Lithofayne Pridgon is best known today for her association with Jimi Hendrix, widely believed to be the inspiration for his 1967 song "Foxy Lady," though she was in her own right a notable figure in Harlem's 1960s music scene as a singer-songwriter, not merely a companion to famous men. Cultural critic Greg Tate has pushed back against her reduction to a footnote in Hendrix's story, describing her as a superstar in her own right. Her story matters because it restores context to a woman whose cultural significance in Black music circles of the era has often been overshadowed by her romantic ties to more famous male musicians.

Born in Moultrie, Georgia, in 1940 and largely raised by her paternal grandmother, Pridgon was introduced to the music world through summer visits to her mother in Massachusetts, meeting Little Willie John at 15 and later Sam Cooke and James Brown, with whom she remained a lifelong friend. She met Hendrix, then still known as "Jimmy" and only 19, at the Apollo Theatre stage door in 1963, later realising they had crossed paths a year earlier at one of the notorious "sets" hosted by Harlem figure Jack "Fat Jack" Taylor. The pair became inseparable, occasionally living together in Harlem while writing songs, and their well-documented closeness has fuelled the enduring belief that she was the "Foxy Lady" of Hendrix's later hit.