Royce da 5.9 Bio

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Simoun Redoblado

Simoun fell in love with Hip Hop when he first heard Eminem's single Lose Yourself in 2002. By the time he was an adult, he tends to listen to exclusively Hip Hop, a trend that continues to this day. As an English teacher, he loves Hip Hop for what it is underneath, beautiful poetry that blends sound, imagery, and wordplay. What's not to love!

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In the ultra-competitive world of hip hop, the goal is to be Batman, not Robin. But some emcees, whether they like it or not, are more Dick Grayson than Bruce Wayne.

Big Boi will always be second fiddle to André 3000; Lauryn Hill clearly outshone Wyclef Jean and Pras, and Havoc was—you have to admit it—slightly less infamous than Prodigy.

As for Royce da 5’9″, he’s a different story.

While the Detroit veteran has gone on record to say that his partner is better than him, Royce doesn’t view anyone else in the rap game who can possibly match his lyrical powers.

Think about this: even if Royce says that he’s the “second best” (as he did so on the 2011 smash hit “Lighters”), he’s still positioning himself above…well, everyone else.

Make no mistake about it: Royce’s career isn’t a sad tale of wasted potential and suppressed talent. Strip away his affiliations with supergroups and tandems—yes, even his partnership with a certain Rap God—and you still have a brilliant wordsmith with a prolific career and boatloads of critical acclaim.

Royce da 5’9″ is his own man, and I’d love to see anyone come up to his face and tell him that he’s a secondary act.

Quick Facts

Early Years

He was born Ryan Daniel Montgomery on July 5, 1977 in Detroit, Michigan. After spending much of his childhood in the Motor City, Ryan moved with his family to Oak Park, a city on the nortern border of Detroit.

In his music, Royce has unfurled compelling tales about his parents Greg Sr. and Judy, as well as his three siblings. For instance, the 2018 skit “Protecting Ryan” depicted how big bro Greg Jr. stabbed a young man who had gotten into a tense situation with young Ryan at a basketball court.

As a result, Greg served a prison sentence while his younger brother made strides in the music industry. (Perhaps out of regret as well as gratitude, Royce ended that skit by saying “Thank you for sacrificing your life so I can have a better life.”)

While watching his big brother repeatedly stab another person must have been harrowing for Ryan, there was undoubtedly a more profound trauma inflicted by his father’s substance abuse.

On the 2018 track “Cocaine,” Ryan recounts how he found a bag of coke in Greg Sr.’s car, and how his father instructed him to not tell his mother about what he saw.

Fortunately for the Montgomery family, this tale had a happy ending: Greg Sr. entered rehab and got clean. In Royce’s mind, his father’s motivation for transformation was clear.

In the aforementi Nas oned 2018 track, he proudly states “He did that because he didn’t want to lose us/Whew, strong man…/My father chose me over cocaine.”

Rap music, then, must have been a place of refuge for the Midwestern lad. Ryan’s childhood coincides with the rapid ascent of hip hop through its so-called “Golden Age,” while his adolescent years saw the rise of beloved ’90s icons.

In a 2020 Instagram Live session with Fat Joe, Royce expressed his admiration for the likes of Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G., Big L, and Nas—legendary emcees who were at their peak when he was a teenager. (I did smirk when Royce gave seven names after Joe clearly stated that he was asking for Royce’s “top 5, dead or alive.”)

The Music Industry Beckons Ryan

The teenage Ryan eventually took his passion to the streets by attending open mic sessions and participating in rap battles. He claims to have found “his calling” as a rapper in 1995, when he got accepted at the open mic held at Detroit’s Ebony Showcase Lounge.

Though his mother Judy wanted him to get a college degree, Ryan knew in his heart that music would be his future. 

A quick note on his stage name: when he was in high school, Ryan started to go by the name Royce. This was because he used to wear a pendant with an R that resembled the Royce logo.

When he signed his first record deal, he took on the name Royce da 5’9.” Not only was that his declared height, but he had also experimented with the 5’9″ moniker as part of his stage name in years past.

In 1997, Royce met Akino “Kino” Childrey, who would then become the manager of his burgeoning music career. With Kino’s help, Royce started to make a name for himself in the Detroit underground scene.

Case in point: Kino got Royce booked as the opening act for an Usher concert at the Palladium shortly after Christmas that year. As it turned out, the ensuing events would be memorable for Royce in more ways than one.

Royce tells the tale of December 29, 1997 in his goosebumps-inducing track “Tabernacle” (off his 2016 mixtape Tabernacle: Trust the Shooter and 2016 album Layers).

The story goes that, before he hit the stage at the Usher concert, he came to see his fiancee who was about to give birth to their first child at a hospital. Royce was on his way to the hospital’s 9th floor when he chanced upon his distressed uncle, who told him that his grandmother had figured in a car accident.

