Phyllis Linda Hyman was born July 6, 1949, in Pittsburgh and raised in Philadelphia. Working New York City clubs early in her career, she was spotted by producer Norman Connors and contemporaries Jean Carne and Roberta Flack. In 1975, Connors was recording You Are My Starship (1976) and couldn't get permission to use his preferred vocalist, Jean Carne. He'd heard about Hyman, who was performing at a club on Manhattan's Upper West Side; after seeing her perform following a Jon Lucien concert at Carnegie Hall, he offered her the female vocalist spot on his fourth album for Buddah Records.

The title track got airplay on jazz radio, and You Are My Starship went gold, launching Hyman's career alongside Connors's and bassist Michael Henderson's. R&B radio followed suit, and Connors and Hyman scored again with a remake of the Stylistics' "Betcha by Golly, Wow." Hyman recorded with Pharoah Sanders and the Fatback Band while working on her own debut, the self-titled Phyllis Hyman, released on Buddah Records in 1977.

Hyman died June 30, 1995, just before she was slated to appear at the Apollo Theater with vocal group the Whispers, by suicide from an overdose, after a long struggle with addiction and depression, according to her sister.

Hyman's rich, jazz-schooled contralto, discovered and shaped through a genuine jazz apprenticeship with Norman Connors, Pharoah Sanders, and other working jazz musicians, made her one of the defining vocal voices linking 1970s soul-jazz to R&B radio.