Kwiecinski was born and raised in Southfield, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. His cousin Wyatt Willard lived with him until he was 10 years old. In elementary school, Kwiecinski was first introduced to the alto sax as well as the piano. After growing up on big horn sounds of funk groups like The Meters, Kwiecinski found himself gravitating towards that influence when he first began making his own music in college. He attended Birmingham Groves High School and then Michigan State University for several years before he dropped out to focus on a music career. It was also during his college years that he had become personally comfortable enough to openly identify as gay. While at Michigan State he would frequently DJ parties at his friends' fraternity houses and play shows in the East Lansing area. GRiZ first became popular with the release of his free debut album, End of the World Party, in 2011. With the release, he ended up supporting bigger artists such as Bassnectar, Pretty Lights, Gramatik, and Big Gigantic on their respective tours, eventually leading to his own headlining tour. Following such success, GRiZ released six more albums, Mad Liberation in 2012, Rebel Era in 2013, Say It Loud in 2015, Good Will Prevail in 2016, Ride Waves in 2019, and Rainbow Brain in 2021. Griz currently resides in downtown Denver and Downtown Detroit.
Kwiecinski created the All Good Records (formerly Liberated Music) label to promote his music, along with electro contemporaries Muzzy Bearr (who also plays guitar live with GRiZ and on several tracks), The Floozies, The Geek x VRV, and Manic Focus. All Good Records describes itself as a label that "reps old school motown soul, future funk, new disco, cutting edge electronica, and anything on the forefront of new sound." Kwiecinski travels across the U.S & Canada playing at festivals such as Summer Camp, Electric Zoo, Electric Forest, Hard Los Angeles, TomorrowWorld, North Coast Festival, Decadence, SnowBall, Lollapalooza and Shambhala. He has collaborated with other artists, including Gramatik, ExMag and Big Gigantic. His fourth album, Say It Loud, was released on March 31, 2015. In 2016, GRiZ released Good Will Prevail which was his first time charting in the Billboard 200. In 2017, GRiZ released a remixed version of Good Will Prevail, named Good Will Continue. The year 2019 saw the release of his sixth album, Ride Waves, that exhibited a new sound style with more rapping and singing than ever before. During the COVID-19 pandemic, GRiZ turned to live streams held via Instagram, Twitch, and YouTube to continue spreading his music.
12 Days of Grizmas, an annual event hosted by Griz, is intended to generate attention and revenue for non-profits. During the twelve days leading up to his annual two-day festival in Detroit called GRiZMAS, all proceeds generated from events are donated to a variety of charities, and fans are often rewarded for their participation.

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