Kanye West’s “Through The Wire” Sample ‘Pissed’ Off Chaka Khan
Kanye West’s breakout single “Through the Wire” got him notoriety as a rapper and producer, but it didn’t get him respect from Chaka Khan, who was sampled on the track.
Chaka Khan’s hit “Through the Fire,” which was released in 1985 was sampled on Kanye West’s 2003 single, and now Khan has come forward admitting that she wasn’t pleased with the sample.
Chaka Khan recently appeared on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, and she shared that she “was pissed” when the track was released.
She didn’t appreciate how West had sped up her vocals. “It was a little insulting. Not insulting, I thought it was stupid,” she said. “If I’d known he was gonna do that, I would have said, ‘Hell no.'”
After suffering a car accident, West called Khan and she gave him the approval to sample her song.
“He called me when he just got out of the hospital,” Khan explained. “He said, ‘You were so instrumental in my healing process. I changed the words a little bit to the song but I had to eat through a wire. Jaws wired shut through a straw.’ It meant that much to me. It really got my heart, tugged at my string. I was like, ‘Yeah, use it.'”
During the episode, Andy Cohen asked Khan if Kanye West was aware of how she felt about the sample. Khan said no, but she felt like her silence spoke volumes.
Glennisha Morgan is a Detroit-bred multimedia journalist and writer. She writes about intersectionality, hip-hop, pop culture, queer issues, race, feminism, and her truth. Follow her on Twitter.
