When Rock was 13 years old, he got sent away to a youth detention program for fighting in school and committing robberies. When Rock turned 19, he was sent to prison; it was there where he learned to blend calming melodies with hard street stories.“There were people up there singing in the yard. They were doing the same thing that I was doing, but they were serious with it,” he remembers. “There would be crowds around them and that was our entertainment, everybody loved it.” PnB wrote his entire first mixtape RNB (Real Nigga Bangaz), while he was locked up and eventually released in 2014. “My first mixtape was highly anticipated in my city and I drove around selling them hand-to-hand,” he says, remarking that he barely made any money off the sales after he factored in the cost of gas. “It was all love because people got to take pictures and meet me face-to-face.”