Jonathan (Yoni) Wolf, aka Why?, was born to a rabbi and a painter in late spring Cincinnati, grew up playing kickball in the cul de sac and watching 8-bit Nintendo in his big brother's attic bedroom. The minor key melodies of religious music and the tight belt, tight-laced shoes of his soft-spoken middle childhood in part provide the impetus for Why?'s candytime-dissonant, singsong-suicide style.

The discovery of an ancient 4-track in the basement of his dad's synagogue during his pre-high school summer led Why? to a few weeks of analog experimentation that anticipated his future recording obsession. In the following years, he rapped and played drums in public school, pizza stain, pot smoke garage bands; wrote bad poetry; and became serious about drawing.

In 1997, while attending art school at the University of Cincinnati, Why? met Dose One, a camouflaged hungry freestyle rapper, with whom he formed the live improvisational group Apogee along with his older brother and Mr. Dibbs. With his saved up tips from waiting bar mitzvah reception tables, Why? bought a 4-track and, after a year of working in his bedroom at his parents' house, finished his first tape. In the fall of '98 Why? and Dose rented a basement apartment and began recording super lo-fi rap as Greenthink, dubbing tapes one by one and selling them on the internet with hand-drawn covers.