In 1971 Charles Stewart was born in Chicago, Illinois, then moved to South Central Los Angeles at a young age with his Grandmother. It was there in high school that he met Lucas MacFadden, better known as Cut Chemist. They joined others to form the seven-person hip-hop group Unity Committee, later splitting into Jurassic 5 and Darkleaf.

Charles Stewart is better known as Chali 2NA, a reference to the deep-voiced animated fish mascot for StarKist Tuna, Charlie The Tuna.