When in Doubt...Betty

I was sitting at home, casually browsing Amazon Prime, when the algorithm did something right for once. It suggested a documentary that would change the entire trajectory of my creative career.

They Say I'm Different tells the story of Betty Davis — the funk mother, the rebel wife of Miles Davis, and rumored muse to Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone. I’ve always been a fanatic for femme power, diva dynamics, and musical rebellion. Betty embodied all three.

Through rare photos, performance clips, and interviews, the documentary paints a portrait of a woman who was bigger than the legends around her — just too ahead of her time. Her screeching, metallic vocals. Her raw, sexual energy. Her funk-meets-punk-meets-soul sound. Betty was a threat to the industry and an affront to respectability politics — so much so that even the NAACP allegedly found her too radical for Black dignity.

But the mark she left? Unmistakable. She birthed a sound and a style that still fuels the fiercest performers today — even if most of them don’t know her name.

At Nicole Patrice & The Exes, we aim to bring Betty’s legacy back — not as a relic of sadness or erasure, but as a revival. A reclamation. A resurrection.

The world wasn’t ready for Betty then. They still aren’t now. But we’re coming. Ready or not.

I’m not gonna compromise myself for anybody. –Betty Davis