Horace Brown was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and is the son of a Baptist minister. Despite singing in the church as a child, Brown never believed he would sing for a career. Instead, he dreamed of one day being a professional basketball player. However, a knee injury ruined these plans. Brown played a variety of instruments in his school's marching band and managed to score a break when DeVante Swing of Jodeci heard one of Brown's demos. Brown earned spots doing backup for Christopher Williams and did some writing.