petty was born jason emmanuel petty on may 27, 1979 in los angeles, california. in his very early childhood, his family moved into a violent, ethnically mexican neighborhood. as the only black child in the area, he was often teased due to his skin color. later, his family moved again, this time to the suburbs, where his family was known as the "poor black family." he learned to rap, and also took up dance, graffiti, and formal drawing and painting. discovered by underground hip hop collective tunnel rats, he made his debut in 2002 on "speak life" by sev statik. in 2003, petty joined the tunnel rats, and on april 8, 2003, released his solo debut album with uprok records, entitled "out of knowhere". in 2006 he released the "i am not them ep" with tunnel rat music and recorded "live this" as part of tunnel rats-affiliated group footsoldiers. footsoldiers also collaborated with krs-one on his album "life", with petty appearing on the song "i ain't leaving". petty released a second solo ep, "the sketchbook: a small collection of unreleased material", independently in 2008, and his second album, "listen watch focus", also came out in 2008 through end of earth records.