Chaka Khan Recalls Telling Mary J. Blige Her Vocals Were ‘Flat,’ Shades Adele and Mariah Carey

It looks like Chaka Khan has a lot to say, and she’s airing it all out on her latest podcast appearance with Los Angeles Magazine, on The Originals.

For starters, it seems the legendary singer still has some resentment towards Mary J. Blige, who she previously feuded with in the past. In fact, she brings up again the fact that Mary J. Blige butchered her cover of “Sweet Thing” back in 1992. 

It all started when the host, Andrew Goldman, congratulated the 10x Grammy-winning artist for making the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time list on Rolling Stone. Her response?

 “I didn’t even know what the hell you were talking about, so obviously this don’t mean a great deal to me,” Chaka states. “These people don’t quantify or validate me in any way.”

With her 70th birthday quickly approaching on March 23rd, Chaka was then curious to know who else made the highly-coveted list. The only one she agreed with was Aretha Franklin, who stood high at the #1 spot. Chaka agreed by stating “as she fucking should be.”

That’s when things start to go downhill. When finding out Mariah Carey was listed as #5, she states, “That must be payola or some shit like that.” When finding out Adele was listed as #22, seven spots ahead of her on the totem pole, she had no words. She simply responds, “Okay, I quit.”

Goldman then informs Chaka that Mary J. Blige has the $25 spot, in which Chaka responds, “They are blind as a motherfucking bat! They need hearing aids. These must be the children of Helen Keller!” This was in reference to the editors at Rolling Stone.

Khan then takes the time to remind folks that Mary J. Blige previously messed up her song “Sweet Thing,” which was introduced to her back in 1975, during the time she was a member of the band Rufus as their lead vocalist. 

Chaka explains, “I told Mary J. Blige she fucked it up. 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?’”

Apparently, Blige’s response was “Oh girl I been up late. It was at eight in the morning girl.”

“I said girl you don’t sing nothing at eight in the motherfucking morning,” Khan continued. “Especially if you have to get up to sing it. If you’d been up all night, smoking crack or something, I don’t know, it might have been a whole different thing. But you don’t get up at eight in the morning to sing girl. But she and I have that kind of relationship we can talk…you know, I love her. She loves me. We don’t have a problem. Now the press would love to making it a motherfucking problem.”

However, elsewhere in the interview, Chaka Khan was also made aware of Rolling Stone’s 200 Best Singers Of All Time list and lost her temper when she learned that the “Family Affair” singer was placed ahead of her. 

“These bitches are blind as a motherfucking bat! They need hearing aids,” Chaka said, who was placed at No. 29 on the list. “They don’t have hearing aids? They have no eyes. They have no ears. They must have a – these babies, you know what? These must be the children of Helen Keller!’”

Khan continued, “I said girl you don’t sing nothing at eight in the motherfucking morning. Especially if you have to get up to sing it. If you’d been up all night, smoking crack or something, I don’t know, it might have been a whole different thing. But you don’t get up at eight in the morning to sing girl. But 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 making it a motherfucking problem.”

While Khan and Blige mended their relationship in 2007, even recording a song together called “Disrespectful,” it seems Khan still is holding on to that one mess up. 

On a positive note, Khan kept things neutral when she found out Beyonce was placed at #8. She states, “I don’t have anything to say about Beyoncé. She’s a great singer, okay?”