PnB Rock's first and only meaningful relationship began in the same place that it would end: a grocery store.
It was located Northeast Philadelphia, about 30 minutes from Germantown, the section of the city that Rock, born Rakim Allen, was raised in until his mid-teens. He was there with a court-appointed chaperone, a result of a recent arrest, and was doing some shopping. His single mom had recently moved the family, five boys in total, to the area to get away from the streets that had consumed Allen after his uncle, a father figure, was murdered. The suburban neighborhood's manicured lawns served as a stark contrast from the broken sidewalks of the Pastorius and Baynton Streets that his stage name derives from. "It was like two different worlds," he remembers.
While there, he spotted a beautiful girl who happened to live across the street. She didn't seem to notice the chaperone, and the tall and lanky 15-year-old with an easy smile was able to nab her number. Coincidentally, he was not the first Allen boy to do so; while riding the bus a few weeks earlier, his younger brother met the same girl and also bagged her digits. His bro tried to play it cool, however, and waited to call, leaving the door open for a chance encounter with Rakim, who had no idea it was the same girl that his sibling had come home and exuded about. For a time, both tried courting her from the same number (their home landline). The young girl had already made up her mind, however, and started dating Rakim not long after.
Read more on Noisey
Advertisement