Kanye West’s breakout single “Through the Wire” may have appealed to the masses and earned him a Grammy nomination, but it didn’t appeal to the inspiration of the song.
Chaka Khan’s 1985 hit, “Through the Fire” was sampled on West’s ’03 single and the songstress now admits that she didn’t like how her song was used. On Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, Khan revealed that she “was pissed” when the song dropped and didn’t appreciate how it 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.'”
Khan originally gave West the green light to sample her song when he called her after suffering a car accident. “He called me when he just got out of the hospital,” Khan shared. “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.'”
When asked by Cohen if West knew about her thoughts on the song, the 66-year-old said no, but felt that her silence spoke loud enough.