Royce soon found himself in a whirlwind of emotions: his fiancee was in labor on the 9th floor, while his grandmother was holding on to dear life on the 5th floor. In the midst of his emotional chaos, someone reminded him that he had a show that he was contractually obligated to perform at.

Royce sped off to The Palladium and somehow unleashed a scintillating performance. Before Royce left the concert venue shortly past midnight, Kino introduced him to another Detroit emcee who was quickly gaining notoriety in the underground scene.

Though the conversation didn’t last long, Royce and the other emcee instantly developed a strong affinity for each other.

That emcee’s name? Marshal Mathers III.

By the time that Royce had returned to the hospital, his son had already been born. And, sadly, his grandmother had already passed. So it was that on the same day (December 29, 1997), Royce da 5’9″ lost a loved one; became a father; and met the man known around the world as Eminem.

A World of What-ifs

Truth be told, Royce’s 1998 could have marked the biggest break of his entire career. I daresay that, had a few circumstances played out differently, Royce da 5’9″ would have been a megastar in the industry.

To be clear, these conjectures do not concern his talent; no one or nothing can ever take away his exceptional rap skills. What I’m saying is that Royce could have gained access to next-level production and distribution if it weren’t for some decisions made that year.

Here’s one thing that Royce got right, at least in the short-term future: continuing his association with Eminem. Ever since their conversation in the wee hours of December 29, 1997, it was obvious that the two Detroit emcees shared a burning passion for the hip hop industry.

Soon afterward, they were in the studio recording multiple songs. One of these tracks shares its title with the name of the duo’s partnership: Bad Meets Evil.

If this name implies that one element is of greater magnitude than the other, that’s because the careers of the two rappers were about to branch off into different directions.

In March 1998, Eminem signed with Dr. Dre’s Aftermath Entertainment—a move that is directly responsible for the staggering success that he has achieved since.

Did you know that Dre also tried to sign Eminem’s friend Royce? Dre promised a $250,000 budget and unlimited beats in his signature style. Alas, Royce turned down a record deal with Aftermath in favor of a $1 million contract with Tommy Boy Records.

Though a million bucks sounds better than a quarter of a million on paper, Royce has gone on to say that this decision was the biggest regret of his career.

Unfortunately, it was only through the lens of hindsight that Royce realized the true value of Dre‘s offer: a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make full-length albums under the watchful eye of a legendary producer.

With the machinery of Interscope Records amplifying his distribution, Royce’s star power would have been comparable to that of, well, the Dre protege who did sign with Aftermath in 1998.

For what it’s worth, Dre did tap Royce to work on his 2001 project. In particular, Royce co-wrote the album’s final track “The Message.” Though Royce could have perhaps continued to work with Aftermath in the long-term, this prospect did not come to fruition.

Reportedly, his manager Kino had this to say about Aftermath’s head honcho in a Vibe magazine interview: “I’ve seen Em sit Dre down like a pupil and coach him on rhymes.” In turn, Dre allegedly blew a gasket at this comment.

A few years after Royce worked with Aftermath, his relationship with Eminem took a downward spiral of its own. When Royce got into a beef with Em’s D12 friends (supposedly stemming from the competitive nature of the industry, and perhaps a hint of professional jealousy), Em found himself in an unenviable mediator role.

To illustrate which side Eminem picked in this fight, consider this: from 2001 to 2004, he executive-produced two double platinum albums for D12. In that same time frame, Royce released first two studio albums; between these projects, Eminem contributed just one feature. You be the judge.

His Own Man

Royce, of course, wouldn’t allow any artist—iconic emcee or otherwise—to hold him back. Though he did not release any project while contracted to Tommy Boy Records, he began to make serious headway on his first studio album after he signed with Columbia and Game Recordings.

On November 26, 2002, Royce finally dropped his debut record. Named Rock City in honor of his home turf, the album exuded a strong underground rap aesthetic, with hardly any regard for commercial viability by means of pop.

The album’s highlights include the title track (which features the aforementioned Eminem guest verse), “Mr. Baller” (a Neptunes-produced track), and “Boom” (the first of many, many collaborations with the almighty Christopher “DJ Premier” Martin).

Over the course of the 2000s, Royce expanded his discography by releasing more projects that embodied the independent vibe. As was the case with Rock City, Royce’s focus was on establishing his credibility as a lyricist; crossover appeal appeared to be rather low on his checklist.

On 2004’s Death is Certain, his dark introspection reigns supreme; and on 2005’s Independent’s Day, he doubles down on his untethered persona by rounding up a number of hungry collaborators from the independent scene.

I admire Royce’s audacity for taking a straight hip hop approach to his first few albums, but I can’t deny that this strategy is a double-edged sword.

