(AllHipHop News) Music icon Stevie Wonder is celebrating his 70th birthday, and a variety of stars are giving the singer his flowers while he is still here.
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In 2006, rap star Busta Rhymes was lucky enough to land Stevie Wonder on a track titled “Been Through the Storm” from his classic album The Big Bang, which was produced by Black Jeruz & Sha Money XL.
Sha Money touched on Busta’s vintage record during a sitdown with AllHipHop.com’s Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur during an interview to promote his latest album Chain On The Bike, Vol 1. via Teamwork Music/eOne.
“I remember being in the studio with him [Busta Rhymes] when he when he took the beat,” Sha Money XL told AllHipHop.com. Shout out to Black Jeruz on that with me. And that motherf##ker said ‘Yo Sha, we’re gonna put an orchestra on this. Dre’s in Miami and we’re about f##king put an orchestra [on it].’ And the way Dre mixed that s##t. To this day man, that is a timeless record right there.”
Stevie’s impact on music cannot be understated. He launched his career in 1963 at the age of 13 with the hit single “Fingertips Part 2” along with a chart-topping album, The 12 Year Old Genius (Live).”
Stevie ruled the 1960’s with songs like “My Cherie Amour,” “Uptight” “I Was Made to Love Her” and more. The flood of classics continued into the 1970s with songs like “Signed, Sealed & Delivered,” “You Are the Sunshine of my Life,” “Superstition,” “Livin for the City,” “Sir Duke” and others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNDQc3Wf90I
The 1980s were equally as productive as Stevie recorded classics like “Lately,” “I Just Called to Say I Love You,” “Part-Time Lover,” “Get It” featuring Michael Jackson and others.
In the 1990s, Stevie continued to bless us with songs like “These Three Words” from Spike Lee’s Jungle Fever soundtrack.
Stevie Wonder’s last official album was A Time to Love, which was released in 2005.
Stevie Wonder is a favorite with rappers since he was a favorite go-to for samples.
Rappers from Tupac (“So Many Tears”) and Coolio (“Gangsta’s Paradise”) to Notorious B.I.G. (“Me and My B##ch) and J. Cole (“Love Me Not”) have sampled Stevie Wonder’s vast catalog of hits.
And while Stevie is picky about who he collaborates with, over the years, he has worked with several hip-hop artists, like Busta, Chance the Rapper, Donald Glover, and Drake.
“Busta got every feature on the planet. So he worked with everybody. Busta can make that s##t happen,” Sha Money Xl said. “And he made that s##t happen, Yo, That’s all Busta but I walked into that blessing, bro. I got a record with Stevie Wonder. That’s in the catalog.”