INTERVIEW: Prince Royce on The Bronx, His Start In Music, Working with J.Lo & More | Artist Stories

Four full-length studio albums, a long list of award nominations and wins, and several world tours later, and Geoffrey Royce Rojas from the Bronx is now international recording artist Prince Royce. The 27-year-old recently shared his story with iHeartRadio through our Artist Stories series, where we got a first-hand look at his musical journey.

Prince Royce is from The Bronx in New York City, and over the course of his career has mostly released music in Spanish throughout his first three full-length albums. But, last year, he released his fourth studio album, Double Vision, entirely in English. He tells us in his Artist Story, "Everyone's dream is to get out [of] the hood. That was always my dream, and even my dream now is to be a positive role model to these kids who live where I lived."

On growing up in the Bronx & how the city has impacted him

"I feel like everyone has this perspective of the Bronx like, 'Oh my God, you should never go there.' I think the Bronx, obviously, it's a difficult city to live in. But for me, it was never a place where I had bad memories. I lived humbly with my family, I had sneakers, food to eat. I think if it wasn't for this community, I would've never had the motivation to do what I do."

On the first time he heard himself on the radio

"It wasn't until I heard myself on the radio [that] I felt myself starting to do true progress. And I was still living in the projects when I heard myself on the radio, by the way. I was in my bedroom, I had the window open, and downstairs, there was always this old man that would blast this little radio he had, and it sounded like my song, I ran over to the radio, it was my song. And I think that moment was a moment where I saw that things could truly be a reality."

Speaking of the Bronx, it's the city where another very talented artist is from: Jennifer Lopez. Prince Royce and J.Lo collaborated on a song called "Back It Up" off his latest album Double Vision (which also features Pitbull). 

On what it was like collaborating with Jennifer Lopez

"Jennifer Lopez, I met her a few times, a few years back at some award shows. And then, when we started to work together on the song 'Back It Up,' was when we really started to get close. We talk about New York often, actually. She really appreciates family, she really knows what the grind is, when you see her coming from the Bronx, you know it's because we can do it. Because if you really do your thing, and hustle right, and go out there, anybody can do it."