elawolf was born in Gadsden, Alabama. He spent much of his childhood in various locations around the southern United States, including Baton Rouge,Louisiana, Atlanta, Georgia, and Antioch, Tennessee. Atha is of Caucasian and Cherokee descent, and the name Yelawolf is a reference to his Native American roots. Yelawolf is an avid skateboarder and made attempts at a professional skateboarding career but was forced to abandon it due to injuries. Yelawolf began releasing mixtapes independently in 2007. He was briefly signed toColumbia Records in 2007 and left the label the same year along with Kawan "KP" Prather. In 2010 he appeared in the track "Down This Road" from Bizarre's third studio album Friday Night at St. Andrews, in Big Boi's first solo album Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty track "You Ain't No DJ" which was produced by André 3000, and his most recent appareance is in Paul Wall's fifth studio album Heart of a Champion track "Live It" which also features Jay Electronica and Raekwon, produced by Travis Barker. In 2010, Atha confirmed he has signed with Interscope Records, he announced that he is working in his debut studio album with the label, and has a desire to work with Eminem.
On July 2, 2010, Yelawolf told Rap-Up that he went to Eminem's Studio in Detroit, Michigan to meet him and record a track for Yelawolf's upcoming debut studio album titled Trunk Muzik: 0-60, being his first project with a major label and set to be released at October 26 of the year under Ghet-O-Vision Entertainment/Interscope Records.