Faheem Najm was born in Tallahassee, Florida to parents Shaheed Najm and Aliyah Najm. At the age of ten, Faheem reworked his bedroom into a studio and began composing music. Faheem graduated James S. Rickard's High School. He was part of the Tallahassee rap group Nappy Headz. In 2002, he founded his own label, Hard & B. and soon got singer Akon's attention by doing a remix of Akon's "Locked Up", Akon noticed the song and signed T-Pain to his newly formed Konvict Music record label.