He was the frontman for the band Baby Huey & the Babysitters,[2] whose sole LP for Curtom Records in 1971 was influential in the development of hip-hop music.

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.

Huey began wearing an Afro and donned psychedelic African-inspired robes, and adding sing-song, self-referential rhymes to his live performances.

[1] 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.

He began regularly missing gigs or turning up late, and, at the insistence of his bandmates, briefly entered rehabilitation in the spring of 1970.

The 2020 Netflix true crime documentary Fear City: New York vs The Mafia, the 2011 film The Lincoln Lawyer, the 2019 Norwegian HBO Max series Beforeigners and the 2023 miniseries The Continental: From the World of John Wick also use "Hard Times" as the opening theme.