jaja soze was born elijah kerr on 16 february 1980 in birmingham, england, to parents from jamaica. he is the oldest of five siblings and grew up in handsworth, birmingham. kerr attended the westminster primary school where he grew up, looking up to the local sound systems of the '80s whilst also being inspired by a popular local gang called the "incheyes" who later would split up into the johnsons and burger bar gangs. because of domestic disputes in his family, kerr moved to brixton, on the angell town estate in south london in the early '90s where he then became heavily involved in crime, and convicted in 1996 at the age of just 15, for a bank robbery. he would then later be convicted and jailed at age 22, for drug-dealing.