Born Lorenzo Lee-jae Wright on February 11, 1989 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, he is the son of Jamaican immigrants. He grew up in Parma Court, a low-income neighborhood in the city’s east end. He was given the moniker “Lean” as a child, after a friend mistook his mother calling him “Lee” a short form of his middle name “Lee-jae.” He later went on to use “Big Lean” as his stage name. He was one of three children. His parents split up when he was a child and his mother was left to raise him on her own. She was very supportive and told him he could do anything he wanted as long as he put his mind to it. He discovered his passion for rap when he was 19 years old, 2 years after his friend Blitz, a local rapper died. Lean had never thought about rapping before but somehow felt it was his duty to carry on his friend’s legacy. Hush aka Young Tony, a fellow Parma Court artist and friend was Lean’s rap mentor. “I learned a lot from him, just by watching him and listening to him rap,” said Lean.

When asked how he wants to be known, Big Lean had this to say: “I want to be known as the kid from Toronto, Canada, from metro housing, the projects, who did it big from the ground up and never for

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