Source: Variety / Getty
Chaka Khan didn’t hold anything back during a recent interview on The Originals podcast with host Andrew Goldman.
The 70-year-old soul icon wasn’t too pleased with Rolling Stone’s decision to rank her at No. 29 on their “200 Greatest Singers of All Time” list. Khan was placed slightly behind soulful belters like Adele and long-time alleged frenemy Mary J. Blige.
During her candid chat with Goldman, Khan slammed the famed music mag for their rankings, calling the staff “blind bat b–ches” for placing her a notch lower than both R&B powerhouses.
“They are blind as a motherf–king bat! They need hearing aids… These must be the children of Helen Keller!” the “Sweet Thing” hitmaker said, according to Page Six.
She also went in about the placement of Mariah Carey, Joan Baez and a few other stars, before giving props to icons like Aretha Franklin and Beyoncé.
Chaka Khan disses Joan Baez and slams Mariah Carey
When asked about Carey’s ranking at No. 5, Khan shadily joked, “That must be payola or some s–t like that.” She also criticized the music publication for placing Adele at No. 22. “Ok, I quit,” the R&B diva said as she threw her hands up in the air.
The “Ain’t Nobody” singer also didn’t hold back when discussing folk singer Joan Baez, who earned the No. 189 spot for her contributions to the genre.
“Let’s be honest, the b-tch cannot sing!” Khan quipped, before admitting, “Now she was a good writer.”
Chaka Khan’s bold interview with Goldman wasn’t all shade and banter. The soul icon did stop to give a few musical props to titans like Aretha Franklin, who topped the list at No. 1.
“As she f–king should be. Thank you, there’s justice somewhere!” Khan said when she learned of the “Respect” singer’s placement.
The Chicago native also gave credit to Rolling Stone for giving the late Whitney Houston the No. 2 spot.
“Great… I’m the one who introduced her to [music mogul] Clive [Davis]. And I introduced her to the business,” Khan revealed. “I made her mother bring her down to the studio and sing background with me. Her and Luther Vandross. They both sang background for me on my albums,” Khan said.
As for Beyoncé, Khan told Goldman that she “didn’t have anything to say” about the 32-time Grammy Award-winner’s ranking at No. 8.
“She’s a great singer… She’s got the chops. She does,” Khan added.
Chaka Khan says she and Mary J. Blige are friends, despite hating the singer’s 1992 cover of “Sweet Thing”
Further along in the interview, Khan let a few things off her chest about Mary J. Blige’s popular cover of her 1973 hit song “Sweet Thing.” Blige covered the iconic R&B tune on her debut album What’s the 411? in 1992. But after it was released, Khan said she wasn’t a big fan of the singer’s rendition. In fact, she even told Blige personally that her vocals fell “flat” on the revamped version.
“I told Mary J. Blige she f–ked it up,” Khan expressed candidly. “Number one, her vocals were flat. I asked her, and I said, what time of day was it or night? What were you doing when you decided to cover ‘Sweet Thing?’ Where were you at when you covered it? ‘Oh, girl. I had been up all night and I was up at eight o’clock in the morning, girl.'”
Khan continued:
“I said girl, you don’t sing nothing at eight o’clock in the motherf–cking morning. Especially if you have to get up to sing it. If you’d have been up all night smoking crack or something, it might have been a different thing, but you don’t get up at eight o’clock in the morning to sing, girl.”
Despite hating Blige’s cover, Khan said that she and the “Real Love” crooner are still close friends.
“She and I have that kind of relationship. We can talk. I love her. She loves me. We don’t have a problem. Now, the press would love to make it a f–cking problem.
Listen to the snippet below courtesy of The Neighborhood Talk. What do you think? Was Chaka going in?
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