 Santiago was born in the Santurce district of San Juan, Puerto Rico.In his younger years Santiago lived between the Bólivar and Sánchez streets in the Parada 22 area of Santurce.At the age of 13, Santiago and his family moved to the Nemesio Canales public housing project where he was eventually nicknamed ""El Grifo de Canales"" ("The kinky-haired of Canales") by close friends and fans.