 Melvin Lewis Calhoun Jr. was born on January 1, 1977 in Kansas City, Missouri, where he spent his childhood.By the 1990s he was involved in the underground hardcore rap scene of Kansas City, and he began actively recording in the late 1990s.Rapping professionally since 1998, that year Calhoun appeared on the album "Center Piece of the Puzzle" by Snug Brim, using the alias Cutt Dawg.