In Los Angeles, Pineda attended John Marshall High School, where he met and befriended William Adams (stage name will.i.am), the nephew of Hudgens' roommate. Pineda's early musical influences were Stevie Wonder, The Eagles, The Beatles, A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Leaders of the New School and the Filipino rock/folk group Asin. Pineda was introduced to hip hop by break dancing. "I would take the jeepney all the way to Angeles City, and that's how I got introduced to break dancing," he said. "I would see kids at the corner break-dancing and I'm like, 'I wanna do that.'" Pineda revealed to "People Magazine" in 2011 that he is legally blind in both of his eyes, suffering from nystagmus and has had this condition his entire career. His vision was corrected in 2012.