Chaka Khan scored the first R&B crossover hit with a rapper on it
In 1984 Chaka Khan covered an obscure Prince song from 1979, added a Stevie Wonder harmonica solo, and let Grandmaster Melle Mel open it with a rap. I Feel for You sold a million copies on both sides of the Atlantic, and no R&B artist had crossed over with a rapper before.
She was born Yvette Marie Stevens in Chicago on March 23, 1953, and grew up in Hyde Park on the South Side. A grandmother got her hooked on jazz, and at 11 she started a girl group, the Crystalettes, with her sister, who later sang as Taka Boom. At 13 a Yoruba priest gave her the name Chaka, meaning woman of fire. As a teenager she joined the Black Panther Party after befriending Fred Hampton, then left home at 16, dropped out of school and started singing with local bands.
In 1972 two members of a new band called Rufus spotted her, and their departing singer suggested she take over. Ike Turner flew the group to Los Angeles to record and wanted Khan as an Ikette; she said no. Stevie Wonder then wrote Tell Me Something Good for her, and it climbed to No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1974 and won the band its first Grammy. On stage she was the magnet, and she could also play drums and bass. Relations with the rest of the band were rocky, however, and in 1978 she signed a solo deal with Warner Bros while still a member.
Her solo debut that year carried I'm Every Woman, written for her by Ashford and Simpson and later a pop hit for Whitney Houston. She turned up as a church choir soloist in The Blues Brothers, won a Grammy for her scatting on Be Bop Medley, and in 1983 rejoined Rufus one last time for Ain't Nobody before the band split for good.
Her voice drove Steve Winwood's Higher Love to No. 1 in 1986. That year she also recorded a duet of Addicted to Love with Robert Palmer, but her manager blocked its release to avoid flooding the market; she kept only a vocal arrangement credit. She has since won eleven Grammys, and in 2023 the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted her for musical excellence.
Source: Chaka Khan
