Betty Davis Nasty Gal LP (Clear with Pink & Yellow Splatter Vinyl)

In the 1970s, Betty Davis defied genre and gender by pushing her voice to extremes and embracing the erotic. She articulated a kind of pre–punk, funk–blues fusion that had yet to be normalized in mainstream music - a style that few musicians have come close to replicating. As one of the first Black women to write, arrange, and produce her own albums, Betty was a visionary who disregarded industry boundaries and constraints. Raw, unapologetic, and in full control, Betty paved the way for generations of future artists who said 'funk you' to the music industry and social norms.

In 1975, Betty Davis's star was on the rise. With the backing of Island Records and a new band, Funk House, Betty's third album, Nasty Gal, leans into the hyper-sexualized persona with which her critics were so obsessed. She raps, purrs, shrieks, and moans on top of Funk House's manic funk-rock and lays claim to the "bad girl" anthems that now saturate the music industry. Mastered from the original tapes, Nasty Gal showcases Betty's groundbreaking work as a performer, writer, and producer.

If you were to draw a diagram of funk music in the early 70's, Betty Davis would be dead center.

Another classic from one of the founders of funk

On this record, her shot at making it big, she wrote and sang a strain of 1970s, pre-disco, keyboard-based funk, with and without horns, that was sly, sexy and wonderfully raw. The controversy surrounding Davis, however, has always been about her voice. Her ferocious grooves were indisputably strong, taking inspiration from both Hendrix and Sly, and they grew in large part in very similar ways to what George Clinton was doing in his musical universe. But it's Davis's voice that is the edge on which her fans and detractors turn. Her vocal tracks are filled with shrieks, screams and growls. It's a style and approach you either buy into or you don't. It works to perfection on tunes like the title track to Nasty Gal... Betty Davis and her music will always get eternal credit for the artistic path she cut for other artists, particularly women to follow. Perhaps the most lasting judgment on her music came from Prince, who always gave her credit for being one of his most essential inspirations. One nasty girl indeed.