Prince Royce was raised in the Bronx and he doesn’t forget where he’s from. The 28-year-old recently released a new music video with Shakira called “Déjà vu” and he shares what keeps him motivated and inspired to write these songs. he’s known for his lyrics, since he doesn’t come from a musical background, but it was his poetry that got him writing the beautiful songs he’s so well-known for.
“I was in a poetry jam-like class in high school. It was an extracurricular thing I had to take, and we did jam sessions and we started writing and figuring out rhyming and metaphors. I still have the notebook of the poetry I started writing from that. I was writing a lot of English stuff and then I transitioned to writing in Spanish. People were like, ‘Oh that’s cool!’ and I think that helped me a lot. I wrote a lot of poetry before I did songs,” says Royce to Bazaar.

He grew up in the Bronx in the Patterson Projects and he doesn’t forget where he came from. “I try and represent where I’m from every time,” he says. “I think we’re in a time where we should promote unity and be together. He released an album last year called Five where he has collaborations with a mix of artists, including Pitbull, Tyga, Shakira, and Zendaya. “A lot of these songs I wrote at home. I have a studio in my house, New York, and LA. Some are experiences, some are just things that happened to my friends and family. Almost every song has some connection with my life experience. If it’s not the present, it is the past. So every song is connected to me in some way, shape or form.”
“I’m from the Bronx. I grew up in Patterson Projects; my biggest motivation is not going back to the projects. The motivation is that I know what it feels like to be poor, I know what it feels like to live in the hood. So now I’m successful and making money and able to help my family out, to inspire the youth or people like me, Latinos from the Bronx, or people that grew up like me—they know what I’m talking about with that environment. I think that’s my motivation: you continue to work hard because you know what the lavish life is, and you know what it is to struggle. I always try to talk about that story because I think it inspires a lot of people and it takes a lot of hard work and perseverance and believing in yourself. It needs to start with you. If you don’t believe in yourself, no one will. So that’s what drives me. My family, my friends, my cousins come to Miami and they’re able to party and have fun and I get them drinks and whatever, and that’s not something I would do back in the day. I think family, friends and my fans are my inspiration. I don’t want to let anybody down.”