DonFu was born Terrence Diondrez Pettgrew in 1986. Based on the North side of Tyler, Texas, Terrence began rapping in 2013 Freestyling with his homies, acting as a founding member of the loosely based local collective the Rosemont Music Group. He started out working with his friend Young Rari, making mixtapes then his style took shape. His solo debut, Don Madden17, arrived in 2016, already ensconced in local excitement due to the single "North Tyler Dopeman" that preceded the album. On the anthem-level strength of "NTDM," the album was an enormous hit and set the stage for what would become decades of dark, heavy street-influenced sounds from DonFu.