Ever since her early days fronting the band Rufus, when she implored us to “Tell Me Something Good,” Chaka Khan has had unmistakable pipes. The funk equivalent of Gladys Knight, Khan has been an underrated vocalist for most of her career. Sure, she has eight Grammy awards, but what good are tiny golden gramophones when your music isn’t getting out to the masses?
How good is she? Well, she’s probably the only woman capable of taking a Prince song and making it her own. She proved this with the 1989 single “I Feel for You.” She proves her jaw-dropping interpretation was no fluke on her new CD, Funk This, where she takes on The Purple One’s “Sign O’ The Times.”
Coming in at just over an hour, Funk This is a solid collection of R&B ballads and sexy dance tunes. You’d have to be dead not to want to get up and dance to this 13-song collection.
Featuring guest performances by Mary J. Blige, Tony Maiden and Michael McDonald (who performs a duet with Khan on a surprisingly soulful remake of Carly Simon’s “You Belong to Me”), Funk This shows that
Khan can still tear it up!
