Ryan Montgomery was born and raised on the West side of Detroit, Michigan on W. McNichols & Wyoming Ave. He moved to Oak Park, Michigan when he was 10 years old, later acquiring the nickname "Royce" during high school after wearing a Turkish link chain with an R pendant resembling the Rolls Royce symbol. He started rapping at age 18, influenced mainly by Ras Kass, Redman, Tupac Shakur, The Notorious B.I.G. and N.W.A.He signed his first deal in 1998 with Tommy Boy Records, after the label shut down, he signed a deal with Columbia where he started recording an album called Rock City, referring to Detroit's former status as home to Motown Records. When the project was heavily bootlegged, Royce left the label for Koch to re-record some of the album, eventually releasing it in 2002 as Rock City (Version 2.0). While the album did not sell very well, the DJ Premier-produced single "Boom" gained Royce some underground recognition and eventually resulted in the two working together more closely.
Through his manager, Royce was introduced to Eminem in 1997, and the two formed a working relationship; they formed up as a duo, Bad Meets Evil, and released several tracks together. Royce appeared on Eminem's major-label debut studio album The Slim Shady LP, in which he was featured on a song called "Bad Meets Evil". Royce and Eminem also released a track called "Renegades", from which Royce's vocals would later be replaced with Jay-Z's on the latter's The Blueprint. Through Eminem, Royce would also be introduced to both Dr. Dre and execs at Game Recordings. After his manager Kino stated: "I’ve seen Em sit Dre down like a pupil and coach him on rhymes" on a phone interview,Dr. Dre requested that Royce cut ties with his manager. Royce refused to fire his manager, thus his relationship with Dre ended.