Kramer (musician) - Childhood

Childhood

Kramer was born in 1958 in New York City to a single Jewish mother. His birth father was Joey Bonner, a record promoter during the 1960s and 70s who was once the tour manager for Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin and other soul/R&B artists of the era. At age 2, Kramer was adopted by Gary & Rosalyn Kramer of Long Island; Kramer did not learn of his origins until 2008.

Through his birth father, who died in 2007, Kramer has mixed African American, Polish and Native American ancestry. Kramer has an older brother by birth, from the same set of parents, who was a senior VP in charge of radio promotions at New York City's Jive Records. Kramer's great-great-great-grandfather Essex Bonner fought in an all-black battalion in the US Civil War, and his great-grandmother Pinky Gowakawa was a full-blooded Native American from a tribe based in Virginia.

Kramer's adoptive father, Gary Kramer, sold cars, while Rosalyn Kramer was a Long Island housewife who worked sometimes as a bookkeeper. Kramer graduated from Sachem High School in 1976, then moved to New York City, where he would remain a resident until 2003, living mostly in the Tribeca district.