from the LP Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, ABC Records, 1975Chaka Khan. Chaka Khan. Chaka Khan everybody, everybody Chaka Khan. You can’t fuck with Chaka Khan! Her voice has always balanced the ideal amounts of both smoky & gravelly elements, delivering these lines as if her very life depended on them, “…if what you feel is real, then we gon’ get down and groove; I love the way you party, love the way you move…dance wit’ me, baby baby, dance wit’ me…” And who could say no? Without her, the Chicago band Rufus would have probably just been another local funk crew who played opening sets for touring headliners, but Chaka cast a spell on anyone who listened to her voice---shit, all you had to do was take one look at all that riotous windswept hair, those bewitching eyes matched with her knowing smile, and just as you were frozen in awe of the Nubian goddess before you, her Siren song hypnotized all who have ears and your ship was sunk. Although most of their hits were slow burners (ala “Tell Me Something Good” or “Sweet Thing”), Rufus was always primarily a hard funk band, and while Chaka always steals the show, one shouldn’t underestimate Bobby Watson’s fatty bottom bass, nor the heady vamping of Kevin Murphy on keys. If you can’t dance to this, you got no business having feet.
