Sean Kingston was the first to see a video of Lanez freestyling over Lloyd Banks' " Beamer, Benz, or Bentley", who seemed to be really interested in his singing skills. While Lanez lived in South Florida, he began directing some of his music videos, and posted them on his YouTube channel. In 2009, Tory Lanez released his debut mixtape, T.L 2 T.O. However, he had never received any vocal training. At the age of 17, Daystar began singing, which he found interest in. At the age of 16, Daystar dropped out of the tenth grade, and he would begin performing songs at the outdoor concerts. He then once again started rapping, before giving himself a nickname, Notorious (which is a reference to the late rapper Notorious B.I.G., whom he idolized), and adopted into his new moniker "Tory Lanez". It changed the person that I am today", he says. That’s what made me a man, having to fend for myself and being in a situation where there is no dad, no grandma and no mom to help you. From like fifteen to eighteen, I was just fighting them. I came into the house and I didn’t realize how things worked.
"I ended up moving downtown with these three dudes that I didn’t really know. Since she refused to take care of him, he was on his own at the age of 15. Daystar then was forced to return to Toronto with his grandmother. In 2006, he was sent to live with older brother, Orane Forrest, in Jamaica, Queens, New York, because of his behavior issues. Daystar's nickname "Lanez" was given to him by Hakeem, as a comment on Daystar's thrill seeking tendencies, that sometimes saw him mucking around in the street, not looking for traffic and playing in the lanes. Daystar's father later remarried and the family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where Daystar met his friend Hakeem, who at the time was a janitor. Following his mother's death, his father began working as an ordained minister and missionary, causing them both to move frequently throughout the United States.
Throughout his childhood, Daystar was known to practice and refine his rapping skills, before tragically finding out that his mother had passed away, due to a rare disease. The family was based in Montreal, before moving to Miami, Florida. Daystar Peterson was born on July 27, 1992, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to his father (Sonstar Peterson, who is from Barbados) and mother (Luella Peterson, who is from the Caribbean island Curacao).