Born in South London and raised in Stockwell, Rhys began his artistic practice as a teenager doing graffiti, tagging the streets in and around the council estate where he grew up. His street work drew upon overheard conversations and his own stream of consciousness, incredibly creating a SAMO-style of poetry before Rhys had formally learned of Basquiat and the 1970s New York street scene.

Upon graduating from Croydon School of Art in 2014, Rhys took his practice from the streets to a purpose built studio, opening his work up to unexpected techniques and concepts. During college and university, Rhys turned his focus from illustration and screen printing to Gyotaku printing, a traditional Japanese process made extremely difficult by the unpredictable surfaces found on the nostalgic plush toys which Rhys, a life long fan of toy culture, uses as subjects.