While it must have been artistically satisfying for him to stay loyal to the genre, his aversion to the bag of mainstream tricks meant that his albums wouldn’t have a decent shot at topping the charts. Whether it was by design or not, none of his first four albums had anywhere close to a stellar commercial performance.

Again, this is no knock on his technical prowess. All I’m saying is: had Royce made the call to tweak these albums in a more radio-friendly fashion, he might have made more noise in the hip hop arena of the 2000s.

Doors Opened, Doors Closed

Before the decade ended, Royce’s career was marred by a number of issues. Around the time that Independent’s Day was released, his feud with D12 member (and former friend) Proof reached a feverish pitch.

After an incident in which the two emcees drew guns on the streets of Detroit, Royce and Proof had to spend a night in jail. As fate would have it, they were placed in adjacent cells; this proximity allowed them to talk it out, put an end to their beef, and even broach ideas about working together.

However, that wouldn’t be the last time that Royce would go behind bars. On September 18, 2006, he was sentenced to a year in prison for offenses of driving while intoxicated and driving with a suspended license.

Though losing twelve months of progress was a blow to Royce’s career, the bigger picture was the alcoholism that he’d been battling for years. Try as he might, Royce could not get this monkey off his back.

After completing his prison sentence in 2007, Royce went right back to work. Over the next two years, he self-distributed two mixtapes in The Bar Exam series, wrote a single for Diddy’s fourth studio album, and made an appearance on a track by Canadian artist Promise.

Aside from getting back on track in his career, Royce saw doors opening and reopening. And this time, he wasn’t about to blow the opportunities that came his way.

In 2008, news broke out that Royce and Eminem had buried the hatchet. (As Royce put it in their 2011 track “Fast Lane”: “Me and Shady deaded the past, so that basically resurrected my cash flow”). This would pave the way for more Bad Meets Evil music to come out in the future.

That same year, Royce appeared on the Joe Budden song “Slaughterhouse” alongside Joell Ortiz, Crooked I, and Nino Bless.

This song marked the beginning of Budden, Ortiz, Crooked I, and Royce working as a collective unit moving forward. As for their supergroup’s name…well, they had to look no further than the title of that pivotal song.

As a result of wounds healed and friendships formed, Royce took part in several exciting projects over the next few years.

In August 2009, Slaughterhouse released their first collaborative record; two months later, Royce dropped his fourth album Street Hop, which featured guest verses from his Slaughterhouse peers.

In 2011, Royce’s new friends became closely associated with his old partner when Eminem signed Slaughterhouse to Shady Records. Shortly afterwards, Bad Meets Evil made their official comeback by releasing the EP Hell: The Sequel.

Aside from “Fast Lane,” I have a special place in my heart for the Bruno Mars-assisted tracks “Lighters.” On both of these singles, Royce matches Eminem bar for bar, punchline for punchline. (I honestly cannot say this for 99% of the artists who work with Em, who upstages his collaborators far too often.)

Two months after Hell: The Sequel dropped, Royce released his fifth studio album Success is Certain. Who can blame him for choosing such a presumptuous title when he had the backing of Eminem, Mr. Porter, Luis Resto, and Joe Budden as producers and guest artists?

Royce’s hubris was validated when the album peaked at number 25 on the Billboard 200—his best performance on the chart thus far.

Royce contributed to four more collaborative albums in the 2010s. In 2012, Slaughterhouse released their second album Welcome to: Our House; and in 2014, the quartet joined other talents from Shady Records to put together the compilation album Shady XV. 

If you haven’t listened to this project yet, I recommend the smooth-as-hell “Y’all Ready Know” and the killer track “Detroit vs. Everybody.”

These are two of the finest ensemble pieces I have ever heard in my hip hop fandom. (Also in 2012, Royce notched another W when he finally beat his alcoholism and went sober. Hooray for Nickel!)

In addition to these projects, Royce got together with DJ Premier (you know, the guy who produced “Ten Crack Commandments”) to form the hip hop duo PRhyme.

Royce and Preem released two albums as a collective unit: 2014’s PRhyme and 2018’s PRhyme 2. I’d have to say, though, that my favorite Royce and Preem team-up was their 2018 appearance on Hot 97, in which Preem worked the tables while Royce freestyled to “N.Y. State of Mind.” (Those ecstatic reactions by Funkmaster Flex get me every time!)

While Royce’s ties with Eminem and DJ Premier remain strong to this day, the same cannot be said for the bond among the Slaughterhouse members. After disagreements over the production and tracklist of their long-delayed third album, the quartet decided to go their separate ways.

Royce himself announced the disbandment of Slaughterhouse on Twitter. Though this is not quite the biggest what-if of his career, I certainly wish that Budden, Ortiz, Royce, and Crooked I would have stuck together as a group for a longer period of time.

