T., was based upon his childhood impressions regarding the lack of respect from white people for his family: In 1970, he legally changed his last name to T. After his father left when he was five, he shortened his name to Lawrence Tero. His father, Nathaniel Tureaud, was a minister. Tureaud, with his four sisters and seven brothers, grew up in a three-room apartment in the Robert Taylor Homes.
T was born Laurence Tureaud in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest son in a family with twelve children.
