Chaka Khan Is Pretty Pissed Adele And Mary J. Blige Were Ranked Above Her On A Greatest Singers Listicle
The Weeknd isn’t the only artist who has beef with Rolling Stone this week. Chaka Khan is apparently peeved that the magazine ranked Mary J. Blige and Adele above her on its “The 200 Greatest Singers Of All Time” list. The Queen Of Funk ranked at #29 (honestly, really good placement out of 200). Guesting on Los Angeles Magazine’s The Originals podcast, Khan told the host, who congratulated her on the placement, “I didn’t even know what the hell you were talking about, so obviously this don’t mean a great deal to me… These people don’t quantify or validate me in any way.”
While Khan was on board with #1 (Aretha Franklin, “As she fucking should be”), she said, “Okay, I quit,” upon hearing that Adele ranked #22. As for Blige, who ranked #25, Khan sniped at the editors: “They are blind as a motherfucking bat! They need hearing aids… These must be the children of Helen Keller!”
Blige and Khan have a tense bit of a history: Khan has previously attacked Blige’s 1992 cover of “Sweet Thing,” calling it “the song Mary J. Blige” fucked up” in concert. (Khan released “Sweet Thing” with Rufus in 1975.) In 2007, the two appeared to mend fences, recording a song together called “Disrespectful.” On the podcast, however, Khan confirmed that Blige did “fuck up” “Sweet Thing,” adding that she told her directly.
“I told Mary J. Blige she fucked it up,” Khan said on the pod. “Number one, her vocals were flat, and I asked her I said: ‘what time did you, what time of day was it or night, what were you doing when you decided to cover ‘Sweet Thing’ and where were you at when you covered it?'”
Listen to the full interview here.