Chaka Khan reconnects with ‘Funk’, heads for Broadway
Gail Mitchell

LOS ANGELES—She may be an R&B legend, but Chaka Khan is still taking artistic chances. The singer-songwriter is prepping for her Broadway debut.
Come January 9, 2008, the Grammy Award winner joins the New York company of “The Colour Purple,” playing Sofia to BeBe Winans’ Harpo in the musical based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. That’s not all. Khan is back on the music scene with “Funk This,” her first project under the Burgundy/Columbia banner. Featuring songs by Joni Mitchell, Jimi Hendrix and Prince, as well as originals penned by Mary J. Blige (“Disrespectful,” a duet with Khan) and Khan, the album finds Khan channelling her fiery past as frontwoman for Chicago rock/funk/R&B outfit Rufus.
“This is the album I’ve been promising my fans for the past 10 years,” says Khan, whose last album was 2004 Music World release “Classikhan” featuring the London Symphony Orchestra. Released September 25, “Funk This” debuts this week at No. 15 on the Billboard 200 — her highest-charting album since “I Feel for You” hit No. 14 in 1984. It sold 39,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan: her best sales week since SoundScan began tracking data in 1991.
Aside from these major projects, Khan juggles roles as a philanthropist (the Chaka Khan Foundation), entrepreneur (the Chakalates line of chocolates), author (2003’s “Chaka! Through the Fire”), devoted mom and grandmother. Recently, she spoke with Billboard about her multifaceted life and career. Q: Your bio says you’ve been searching for Yvette, your birth name. Is that why the album carries such an introspective vibe?
Khan: “Yes. Yvette (Stevens) has been here all the time. I just had to bring her forth. That got me writing songs again. But in that introspection, I’m speaking to all people. I’m just one of many human beings going through the same internal and external battles. I wanted to address that. “We made a conscious decision to not make this just a covers CD. And we wanted to get back to the place where I was when people first fell in love with my voice. That simple place with good songs I like to sing with funky good music behind me and not overproduced. I also wanted younger people to know that certain songs do exist by certain people and let them hear songs with content: complete sentences, correct grammar and empowering messages as opposed to helpless, pathetic songs. Victim songs really bug me.”
Q: Why is that? Khan: “It’s just me, my makeup. The times I’ve been hurt or felt victimized, I turned it around into a life lesson or turned the energy around where I was not the victim.” Q: So who is Yvette Marie versus Chaka Khan?Khan: “At last count, there were 30 of us (laughs), so I’ll only talk about those two. Chaka Khan is the persona that sings. She’s viable and as major a person as Yvette is. But Yvette is the base character. Yvette is the girl who came from Chicago, struggled hard and then became a trendsetter.”
Q: You’re sober now, something you haven’t spoken at length about before. How is everything? Khan: “I hadn’t because it’s personal and still a very personal thing to me. But I am sober, and that’s all I’ll say. A lot of people go through this. I had been blocking a lot of gifts and blessings by self-medicating, and it all came raining down. But it’s all good now.” Q: Between albums, what keeps you busy?
Khan: “I’ve always worked like I have a CD out; I haven’t stopped. But this period in between has given me more time to work with my foundation. “It started in 1999 with autism: I have an autistic nephew. Once he was diagnosed, I found there were a lot of autistic children. It was like a hidden crisis that no one was seemingly addressing with minority families. “Through sponsoring walks in Chicago and Los Angeles, we’ve raised money for more research and to develop programs that educate and support underserved minority families. “The foundation also mentors fifth- and sixth-graders with whom we’ll stay in touch until they go to college. We want to expose them to different people so they can see they can be anything they want to be. By doing activities like taking them to the set of the ‘Judge Judy’ show, their grade point averages have shot up.” Q: What surprised you most about going back into the studio for “Funk This?”
Khan: “How insecure I was doing something on my own. I’d recorded projects with other people, but this time I had to get my own studio legs back. They were like appendages that needed muscle tone. I had to work on it like exercise. We were more or less halfway through before I really felt secure.”