In her first ever hip-hop collaboration, Sade released a remix to her track "The Moon and The Sky" featuring Jay-Z.  The original track from her latest album Soldier of Love traces a female's emotions pining over a love lost, and one in which she speaks philosophically to her ex-lover yearing to know the reasons their love didn't last:  "You'll always know/ the reason why/ we couldn't have/ the moon and the sky." 

Jay-Z steps in as the voice of the male counterpart, expressing his shortcomings and perspective on the relationship's demise: "I know we could of had it all/ I wasn't ready to go steady no not at all/ Smoking mirrors clouding my vision we hit a wall/ Couldn't see the moon and the sky behind the fog..."  Jay-Z further speaks to the female, telling her speculation is useless: "You always thought 'what if'/ but that 'a just drive you crazy baby girl interrupted/ thinking about what wasn't/ thinking about what was it?"

The track stays true to its jazz/soul genre, but instead of a melodic guitar strum that graced the original track, the remix incorporates hard drums and electronic beats and melodies.  Jay-Z notably steps into Sade's realm, embracing the soft tone of her soulful genre through his controlled lyricism. What results is an effective and heartfelt love dialogue between the two artists.

The rare collaboration comes as a surprise, given that Sade last year denounced collaborations when rumors emerged that Drake had considered her for work on his album Thank Me Later.  It's more surprising, then, that the track was produced by Drake's longtime producer Noah "40" Shebib. 

This track will appear on Sade's The Ultimate Collection set, scheduled for release May 3, 2011.