The Refinement of a Veteran

If Royce would have called it a career after his joy ride with Bad Meets Evil, Slaughterhouse, and PRhyme, his body of work would have still been respectable. In my eyes, though, he firmly cemented his legacy as an emcee extraordinaire when he released the most polished work of his discography from 2016 to 2020.

I should first note that the cliche of rap being a young emcee’s game is absolutely true. Rappers tend to release their most memorable work in the dawn of their adulthood, when they are thirsty to prove themselves.

In the case of Royce, I’d say that his sixth, seventh, and eighth albums stand out in terms of their level of refinement. Pardon the second cliche, but Royce really did age like fine wine.

In 2016, he released the project Layers, which debuted at number 22 on the Billboard 200. On Layers, he is more dedicated than ever to the art of story-telling, though songs like “Startercoat” and “Misses” some pointed imperfections in this regard.

Nevertheless, the depth of his introspection in this aptly titled album is something for hip hop fans to behold.

Royce followed this up with Book of Ryan in 2018. This album turned out to be an even more cohesive narrative than its predecessor, thanks to its clear focus on Royce’s family background and its impact on his own development as a person.

Though this album is one of his more star-studded solo projects, I’d point to the track “Cocaine” (where Royce is rapping and singing on his own) as the most poignant song on the tracklist.

My personal favorite, however, would have to be “Caterpillar,” where Eminem dropped a guest verse that was better than just about every song on Revival and Kamikaze.

Then, in 2020, Royce dropped The Allegory. Infused with historical and social commentary (for better or for worse, I might add), Royce paints a realistic picture of life in the America that he inhabits.

The Allegory went on to be nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2021 Grammy Awards, the first such Grammy nod for a Royce solo album.

Could Royce ever win a major industry award or land a number one album one of these days? He’s up there in age, but he doesn’t appear to have any signs of throwing in the towel any time soon.

In the meantime, Royce da 5’9″ can hang his hat on a prize that’s perhaps more prestigious than either of those accolades: well-earned respect from an industry that recognizes him as one of the finest wordsmiths to ever do it.

Legacy

Royce’s career deserves to be remembered in its varying contexts. As a supporting act and a team member, Royce more than held up his own alongside other impeccable poets. As a solo artist, he carved his own niche as a lyricist that everyone should respect and no one can touch.

Whether he was better on his own or with others is a matter of personal taste, but there’s no denying that Royce put in the hard work all these years to ascend to the higher tiers of hip hop.

Why is Royce da 5’9″ Influential?

Royce’s body of work is a fine example of how artists can gain a foothold in the industry without relying too heavily on crossover appeal.

His steadfast devotion to a straight-up hip hop approach (especially in his first few albums) paved the way for artists like J. Cole and Chance the Rapper to achieve success in the industry with an independent spirit and a DIY approach.

FAQs

Bottom Line

In his 2018 track “Caterpillar,” Royce raps “It’s completely normal to hold on to a regret or two.” This line bears the weight of decisions that he’s made in his career and personal life—deals that he could have signed, relationships that he could have strengthened, and even drinks that he could have refused.

However, if that line is anything to go by, Royce has made peace with what he’s done and who he’s become after all these years. Indeed, it’s not all farfetched to think that, in the inner workings of his intricate mind, Royce da 5’9″ might as well be Royce the number one.

Sources

• https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/apr/26/eminem-royce-da-5-9
• https://www.allmusic.com/artist/royce-da-59-mn0000351749/biography
• https://www.mtv.com/news/hvl07m/royce-da-5-9-eminem-record
• https://www.mtv.com/news/tqwzo1/eminem-stretch-bobbito-radio-changed-lives
• https://www.vibe.com/music/music-news/royce-da-59-better-with-age-676127/
• https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/royce-59-sobriety-family-layers-album-track-by-track-7340701/
• https://tidal.com/magazine/article/royce-da-59-5-albums-that-changed-my-life/1-25926
• https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/2018/04/29/royce-da-5-9-joins-friends-family-hometown-book-ryan-party-detroit/562495002/
• https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/2016/06/04/sober-royce-da-59-rapper/85321924/
• https://genius.com/8762678
• https://hiphopdx.com/news/id.15032/title.royce-da-59-talks-eminems-ocd-delusional-canibus-and-writing-for-dr-dres-detox
• https://hiphopdx.com/news/id.31714/title.royce-da-59-recalls-past-feud-with-proof-d12
• https://hiphopdx.com/news/id.68370/title.royce-da-59-joe-budden-show-disapproval-for-joell-ortiz-kxng-crooked-new-slaughterhouse
• https://www.detroitnews.com/story/entertainment/2020/03/10/turmoil-behind-him-royce-da-59-finds-his-slice-heaven/4977113002/
• https://bossnetworth.com/royce-da-59-net-worth/