Honoring Funk-Rock Queen Betty Davis

The cult funk singer and underground diva Betty Davis left behind a trailblazing body of work that paves way for artists to be inspired by her legacy decades later. Davis’ music was eccentric, groovy and sexually explosive for its time as her brilliantly sultry self-titled debut album addresses feminist sexual reclamation and fearless seduction.

Though her self-titled 1973 debut record didn’t explode into mainstream music, Davis wasn’t the first rock star woman who got dismissed by men. For a woman, especially a Black woman in 1970s America, to open up about sexual desires with rawness and authenticity took listeners by surprise – definitely ahead of the times. Through her passionate overtones and powerhouse vocals, Davis asserts her sexuality and fights against objectification which proves to be untamed.

Her lyrics about men weren’t just submissive, but dominant to its core. “I’m very aggressive on stage, and men usually don’t like aggressive women,” said Davis in an interview with Jet Magazine. “They usually like submissive women, or women who pretend to be submissive.”

Davis was born as Betty Mabry in Durham, North Carolina in 1944. At seventeen years old, she studied fashion, acting and modeling in New York while pursuing her career as a songwriter and dabbling with blends of soul, funk and blues. In her modeling career, she would work with designers and appear in magazines such as Seventeen and Glamour. She became a creative influence on the legendary Miles Davis whom she married in 1968 at just twenty-three years old. She inspired his 1970 album Bitches Brew, and introduced him to Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, and in return, he pushed her to sing. After their short-lived one year marriage, the two separated which led her to produce her erotically-charged self-titled debut album.

Self-titled included hits such as “Anti Love Song” and “Game Is My Middle Name.” Davis asserts her dominance and fights against objectification in her abrasively funky and recklessly candor track “Anti Love Song” with the lyrics “Cause I know you could possess my body / I know you can make me scrawl / I know you could have me climbing the walls / That’s why I don’t wanna love you.” She rejects a toxic trope where a man is in charge of a woman’s emotions and speaks to her self-awareness. Davis changes the tone and questions the man “Cause you know I could possess your body too, don’t you?”

Davis released her 1974 sophomore record They Say I’m Different which explodes with avant-garde funk that’s driven by her sexual innuendos and gritty shrieks and purr’s. On the album’s cover, Davis channels her futurist stage persona and is featured in her iconic Afro wearing a cosmic, sequined bodysuit and blue fuzzy platforms that she would also parade on stage.

“He Was a Big Freak” is nothing short of sexual liberation and is remembered by its prowess – “I used to beat him with a turquoise chain” – conveys Davis’ raw view on sexual dominance. In the song, Davis sings about taking on different roles for her man such as a mother, fantasy and mistress, giving him cheap thrills and home-cooked meals. “When I was his princess, silk and satin and lace I’d wear for him,” Davis further describes his daydream of her. 

They Say I’m Different solidified the songstress’ role in Afrofuturist funk and hip-hop and ranked as a cult favorite among the best of 70s funk. Davis owns her sexuality rather than flaunting it; a liberated woman owning her desires and kinks. In the title track “They Say I’m Different,” Davis’ raspy voice reclaims her power “They say I’m different ‘cause I’m a piece of sugar cane / Sweet to the core, that’s why I got rhythm.” Her melodies can be heard as “punk” as she’s screaming with sexual aggression and power.

During her live performances, Davis’ boldness was present onstage as she wore fishnets, spread her legs and played with her mic. Audiences can feel Davis exuding her sexual magnetism and incredible feeling of masculinity, coexisting with her obvious physical femininity. She was the director of her own voice and body, on and off the stage. “When I was writing about it [sex], nobody was writing about it,” Davis said. “But now everybody’s writing about it. It’s like a cliché.”

Because of her sexually progressive orthodoxies, radio stations banned her songs and she was picketed by conservative, religious groups. Even the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said she was a disgrace for ingraining prejudices. Davis replied, “I’m colored and they’re trying to stop my advancement.” Her sexual politics were too “explicit” for the 70s, but the next generations of musicians and critics finally caught up. Despite the heavy conservative backlash, Davis released a third record on Island Records label.

Davis was a voice untamed by music genres, traditional gender norms and sexual roles.

Following 1975’s Island-released Nasty Gal, the label dropped her because she refused to censor her lyrics and cover up. “When I was told that it was over, I just accepted it,” she said to New York Times. In the early 1980s, she moved back to her hometown of Pittsburgh and this marked her disappearance from the music industry and public eye.

Nasty Gal is a free-spirited record which was unapologetically erotic and radiated a female sexuality that was distinctively Davis’. Her liquid-smooth vocals are present in songs “Nasty Gal” where she seduces her man and proclaims that her way [kinks] were too dirty for him.  “Dedicated To The Press” is sultry and sexually stripped to its core as she sings about her vulgarity and teases the listener to reprimand her. The record is full of feline growls, predatory vocals and singing that shifts between sensual sadism and orgasmic glee. Fearlessly, she pushed funk and glitter into the bedroom.

Throughout her music journey, Davis released four genre-bending albums which gave a new meaning to funk as she experimented with the hard rock stylings of Jimi Hendrix and R&B soundscapes of Sly Stone. She was aware of her beauty and the power she held over men. Her fierce bluntness manifests in her explicit discography and her radical feminist perspectives. 

Muse, producer and provocateur; even though her career wasn’t successful in mainstream terms, Betty Davis remains a trailblazing “nasty gal” who will be revered as the godmother of funk music for the next generations she inspires. Reissues of her records and documentaries have been released and artists such as Janelle Monáe, Peaches and Prince praise her as inspiration.