Cassow, born Jeremy McKinley, grew up in Portland, Oregon. He attended Benson High School and Grant High School, and dropped out of Western Oregon University after one year to pursue a career in hip-hop.

His stage name was given to him by a friend who thought he painted pictures with his music, and called him Picasso. McKinley dropped the “Pi” and became “Cassow”

McKinley started to build a substantive mixtape discography with Off to Mars, issued in 2010 when he was 19 years old. He released his debut album Gods of the Young on September 7, 2018.