
That same year, he attended Hernández Middle School in Chicago, where he befriended female rap artist Kay-Mice, the surrogate sister of Da Brat. At this point, he was kicked out of his mother's house and was never heard from again. In 2004, Dex had a disagreement with his mother over his grandmother's tragic death. Dex's grandmother died eight days later after suffering from an "after-burn". Tragically, in 2001, while his grandmother was inside the 7 World Trade Center on the eighteenth row, several jets crashed onto the twin towers of the World Trade Center, amid the September 11 attacks. A year later, his grandmother spent annual time in New York City (Dex's birthplace). However, with a population of fostered children on the rise in mid-2000, he reunited with his mother and the two settled down. After seeing this, he left his family alone and used his mother's lost jewelry to buy himself a house. Dex was released from a Catholic school and sent back to the Robert Taylor Homes, but his return was short-lived when the building of the complex was demolished in 1998. Later, his father was charged with conspiracy, drug and weapon possession and assault he was sentenced to death and was publicly executed that September. In January 1997, Dex's father got fired from his job as a lieutenant of the military. Unfortunately, Dex's mother financial condition turned out poor At seven years of age, he was sent out to a Catholic school located in Hyde Park. While New Jersey Drive, directed by Nick Gomez and produced by Spike Lee, premiered in April, Dex began listening to hip hop and R&B, but dangerously, his family lived on a top floor of the Robert Taylor Homes on the South Side section of Chicago. Enraged, Dex's father left the family to attend the military while the rest flew to Chicago, Illinois.

Also, the building was severely used as a setting on part of the 1995 crime drama, New Jersey Drive, which details the growing automotive theft rate in Newark, New Jersey.

By the end of 1994, his family's apartment complex was foreclosed on a government loan. There, he met and befriended classmate and rapper Azealia Banks. While living inside an apartment, Dex attended a head start education center. After his sister's death, Dex's mother relocated the family to 145th Street & Lenox Ave., Harlem's dangerous, crime-riddled street address. Seven days before his first birthday in late 1994, Dex's elder sister was gunned down in a drive-by shooting while exiting a local McDonald's. Dex was also the fourth youngest of twelve children, the fourth of five half-siblings, as well as the youngest of 31⁄2 step-siblings. He lived in Harlem, one of Manhattan's historical neighborhoods. was born on Septemin Manhattan, a borough of New York City, New York, to deceased parents Dexter Gore, Sr.
