A native of
Richmond, Indiana, James was the son of Robert and Ernestine Ramey. He moved to
Chicago, Illinois, at the age of nineteen, and worked with several local bands as a singer. When he was still in high school, he worked with his first; the Vets. Due to a glandular disorder, Ramey weighed about 350 pounds (160 kg) around this time. His size contributed to his stage presence, but also to health problems. Nevertheless, he made light of his condition, adopting the stage name "Baby Huey" after
Paramount Pictures' giant duckling
cartoon character of the same name. In 1963, Ramey, organist/trumpeter
Melvyn "Deacon" Jones, and guitarist
Johnny Ross founded a band called
Baby Huey & the Babysitters, which became a popular local act and released several 45 RPM singles. The four songs, "Beg Me", "Monkey Man", "Messin' with the Kid" and "Just Being Careful" were spread over various single releases. During the late 1960s, the band followed the lead of
Sly & the Family Stone and became a
psychedelic soul act. Huey began wearing an
Afro and donned psychedelic African-inspired robes, and adding sing-song, self-referential rhymes to his live performances. According to his bandmates, Ramey's rhymes were very similar in style to those later popularized by
rappers in
hip-hop music. The Babysitters were a popular live act, but never took the time out to record an album. They toured widely in the US, and were seen by a member of the
Rothschild family, who flew the band to
Paris, France, to play at a family ball. The band's appearances in clubs there led in turn to a feature in
Vogue magazine. In early 1969, the band's agent Marv Heiman secured them an audition with
Curtom Records arranger
Donny Hathaway. Heiman states that Hathaway came by the Thumbs Up club and was very impressed by the act, and got Curtom Records head
Curtis Mayfield to come the following night. Mayfield wanted to sign Baby Huey, but not the band. Although the band participated in the recording of Ramey's debut album, there were feelings of unease among them, and Jones quit the band during the recording. It is also likely that Ross had quit some time before. By 1970, Ramey had developed an addiction to heroin, and his weight had increased to over . He began regularly missing gigs or turning up late, and, at the insistence of his bandmates, briefly entered
rehabilitation in the spring of 1970. In addition to the heroin problem, Ramey was also drinking. Melvyn Jones described in his book that once while pouring his breakfast cereal, Ramey's drug kit fell out of the box. ==Death==