BETTY DAVIS- NASTY GAL (1975)

Betty Davis is the Grande Domme of Funk. She inspired husband Miles into reinventing Jazz and himself in '69. She combined the sounds of her friends Sly and Jimi to make intense FunkRock albums of her own. Her fierce sexual persona and aggro voice scared the record industry in the mid-70's. In doing so, she paved the way for such rebels as the Slits, Grace Jones, Nina Hagen, Madonna, Annie Lennox, Diamanda Galas, Boss Hogg, Joi (Gilliam), Nikka Costa, and Peaches. This is the title track from her 1975 masterpiece. Obviously Prince heard it, which inspired him to turn it into "Nasty Girl" by Vanity 6 in 1982. Learn more about this great lady and tell your friends. "

(All rights reserved. Fan-made video to promote the artist.)Tym Stevens

Hip Hop Video Girls - Where My Ladies At?

Today another blogger challenged bw to think before we publicly demonize black Hip Hop Video Girls. You know the ones, shaking-it-up in heavy rotation over on BET and gracing the covers of various magazines.

This blogger’s point, as I understood it, is that we as bw do ourselves no favors when we publicly tear each other down and that she has observed that enlightened ww don’t do this to each other. Essentially, by tearing down another sister, we not only de-value her, but also ourselves. We should perhaps have more compassion for these women or at the very least, speak privately about it instead of putting it “out there” for the world to see. Basically, at the end of the day, the only thing “others” will take away from the criticism is that bw are (fill in your own insult here). The “others” will not be making a distinction between the “good” bw admonishing the “bad” girl and the “video ho” we tear apart.

I have to be honest and say that I’m divided on the issue of trying to “shut down” the video girls because I believe they contribute to the damage of the image of all bw, thus making us easy prey for predators in our communities and the ideology of supporting my sisters, even though I abhor what they are doing, by refusing to publicly bash them for their behavior.

I think Michaela Angela Davis made an interesting observation on this continuing topic when she said that bw are the only women you can see shaking their naked behinds for free on tv; in order to see ww’s breasts, you have to PAY for it.






So is it more insulting that our behinds aren’t even worth paying to see or that we’re shaking it up period?