“I've Always Seen Myself as a Healer, with My Songs, with My Singing”

The fourth chapter, “‘I’ve Always Seen Myself as a Healer, with My Songs, with My Singing’: Chaka Khan’s Soulful Sensual Therapeutic Funk and the Black Feminist Funk Movement,” opens with a discussion of Chaka Khan’s biography, early love of music, and budding racial and gender consciousness as a member of the Black Panther Party. After scuffling on the Chicago music scene for several years, Khan’s big break came when she joined the interracial funk band Rufus. Her Rufus years are considered a major turning point in her life and career, and even though she was the only woman in the band, the chapter illustrates that she sang a series of women-centered funk songs that broadened the funk aesthetic and nodded to the Black Women’s Liberation Movement. It is argued that a form of “Black musical feminism” free-floats through Khan’s songs such as “I’m a Woman (I’m a Backbone),” “Right is Right,” “Sweet Thing,” and, of course, her crossover funky disco hit, “I’m Every Woman.” The chapter ends with a focus on Khan’s unique emphasis on the therapeutic power of funk before giving way to a discussion of her nonconformity, “funky erotixxx,” and Black feminist funk rebellion.