During her appearance on 'Good Day DC' to promote her new single 'Woman Like Me', Chaka discusses how Ye sampled her voice on 'Through the Fire' for 'Through the Wire' that she publicly despised.
- Aug 3, 2022
AceShowbiz - Sampling is indeed a complicated matter in the music industry. Years have passed, but Chaka Khan revealed in a new interview that she's still upset how Kanye West sampled her voice on "Through the Fire" for his 2003 debut single "Through the Wire".
During her appearance on "Good Day DC" on Monday, August 1 to promote her new single "Woman Like Me", Chaka discussed the sample that she publicly despised. She told anchor Marissa Mitchell that she was upset because it made her like she sounded "like a chipmunk."
The "Ain't Nobody" hitmaker went on to say that she hasn't spoken with Ye over the matter and seemingly isn't planning to. "[Kanye] didn't mention that he was gonna speed it up, you know, three times its normal speed," the 69-year-old musician said. "Had he, I would've had something to say. But since I didn't think of that, believe me, I think of it now. I ask, 'How are we gonna do this?' "
Back in 2019, Chaka shared that the Yeezy designer asked her about sampling "Through the Fire" shortly after being released from the hospital following his near-death car accident. She recalled on "Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen" that the ex-husband of Kim Kardashian told her that the song was "so instrumental in my healing process." He allegedly also said that he wanted to change up the words to the hook to reflect his struggle with eating after his mouth was wired shut.
Chaka allowed him to sample her song because she found Ye's reasoning touching. However, she was left pissed off after listening to the finished product as she called it "a little insulting." She added, "Not insulting-I thought it was stupid. If I'd known he was gonna do that, I would have said, 'Hell no.' "
She also talked about her disdain towards the sample in an interview with Vlad TV in 2020. "I said, 'Well, are you a singer?' He said, 'No, no. I just wanted to use your chorus,' " she recounted. "I thought about it and said, 'Well, he can't mess it up because I will be singing it after all. It's my voice.' But he found a way. By golly, he found a way to frick that up. I was through."
