Tyler Gregory Okonma[10] was born on March 6, 1991 in Ladera Heights, California,[2] the son of a Nigerian father with Igbo ancestry and an American mother of mixed African-American and European-Canadian descent.[11][12] He never met his father[13] and spent his early life living in Ladera Heights and nearby Hawthorne.[2][14] At the age of seven, he would take the cover out of an album's case and create covers for his own imaginary albums—including a tracklist with song lengths—before he could even make music.[15] At the age of 14, he taught himself to play the piano.[16] In his 12 years of schooling, he attended 12 different schools in the Los Angeles and Sacramento areas.[17] He worked at FedEx for just under two weeks, and Starbucks for over two years.[18] Okonma took his stage name from a Myspace page he used to post his creative endeavors.[19]