ninjoi. was born Joshua Batista on February 22, 1996, in Queens, New York. He grew up listening to 90's hip-hop which inspires his music today. When he was 10, he would stay up watching Adult Swim, which introduced him to J Dilla, Flying Lotus and Nujabes. He attended Bard High School Early College where he took a music theory course and began to compose classical music on the computer.