Reuben Vincent, a rapper and producer from Charlotte, North Carolina, has joined JAY-Roc Z's Nation roster. The label announced the deal on Instagram on Saturday (December 18), with a video in which the 9th Wonder protégé talks about his childhood goal of signing with Jay-Z.
“Man, it’s so crazy like, I remember being a kid like 5 or 10 years old watching Fade to Black on TV seeing Hov sell out Madison Square Garden,” Vincent says in the clip. “And then man, I remember getting on the bus and my friends asked me, ‘If you could ever sign a deal somebody, who would it be?’ And my first answer was Roc Nation.”
He adds, “To me, that was just a dream. But one thing I didn’t know back then, was that some dreams stay dreams and some dreams come true. Welcome to JamRoc.”
Reuben Vincent's Myers Park was released in 2017 and Boy Meets World will be published in 2020 on famous Hip Hop producer 9th Wonder's Jamla Records.
Following his new contract, the 20-year-old took to Twitter to say, “Signing to Roc Nation is a dream come true…I’m honestly still soaking it all in. 4ever grateful and thankful. Now it’s time to do what I said I set out to do in this game. Hov, you got you one.”
Rapsody, another North Carolina native and 9th Wonder protege, signed to JAY-Roc Z's Nation through Jamla in 2016. Rapsody's debut Roc Nation album, Laila's Wisdom, was nominated for Grammy Awards for Best Rap Album and Best Rap Song for "Sassy," which included Black Thought, Busta Rhymes, and Anderson.Paak.
Reuben Vincent described how he met 9th Wonder when he was just 13 years old in a 2020 interview with DJBooth.
“I connected with 9th in 2014, actually,” he said. “I met him on Twitter, which is the age we live in now. I put out a mixtape called IDOL.ESCENT under the name E$AU, which is my middle name. I recorded it in my room, in my closet. I remember somebody had tweeted [it to] 9th.
“A week before that, I tried to email 9th. That just shows you: God’s timing is always impeccable. I went to school that Monday and after school, on Twitter, someone was like, ‘I don’t know this kid from a can of paint, but he’s 13, and he has talent.’ 9th and Rapsody heard it and they were like, ‘Yo! DM us. We hear the talent.'”
He continued, “I would go to [his studio] in Raleigh. They were helping me develop and as I got older and started to go through life experiences, it helped me have more to talk about. [9th] was like, ‘You sound about ready. Your voice has developed.’ I ended up going back down, recording some stuff and he was ready to sign me.”
