May 26, 1981 a star was born in Jersey City, NJ his name? Roberto Lopez, who is known as “Puerto Roc.”

Now a 30 year old tall, handsome, ladies’ man with an impeccable eye for fashion, the gift of attracting people to clubs like moths to a flame, and an undying desire to make it in this rap game with his powerful lyrics and knowledge of a good beat and how to marry the two and make it FUEGO (fire in Spanish) This man has nowhere to go but up.

But life wasn’t always so promising for Puerto Roc formally known as B.O.B. Growing up wasn't a walk in the park it was more like a walk through hell, with no father figure nor his mother around, his grandmother Millagros known to Roberto as mom took him in, and raised him as her own for as long as she could. He first lived in Union City, N.J. then did a lot of moving around between different cities in N.J., from the Boulevard East, West New York area in N.J. to Englewood, and the Jersey City area.

Roberto was always an athletic person playing peewee football and basketball all throughout grammar school and high school until his grades started slipping, with his grandmother speaking predominately Spanish her ability to help with school work or seek the help her grandson so desperately needed was very limited, this in turn caused Roberto to start focusing his attention elsewhere and that is when the allure of the hood or street life claimed their latest victim. This is what took a kid with dreams of being a football sensation because of his love of the game, to just another statistic loving the ways of the street; he began coming home late, not attending school, partying and having complete disregard for authority. Roberto’s grandmother saw that she had lost the control needed to raise a young man his age and decided to let his real mother Jacqueline Lopez, try to get things under control before things went from bad to worse, so at the age of 11 Roberto moved in with his mother in Jersey City his Birth Place.

Roberto recalls his first day of 6th grade in Jersey City, NJ because it started with a fight and a lesson; at this new location you had to earn your respect or “get rolled on”, in his own words. Roberto kept his head held high and developed a survival mode of never backing down to anyone, he didn’t care how big or tall you were or how deep his enemies came because he knew that in this place it was survival of the fittest and that only the brave survived.

As time passed he adapted and even made long lasting bonds, his dreams of playing football in high school and maybe even college were very much still alive until he was told that due to age, grade qualifications and having been left back in grammar school he could not and would not play. This really crushed Roberto and once again he turned his attention elsewhere, if he couldn’t pursue the sport and dream of football then money and women were going to be his next conquest.

This is when he met Shantanee Candelaria his first love, first girlfriend and the mother to his first born Syanne. With great loves comes great responsibility and at 19 years old he now had a family to support, so he dropped out of high school and got a 9-5. While at work he would listen to music he loved the sound and tried to kick a verse as he explains, he liked the way he sounded and just like that his love for music and rapping began. Music and all the possibilities it brought consumed his every thought, “music” couldn’t be taken away from him because of his age, lack of academic achievements, or because he was born into chaos and didn’t have the opportunities that most have, right then and there he decided that even though so many things had gone wrong and some of his dreams weren’t attainable this music thing would happen one way or another! He started buying instrumentals, writing to each beat, and paying for his own studio time. He then decided to start a group called “Glorious Gangsta” with a couple friends. Everything was going well and looking promising until the tragic day his best friend Eddie Flores died, this was a blow that Roberto wouldn’t just bounce back from immediately he put everything on pause, this was his best friend/ his brother and the first person he ever loved to die so it proved too much for him to handle at the time.
Unfortunately, from there things didn’t get any better Roberto and his daughter’s mom separated, he lost his job and in turn had to move back in with his mother. The relationship with his mother was never as close as a mother/son relationship should be, they argued a lot and it came to the point that their disagreements got him kicked out of his mother’s house and left to live on the streets. He slept in hallways, rooftops, and parks this was the lowest point in his life and it was also when he got introduced to the “drug game”. Not to make excuses but sometimes circumstance breeds outcomes and people have to do what is needed to survive, selling drugs was the means to an end and Roberto was definitely hungry for the end. He didn’t enter the drug game with the ignorance some people get caught up with, he had a plan and he was ready to put it in action. Roberto was making enough money to support himself, his daughter and get back into the music game full force!

This is when he met a reggaeton artist named “Nexuz”, which he believed in enough to invest money in and start managing. He named this new crew B.M.S. which stood for “Boricuas Sin Miedo”. This new crew is what led to the Dominicans and Puerto Ricans in the area and in the music game to form an alliance called “United Family”. Everything once again in Roberto’s life was looking promising until Nexuz decided he no longer needed a manager or a team because he sold two songs to Universal Records for $200.000. (Or so he thought) but for Roberto this was another door closed and the frustration was at an all-time high because of all the money, time, and effort he put into Nexuz and making the project work. Life is funny though and Karma is the biggest bitch of them all because Nexuz betrayed Roberto and the crew for money he never received.
With this last let down, Roberto went back to doing the only thing that had gone right for him thus far “selling drugs”. Sometimes blessings come in a disguise because he got arrested for selling drugs twice and after the second time he knew that while the drug game produced quick money he needed his freedom more than he needed the cash and so he decided to dedicate himself fully to MUSIC. Roberto then got a job and started recording and making music videos on his own and this is what led to him being recognized by DJ Bacan from La Mega After Party, which is now known as X 96.3. Bacan asked Roberto to do a jingle for the show and this is how he started promoting himself and slowly but surely making a name for himself as well.

The artist name he broke into the industry with was B.O.B. As previously mentioned Roberto’s best friend Eddie Flores who passed away, christened Roberto with the name B.O.B., which he had to later on change to “Puerto Roc” because of copyright’s reasons. Roberto never thought to copyright the name and so when the rapper T.I. signed an artist named B.O.B. from Atlanta the conflict arose since they both had songs on iTunes. It was hard for Puerto Roc to part with the name B.O.B. since it was given to him by such an important person in his life that was no longer with him, but when B.O.B’s manager from Atlanta reached out to Puerto Roc and explained the situation and apologized for the inconvenience Puerto Roc understood and took it like a man and thus the birth of “Puerto Roc”.

As you read Puerto Roc’s life hasn’t been easy but through trials, tribulations, and strife Puerto Roc has managed to keep his head held high and this dream to make it in the music industry alive. He now runs a record label called “Goal Getter Records” which exemplifies that no matter what obstacles life has for him, he is still going after his goal of making it despite anything or anyone. Puerto Roc is also becoming somewhat of an entrepreneur expanding his efforts into promoting, graphic arts and a clothing line. Look out for this rising star and support him and Goal Getter Records/Team Puerto Roc.


B.V.K

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