Sylvia Striplin was born in March 1954, the youngest of five children, and grew up in Harlem's Sugar Hill section before her family moved to the North Bronx after a fire destroyed their home. She spent the 1970s working as a backup singer, and in the late '70s auditioned for the role of Dorothy in a touring production of The Wiz, landing a spot as second understudy with the New York company. She joined Aquarian Dream for the jazz-funk/disco group's second album and stayed with them through their early-1980s breakup.

Shortly after leaving Aquarian Dream, Striplin became associated with vibraphonist Roy Ayers and his Uno Melodic label; Ayers's own career is covered in full in his JazzProfiles.com profile. She was part of the short-lived Eighties Ladies project Ayers guided, which released a single album, Ladies of the '80s, on Uno Melodic in 1980, and she also released solo material with significant help from Ayers himself. Her single "Give Me Your Love," backed with "You Can't Turn Me Away," came out on Uno Melodic in 1980, followed roughly a year later by a full album under the same title.

Striplin never achieved mainstream success, but her voice became instantly recognizable to devout fans of jazzy R&B and the crate-digging "rare groove" scene that grew up around records like hers in early-1990s England. Her song "You Can't Turn Me Away" later found a new audience as a featured track on the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.

Striplin's voice, warm and jazz-inflected within a soul/R&B song structure, exemplifies the sound Roy Ayers's Uno Melodic label built its reputation on, records that found little commercial traction on release but became foundational texts for the rare-groove revival decades later.