45 rpm single vintage vinyl record playing on a turntable.
Before she made music history as the “Mother of Hip-Hop” with Sugar Hill Records, Sylvia Robinson was already discovering stars—quietly shaping the careers of talented young voices most of the world never knew.
“She was working in D.C., and on the weekends, she flew these kids in from Cleveland to train them herself. That’s how serious she was,” Mason recalls.
The group was called Ponderosa Twins Plus One, and they were built for success: tight harmonies, sweet melodies, and a frontman named Ricky Spicer, whose voice would later echo through decades of music—literally.
Sylvia saw in Ricky what the world saw in young Michael Jackson: raw, soulful talent with an edge of vulnerability. And she wasn’t just a label head—she was hands-on.
“She taught them how to perform, how to sing into a mic, how to deliver,” Mason says. “But more than that, she believed in them like a mother believes in her kids.”
Ricky and the group became regional stars in Ohio and the surrounding states, even scoring local radio hits. Their recordings—particularly “Bound”—were full of lush orchestration and aching vocals. The sound was ahead of its time.
But without the full weight of a machine like Motown behind them, the group couldn’t break nationally. Still, Sylvia held onto the recordings. And decades later, one of those vocal takes would become famous again—this time through the lens of Kanye West.
“He sampled Ricky’s voice on ‘Bound 2,’” Mason says. “You know, the ’Uh-huh, honey’ record? That’s Ricky. From that same group Sylvia raised up.”
Ricky sued—and won—reminding the world that his voice never really faded. It just waited.
“Sylvia saw something most people missed. She didn’t just birth hip-hop. She gave soul singers their first shot. That’s legacy.”
And for a brief moment, Sylvia Robinson and her Cleveland kids almost outpaced the Jackson 5. Almost.
