Michael Victor Whatley Jr was born on December 1st, 1990 at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC to Diane Reed Whatley and Michael Victor Whatley Sr. He was raised in Northeast Washington DC. He attended Maury Elementary School, Holy Comforter Middle School, Eastern Senior High School, DeMatha Catholic High School, Tennessee State University, and began studying at University of the District of Columbia January 2024. It was in the 2nd grade after joining the speech club that he fell in love with poetry after learning to recite the poem "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou and "Harriet Tubman" by Eloise Greenfield. He later gravitated to Langston Hughes, Shel Silverstein, and Tupac Shakur.  He Self Published his first poetry book "Trying To Be Grown" August 27th, 2012 while attending Tennessee State University. It was a compilation of his poetry from High School and College.

Michael is also a songwriter registered with the American, Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. He produces and records music under the artist name "MVwhat"