Growing up in turmoil and poverty, rapper Skinnyfromthe9 turned to making bright and carefree-sounding music as an escape from his dark early days. Born David Villegas in 1995, he moved between his birthplace of Florida and New Jersey as his large family went through various troubles with money and the law, sometimes struggling with homelessness. In his late teens, he landed in Somerville, New Jersey to live with his father, working hard at service industry jobs and making original songs in his free time as an escape. In time, his musical tastes expanded, inspired in particula...