For her 2019 album Legacy! Legacy!, Jamila Woods put together a song cycle, with each track dedicated to a person who inspired her. The opening cut, "Betty," focuses on Betty Davis.
"I’ve always been fascinated by women artists in relationships with more prominent male artists, and how that affected their careers," said Woods, a reference to the fact that Betty was at one point married to Miles Davis. Woods goes on to say, "She was really sensual, and people couldn’t handle it. I always admired that. But that actually closed a lot of doors for her, with men in the music industry feeling like she was going to be too much. The second verse of this song questions the tension that exists when women want to step outside of the box that’s prescribed for them, and how men sometimes see that as a threat as opposed to us just expressing ourselves."
By the way, I prefer this version to the more danceable remix that closes out the record.
