"I Wanna Sex You Up" is a song by American R&B group Color Me Badd, released in March 1991 as the lead single from their debut album, C.M.B. (1991). The song was produced by Dr. Freeze and was also featured on the soundtrack to the 1991 film New Jack City, starring Wesley Snipes, Ice-T, Chris Rock and Judd Nelson. The single achieved commercial success in the United States, spending four weeks at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, and topping both the Billboard Hot R&B Singles chart and the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales chart. "I Wanna Sex You Up" also enjoyed international success, peaking atop the charts of New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Chart performance The song spent three weeks at number one on the UK Singles Chart and reached number two for four consecutive weeks on the US Billboard Hot 100. It was the 10th-best-selling single of 1991 in the UK and the Number 2 song of the year in the US, and in 1992 the song won the group a Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul Single, Group, Band or Duo and Soul Train Music Award for Best R&B/Soul Song of the Year. Critical reception A reviewer from Cashbox described the song as "naughty and suggestive yet not particularly explicit R&B/pop". Dennis Hunt from Los Angeles Times said all it "has going for it is sexy lyrics." James Hamilton from Music Weeks RM Dance Update called it a "sweetly cooing young guys crooned gorgeous sineous sexy swayer". Stephen Holden from New York Times wrote, "'I Wanna Sex You Up' has a loping pop Latin beat that is similar to the Young Rascals' "Groovin'" and Laura Nyro's "Stoned Soul Picnic", and a piercing lead vocal by Bryan Abrams, whose voice resembles that of the late-1960's Stevie Wonder." David Fricke from Rolling Stone declared it as "a crafty blend of doo-wop doo-wah and hip-hop clatter so irresistible it makes you willing to forgive the utter banality of the lyrics." Mark Frith from Smash Hits felt that Color Me Badd "sound excellent" when "they do manage to break into a sweat", like on "I Wanna Sex You Up". Retrospective response Alex Henderson from AllMusic named the song as one of the "moments" on the C.M.B. album, describing it as a slow jam which samples rapper Slick Rick "in a rather clever fashion". "I Wanna Sex You Up"