MAD YARDIES from Treasure Beach
I am doing what I love.. music. Wall Street to me was like a prison cell in the office and you go on the subway to another cell, a tiny little apartment. For me Jamaica IS freedom!”
You sometimes hear about the paths that people’s life take and wonder what could have possessed someone to take on that sort of risk. In a world that prioritizes job security and financial stability, it is not common or advised to delve into an industry as unstable and time consuming as the music industry. However, for Joshua Williams, affectionately repackaged as J-DUB, he really had no real choice he HAD to pursue his musical passion. We first met J-DUB outside his recording session at Tad’s Records on Red Hills Road in Kingston. J-DUB is the rapper from the Mad Yardies, an up and coming live band out of Treasure Beach. “I just started working my job on Wall Street at one of those big-time firms. So, after a few years the stock market got hot as I said in my song ‘Market was hot … Making mad cash living like a baller I was having a blast.’ So, I got the cash from that to buy this piece of land and from there the plan was to get more money, to build. While all this was happening, I got married to a girl from the Treasure Beach area and it turns out her family was big into music. That was how I met the Singing Chef and Junior Elliot, and that was how we founded the Mad Yardies,” J-DUB explained
Mad Yardies who are releasing their first single and official music video ‘The Greatest’ in the first quarter of 2020, now consist of of J-DUB (the rapper). Junior Elliott (the singer), Singing Chef (Kerron Elliott songwriter/producer), and Dmyah (the singjay). The aforementioned Singing Chef and the singer of the group Junior Elliott (Joseph Elliott)
are actually the oldest and youngest of 4 musical brothers which speaks to the family aspect of the band and the brand J-DUB has been trying to cultivate for about 4 to 5 years Mad Yardies has been steadily putting out material since then which naturally, led to the creation of a label to house those works. “We put out an album for Junior Elliott when he was going as Joseph Eliott entitled ‘Rescue Me’, ten songs and I rapped on one
of them.” J-DUB exclaimed “On the Bad Step Music label which was our original label back in the day until we changed it to reincorporate it in Jamaica.”
Now reincorporated in Jamaica as Mad Yardies Entertainment Limited, the label is looking for a distribution deal and has with several Mad Yardies songs and videos to be released in 2020 The label will release the J-DUB single “The Greatest in January with a music video that shows off the natural beauty of Treasure Beach, Pelican Bar, Black River and the Blue Mountains. Thereafter, Mad Yardies will release a duet with J-DUB and Junior Elliott called “Why Did You Leave” which is already one of the biggest new songs on the road in St. Elizabeth. Next a trio with J-DUB. Junior Elliott and Dmyah the singjay entitled “We Need A Change.” Other singles and videos by various artists are underway as well as the Mad Yardies EP. For J-DUB the journey from Brooklyn, where he was born and bred, to Massachusetts, where he went to college, to Wall Street, where he spent most of his young career, and then finally to Jamaica where he currently resides was a quite an arduous one but for J-DUB being a part of Mad Yardies is exactly where he wants to be for now and the foreseeable future. “My personal vision is to write songs, tour and to take care of my family. I made millions of USD when I worked on Wall Street. Lost it all except my home in Treasure Beach, Now I’m going to make millions of USD again but this time I am doing what I love.. music. Wall Street to me was like a prison cell in the office and you go on the subway to another cell, a tiny little apartment. For me Jamaica IS freedom!”
Shot by Jik Reuben and Warren Mckane
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