’ll waste our days
Sade, Sade, Sade (Sade)
Oh, right now (f*ck what they say)”
10. Outkast – “West Savannah”
“So flyin’, or floatin’, a Brougham is what I’m sportin’
Sade is in my tape deck, I’m moving in slow motion, boi
So meet me deep in the streets that’s where I learned the capers
Us lickin’ blunts, lickin’ leaves, rolling reefer papers”
11. Eric B. & Rakim – “Keep the Beat”
“Deep trunk kicks with a brick for a drum stick
You know the song, don’t hum along, come quick
You lay like Sade, it feels like paradise
At the top of the pyramid, we review new heights”
12. J. Cole – “Daddy’s Little Girl”
“Can I get a witness, this is Sade mixed with Shawty Lo
Ey, Jezebel, why you be up in every party for?
You lost to lookin’ for a savior, I ain’t Mario
I got no cape, but I can’t wait to give you cardio”
13. T.I. – “Chillin with My B*tch”
“I left the kids at the crib, and the squad in the trap
Now I’m in the two-seater with my broad in my lap
The alpines beatin’, but I’m far away from rappin’
Bumpin’ Prince, Sade, or some Marvin Gaye perhaps”
14. Common – “Raw (How You Like It)”
“Tuned in to what I’m doing
I’m so unassuming when I’m pursuing
The ladies, the ladies, a soldier of love like Sade
Showing love to this lady when this nigga tried to play me”
15. Meek Mill – “Maybach Curtains” (feat. Nas, John Legend & Rick Ross)
“My liquid money’s a hypnotist to your misses
Lay back like I’m in the chair of a dentist
Nasir relentless, a freak like Prince is, mystique like Sade
Soon as I enter people, point and see my anointment”
16. Jadakiss – “Nasty Girl” (feat. Carl Thomas)
“I’mma show you the Kiss of Life sorta like Sade
G-class 5, the seats go sideways
Wit the see-through roof, OOF!
Rims so big they leave dents in the highway”
17. Heavy D – “Get Fresh Hev”
“My erotic taste is, outrageous, upstages, the bravest
Of lovers, but this one’s overweight, Waterbed, now get it straight
Sade CD, killin me softly
You know Victoria’s Secrets but speak it cause you want me”
18. The Roots – “Break You Off” (feat. Musiq Soulchild)
“Rollin’ down the highway, listenin’ to Sade
Sing the way the smooth operator move my way
You sitting beside me
Looking like Friday Foster”
19. Tech N9ne – “Night and Day”
“Have women and we’ll travel, she will straddle
Saddle up bitches ’cause this is a, real battle
I’m loving to parlay, rock & roll even Sade
Playin’ when layin’ having our nasty little soiree”
20. Estelle – “Fall in Love [Avenue Remix]”
“I’m a soldier of love ask Sade
More like frank only do it my way
It don’t matter what the blogs say
I go hard like ain’t nobody signed me”
The Sweetest Gift: 20 Times Music Artists Shouted Out Sade was originally published on cassiuslife.com
