Jennifer Lopez didn’t realise how bad her neighbourhood was when she was growing up.
The singer famously sang that she was still “Jenny from the Block” in 2001 in reference to her upbringing in The Bronx, New York.
She’s never forgotten where she came from, but didn’t actually know how crime and drug ridden her neighbourhood was when she was a youngster. She recently went back to visit, playing a free concert for the residents
“It’s always great to get back there. To go back and perform there though, and do a free concert there was one of the best experiences of my life. It was funny, when I grew up in the Bronx, I didn’t even realise how bad a neighbourhood it was. To me it was a good neighbourhood, because that’s all you know. You don’t have any other reference,” Jennifer explained to BBC News.
“And I remember talking to this cop who I became friends with and him going ‘You know this is like the worst area?’ And I was like ‘What? No! This is Castle Hill, this is nice. My parents moved me from over there to over here. We live in a house now!’”
Jennifer, 44, was keen to come across as one of the people, and reminded broadcaster Tom Brook that she didn’t start making music until she was nearly 30.
“I think people see me as someone who has been kind of privileged for many, many years since I’ve been in the public eye that’s how I’ve been perceived. I didn’t make my first record until I was 28 years old, at the end of the day I lived in the Bronx until then,” she laughed.
