PRINCE JOOVEH TALKS “HANDS UP” 🙌🏾

BL Shirelle chats with Prince Jooveh, whose track “Hands Up” was the first single off Bending The Bars - an album recorded through a prison help hotline for the Broward County Jails. Distributed by FREER Music.

BL: Talk to me about the record you cut for Bending The Bars. Which record is yours and what is it about?

Prince Jooveh: My song is “Hands Up,” featuring Tuesday Tuenasty. We're paying tribute to Soulja Slim, talking about the struggle and aggravated energy of confinement: things planted on me, guys beaten with handcuffs, guys killed with cops getting away with it. I wanted to create a picture for outsiders to imagine what’s going on behind Florida prison walls.

I recorded that song while finishing a 20-year sentence in Florida. I did 17 years and 9 months. I had to get up early to record this track over the phone and call the hotline out of Palm Beach, Florida. They received my vocals — multiple takes and punch-ins. An engineer then mixed and mastered it. A lot of great people made it happen. I was just a guy behind a prison wall. In Florida, stuff like that isn't supposed to get out. We made it happen through a collect call. I was included in the project while in a Florida prison, even though the hotline was originally for Palm Beach county jails.

It was an amazing track. The collaboration with Tuenasty was incredible — the bridge, her background vocals, all from her creativity. It was a bunch of creative people who wanted to see something come together; it made MAGIC. The vocal has some rough edges, but I think it's appropriate for where it came from and how it was created.

BL: That record moves me personally. When I did my 10 years, it was for a police-involved shooting where I was shot, handcuffed, and beaten. So when I heard that record, it resonated with my own experience dealing with the police force. I appreciate you putting that record together.

Prince Jooveh: I appreciate hearing that from you. You’re basically telling me you could feel that energy because you’ve been in that predicament. It’s a painful pleasure to hear you say you resonated with it, because it’s definitely a language spoken for those who understand that struggle. Your feeling it means so much to me.

Prince Jooveh with BTB producers Nikki Morse (far left) and Noam Brown (right)

BL: What's one of your other personal favorites on the album besides your own?

Prince Jooveh: To be honest, every record has its own message and experience. It's almost like a DJ Khaled album; you get a little bit of everything. I'm a real artist, a musician. I play drums, alto saxophone, keys. I can appreciate all aspects of music because I deliver music differently. I might completely sing on a track, harmonize in two or three parts, or make a beat. I love the art of it. Being able to listen to all those collective minds, I can genuinely appreciate everyone's perspective equally. I can't say there's one song I don't like. Overall, I think it’s a good album.

I'm gonna tell you straight up, it was my therapy. When I could have been stressing hard, going hard on myself for where I'm at and what I did to get there, how these people talk to me and how it makes me feel, or what I'm seeing around me, you can transmute that frustration into your music. Then your music becomes something celebrated with other people around you who feel how you feel, who’ve experienced what you have experienced. I was that guy in prison beating on tables, using two pens, two toothbrushes — a one-man band. Everybody would crowd around, guards and all, having a good time. We were all in a messed up situation, making the best of it, and music brings everybody together. I have written over 300 songs since I was down. They used to call me the human mp3. Not only was it my therapy, but it was also something I could give back to the guys around me.

Hear Prince Jooveh on NPR.

BL: Do you feel comfortable telling us why you went in, how long you've been out, and how that transition has been?

Prince Jooveh: I got locked up at 18 for four cases of armed robbery and an attempted armed robbery combined. I was a first-time offender and they gave me 20 years. I qualified for a youthful offender program, but they didn't do that. They put 20 years on the table, saying they weren't going lower and that my charges were punishable by life. So I was cornered into a 20-year deal. I had to wear that. I spent my time studying, writing music. I took dog training, culinary, barbering, and typing classes. I tried to build myself up to be the best person I could be when I got out. I've been out since February 1st of this year (2025).

I spent as much time in prison as I did in real life before I went in. I had to start everything new: figuring out bank accounts, dividing work with family, then wanting to be in the studio and let some of my creative bones get to work. It's a lot. I'm trying to divide everything and still build a foundation for myself. I really started from the bottom again, even down to needing socks, toothpaste, underwear. Back to the basics, one day at a time.

BL: Why should people check out the Bending The Bars album?

Prince Jooveh: I’m a guy who had all odds against me. I pushed forward where a lot of guys fell short. I kept my spirit, kept my drive, stayed focused throughout the whole time because I saw the end objective. I went through a lot of harassment and retaliatory tactics. I had to sit in solitary for six months straight. This comes from a place where I felt a lot of pain, but instead of caving in, I turned it into an expression that people can identify with. So that's my message with this track. This is a track of resilience.