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“When Betty Davis released Nasty Gal, her 1975 major-label debut for Island Records, the world wasn’t ready—not for her musical approach, which blended Black funk and “white” hard rock in an increasingly conservative, segregated recording industry; and certainly not for her hypersexual image, which managed to simultaneously run afoul of the moral majority and women’s lib, the NAACP’s respectability politics and Black Power’s prim militancy. By the end of 1976, Davis had dropped from Island’s roster, and out of the public eye altogether...

...From today’s perspective, Nasty Gal sounds at once of its time and radically ahead of it. Davis’ backing band, Funkhouse, certainly lives up to its name, but with a delivery that is almost punk in its aggression. Similarly, her vocals bear a resemblance to prime Tina Turner—albeit a Tina Turner who has been possessed by the spirit of a wildcat in heat. What really electrifies, however, is her raw, unapologetic carnality: a sexual self-determination that had some cultural precedent in the Blaxploitation roles of Pam Grier, but remarkably few peers in popular music. From the first notes of the opening title track, Davis prowls and seethes with unrestrained erotic menace; no wonder she had so much of her mid-‘70s audience quaking in their boots.” — Spectrum Culture

“This quartet distilled the Sly Stone funk-rock manifesto and propelled it with real force. Check the unbelievable twinning of guitar and bassline in "Feelins" that underscore, note for note, Davis' vocals. The drive is akin to hardcore punk rock, but so funky it brought Rick James himself to the altar to worship (as he later confessed in interviews). And in the instrumental break, the interplay between the rhythm section (bassist Larry Johnson and drummer Semmie "Nicky" Neal, Jr.) and guitarist Carlos Moralesis held to the ground only by Fred Mills' keyboards. In essence, the album is missing nothing: it's perfect, a classic of the genre in that it pushed every popular genre with young people toward a blurred center that got inside the backbone while smacking you in the face. Heard through headphones, its spaced out psychedelic effects, combined with the nastiest funk rock on the block, is simply shocking.” – All Music

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