Singer and Performer. The ex-wife of jazz great Miles Davis, she was a flamboyant singer whose music would go on to influence such arstists as Beyoncé, Rick James, OutKast, Erykah Badu, Lil Kim, Kelis, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as well as various rappers who have sampled her music, among them, Ice Cube, Talib Kweli, Ludacris. Due to her raunchy lyrics and extreme performance style, she was banned from U.S. television, radio, and many concert venues due to pressure by religious groups and the NAACP. Born Betty Mabry in Durham, N.C., she grew up in Pittsburgh and began writing songs at age 12. At age 16, she moved to New York City, where she attended fashion school, worked as a model, and immersed herself in the Greenwich Village music scene. It was there in 1963 that she met soul singer Lou Courtney, who produced her first single, 'The Cellar.' She continued to release music, but got her first real break in 1967, when she penned the hit song 'Uptown (to Harlem)' for the Chambers Brothers. In 1966, she met and began dating Miles Davis. The couple married two years later, but the marriage only lasted one year. She appeared on the cover of Miles's 1968 album 'Filles de Kilimanjaro,' which featured one track, 'Mademoiselle Mabry,' named after her. After her marriage to Miles ended, she releasing her self-titled debut funk album 'Betty Davis' in 1973, which featured Greg Errico and Larry Graham from Sly Stone's band, Neal Schon and Michael Carabello from Santana, the Pointer Sisters, and avant-garde singer, Sylvester. According to the 2017 documentary 'Betty: They Say I'm Different,' Davis was the first Black female recording artist to perform and write all of her own music and manage herself. During her career, she famously turned down a songwriting deal with Motown Records because she would not have control or ownership of her material. She would go on to record more albums, including 1974's 'They Say I'm Different' and 1975's 'Nasty Gal,' but none were commercial hits, and after some aborted recording sessions in the late '70s, she stopped making music for four decades and retreated from the public eye. Material from her 1979 recording sessions eventually surfaced on two bootleg albums, 'Crashin' From Passion' and 'Hangin' Out in Hollywood,' in the mid-'90s, prompting a new surge of appreciation for her music. In 2009, her fourth studio album, 'Is It Love or Desire?,' was released which had been recorded in 1976 with Herbie Hancock, Chuck Rainey, and Alphonse Mouzon and showcased some of her finest work. In 2019, she released 'A Little Bit Hot Tonight,' her first new song in more than 40 years.