Drake and His Obsession With Sade
A Timeline Of Drake’s Obsession With Sade
- Drake's admiration for Sade has spanned over a decade, from failed collaborations to tattoos and backstage meetings.
Drake’s latest flex isn’t a chain, a ring, or another luxury room in The Embassy. This time, it’s a nearly 9-foot sculpture of Sade inspired by the cover of Love Deluxe — a piece that artist Rebecca Maria spent six months making by hand. That alone tells you that this isn’t some casual “I like a few songs” type of fandom. This is Drake turning admiration into architecture.
What makes the whole thing even funnier (and honestly kind of fitting) is that Drake has never hidden his love for older artists, especially the ones he sees as untouchable icons. He’s the same artist who has tattooed legends on his body, shouted out his influences for years, and spent real money collecting pieces tied to music history. That includes buying Pharrell’s old jewelry at an auction and dropping more than $1 million on Tupac Shakur’s custom crown ring, the one Pac wore during his final public appearance in 1996.
So when Drake commissions a giant Sade sculpture, it doesn’t feel random. It feels like the latest chapter in a very long-running bit — except this one is real. His admiration for Sade has been public for well over a decade, ranging from unrealized collaboration dreams to birthday gifts, tattoos, backstage linkups, and even getting her voice on one of his projects.
At this point, Drake’s love for Sade has gone from subtle nods to a full-on timeline. And once you line up all the moments, it’s hard not to laugh a little and admit that he has indeed been down bad for Sade for a very long time.
2010: Drake tried to get Sade on Thank Me Later
Long before the tattoos and the giant sculpture, Drake was already publicly campaigning for a Sade collaboration. While talking about features for Thank Me Later, he said he was really trying to work with her. The collab never happened, and reports at the time said Sade wasn’t interested in stepping outside her comfort zone like that. Even so, the attempt matters because it shows the obsession started early — before it became meme-worthy, and before fans started clocking every tribute.
October 2016: Sade sent Drake a signed birthday gift
This was one of the first public moments where the admiration seemed to go both ways. For his 30th birthday, Drake received a framed Sade image with a handwritten note that read, “The 24th of October 1986 was a good day… Shine on, Drake. Love Sade,” Drake posted it proudly, calling her “the most beautiful woman ever.” That gift basically confirmed that his fandom wasn’t just a one-sided fantasy anymore — Sade knew exactly who her biggest rap fan was.
March 2017: Drake finally met Sade backstage in London
For somebody as famously private as Sade, just popping out at all is news. She attended Drake’s London show during the Boy Meets World tour, and he posted a backstage photo with her and his mother, calling them “two very important ladies in my life.” That caption told the whole story. This wasn’t Drake posing with a celebrity for clout. This was Drake meeting one of his real-life musical heroes and looking every bit like a kid who couldn’t believe his moment had finally arrived.
March 2017: He got his first Sade tattoo
Not long after that meetup, Drake put Sade on his body. The first tattoo was a black-and-white portrait of the singer on his torso, complete with “with love Sade x” written underneath. That’s when the public conversation really shifted from “Drake likes Sade” to “Drake might just be obsessed with Sade.” And to be fair, when you tattoo a reclusive icon on your ribs, people are going to talk.
June 2017: Drake got a second Sade tattoo
One portrait apparently was not enough. A few months later, Drake added another Sade tattoo, doubling down on a tribute he had already made permanent. That second piece is important because it showed this wasn’t some one-off emotional decision made in the glow of finally meeting her. He went back for more ink, which is about as clear as it gets.
2017 and after: Sade joined the list of older icons Drake wears, references, and reveres
Part of what makes Drake’s Sade fixation feel believable is that he’s always had a thing for music legends who shaped the culture before him. His tattoo collection also includes Aaliyah and Lil Wayne, and over the years, he’s treated certain artists less like peers and more like sacred text. That’s why the Sade stuff doesn’t read as random fan service — it fits the way Drake has always positioned himself as both a student of older Black music and a collector of its icons.
2022-2025: Drake’s collector era made the Sade obsession make even more sense
Outside of music, Drake has shown he likes owning pieces associated with artists he reveres. He acquired several items from Pharrell’s orbit after JOOPITER auctions (he rocked them in the “Jumbotron Sh*t Poppin” video), then famously bought Tupac’s custom crown ring for more than $1 million at Sotheby’s. So while a giant Sade sculpture might sound outrageous at first, it actually lines up with the same instinct: Drake doesn’t just admire music history — he likes bringing it into his home and making it part of his world.
October 2023: Sade appeared on Drake’s For All The Dogs
Years after that missed Thank Me Later dream, Drake finally got a real Sade connection on wax. She appears on For All the Dogs during “BBL Love Interlude,” contributing a brief spoken segment tied to the album’s “BARK Radio” concept. It wasn’t the full-blown duet some fans imagined back in 2010, but it still felt like a victory lap for Drake’s longtime fandom. After all those years of praise, tattoos, and public adoration, Sade’s voice finally made it onto a Drake project.
April 2026: Drake commissioned a 9-foot Sade sculpture inspired by Love Deluxe
And now we’ve arrived at the wildest chapter yet. Drake had artist Rebecca Maria create a nearly 9-foot sculpture modeled after Sade’s iconic Love Deluxe imagery, with reports saying it took six months and multiple types of clay to complete. It’s dramatic, extravagant, and a little ridiculous — which is exactly why it feels like the perfect latest entry in the saga. At this point, Drake isn’t just paying tribute to Sade. He’s building monuments.
Seen all together, the pattern is obvious: Drake’s love for Sade has lasted longer than some rap eras. What started as admiration turned into attempted collaboration, then gifts, tattoos, music, and now an actual towering sculpture. Plenty of artists say legends inspire them. Drake, meanwhile, keeps finding new ways to make sure the whole world knows exactly which legends still have him starstruck.
RELATED: Drake’s Adding A Massive 9-Foot Sade Sculpture To His Art Collection
