HOLLYWOOD, Calif. – R&B legend Chaka Khan ripped into revered rapper Kanye West at the 2009 ASCAP Expo, saying she despised Kanye’s hip hop interpretation of her iconic hit “Through the Fire”. This question-and-answer session took place with former Destiny Child singer LeToya Luckett, who fed the transcendent superstar a series of questions about her 30-plus years in the game. ASCAP Expo at the Hollywood Highland Mall is a collage of events, seminars and performances that enables aspiring music makers to make invaluable contacts and learn the ropes of the business. The mall houses the famous Kodak Theater and the Renaissance Hotel. Halfway through the event, Chaka Khan told a stunned auditorium crowd that she would not have allowed Kanye to remake the song had she know how Kanye would use it.
“I love Kanye; that’s my boy and everything. He told me the whole story of him being injured in the car accident and he was overcoming. I was honored,” Chaka said. “Then I heard the song,” she continued, mimicking the high-pitched voice on the Kanye version. “If I had of known, I might have said ‘no’.”
Chaka Khan also said she hates getting makeup put on and still, to this day, and that she nearly has panic attacks every time she takes the stage. But most of the attention centered around her scathing comments about Kanye, which elicited winces and ‘oohs’ from the crowd.
For Shondre “Bangladesh” Crawford, it was an opportunity to inspire tomorrow’s music makers in much the same way he was inspired when he was coming up in the game: I consider myself an inspiration to a lot of up-and-coming producers and established producers, and that is because I was inspired, you know what I’m saying?,” he says. “The Quincy Jones, Timbalands, Teddy Riley. They inspired me. “I created my own formula, my own sound, through their inspiration. And through my inspiration and my own sound, it inspires other people and it creates a whole another sound that somebody else will come up with.”
The ASCAP is an educational and instructional conference comprised of superstar music makers and aspiring musicians from around the nation. The four-day conference teaches young up-and-comers the ropes on how to get into the business; how to pick an agent; how to make contacts; how to stay relevant; and how to apply modern technology to your burgeoning craft. – terry shropshire.
