Today we’d like to introduce you to J Money.
Hi J Money, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is J$ (Jmoney) my campaign is 3rdwrld (brand) as well and I’m a recording artist from Nassau, Bahamas born & raised, now based and working out of Atlanta for the time being.
I’d say my music journey began with me being in the islands as a kid just having a love for music & not even understanding why! I fell in love with 50 cent, Lil Wayne, TI, Ludacris when I was around 10/11 watch them on BET to the point my mom would take my little iPod shuffle cause I never took it out of my ears lol. that was just the beginning though but I count it as a part of my journey cause I feel like even back then with such a heavy music intake was a part of the beginning process of my journey of taking music head on & understanding the potential of music & craft of music.
My REAL music career, getting in a studio & actually recording music started I wanna say about 2016 after I got so tired of just writing raps in notes back home over and over again to my favorite beats. I wanted to hear my actual voice against a beat, back in the islands there wasn’t many studios and even the studios that was there wasn’t top quality, but we found one in Elizabeth Estates on the east side of the island, after searching & searching my homeboy Cardo had a rasta neighbor that let me and my homeboys record for the first time ever. That was my first experience in a booth or working with an engineer, but he didn’t like me so that didn’t last too long. I think because I was vocal and knew exactly what I wanted to hear, he took it as me telling him how to do his job, but we just charged it to the game and found another studio. It was kinda LAME that at first because I use to try going in studios and getting there so much but it’ll never work out and the time it did the owner didn’t like me lol I didn’t let it discourage me though. We ultimately found another studio which was a home studio but a better set up, the first one in Elizabeth Estates or (Lizzy) as we call it was really a shack behind his house that was probably only big as full bathroom. This new studio called (in home studios) was where id say J$ was “born” and where I realized my potential and felt comfortable, the engineer name was Sherwood Rahming. Cool dude, some of the best audio equipment in the island, he didn’t have a RAP vibe per say but a creative one to be open to anything. He recorded me and my homeboys first song ever called “Money MOVES” I was on the first verse & hook, its still on iTunes, but thats just how I STARTED at HOME initially.
So, I moved to the states in 2011 & went to military school in Gainesville, Georgia (Riverside Military) on a baseball scholarship which was a unique experience because it was so diverse with people from all over the world & all walks of life, not just limited to the United States it was international. From going there, I was introduced to Atlanta of course & the culture of the Atlanta area which included music, style, fashion & creative freedom which I instantly fell in love with because it was so unique. I remember my first time driving through the city I was like start struck, coming from an island with no tall buildings or big structures it was real inspiring but I was still deep into sports at the time, honoring my scholarship. If I wasn’t listening to music I was usually playing basketball or baseball & then football once I was introduced to actually playing it I always just watched it back home in the islands with my pops. While at military school I had a few roommates from around the city, but one in particular changed, arguably my life & didn’t even know it. His name was Reggie he was from Macon, GA… Bloomfield to be exact which was the hood and me being from the islands where the whole island basically hood we instantly clicked & we played on the football team together so we were pretty cool. He used to play music every night before going to bed while hiding to be on the phone with his girl (we wasn’t allowed phones after a certain time) & one night in particular he had played the most sonically unique thing I ever heard… it was Future, No Matter What & it took me by storm, I was astonished played it on repeat for as long as I could remember. This was LIFE changing for me because during that time I was listening to Mac Miller, Tyga, Wiz, Weezy, Big Sean.. mainstream artists yk? When I heard future it like spiraled me into a whole new world musically & this also was a big birth for me in the making of J money because future is the biggest influence on my career TODAY! so me discovering him will always be memorable, after that I was sold on future I studied everything he did & how did it, why he did it & why was his sound so.. unique at the time. I had other people around me too I went to school like my homeboy cleaves, spencer, Dewayne I would go stay with on weekend around the city & that even helped mold me into my own person seeing day to day life in Atlanta it gave me like a sauce / a style that turned out to be pretty unique too. Then the music from future inspired me to always think big, upper echelon.. fly shit only I wanted to embody it he made me feel and still make me feel like the life you want is attainable if you go after it, but in a playa, flyway which I think you can still tell about me to this day. I was at riverside until 2013 then I got dismissed and homeschooled a year before moving back home to the islands. Sidenote: it recorded Ceelo Green & Offset also attended riverside military, I also attended with Carolina Panthers running back Elijah Holyfield.
Once I moved back home I was about a junior, and my entire time at riverside I would always fly back to the islands on breaks & spend a lil time home, but just going through the motion. This time I had a plan at home I still played baseball & was interested in sports but I was getting in trouble so much I had to look into something else in case I just got in too much trouble for sports and the only thing I had a passion about was music. So once I moved back home I started paying close attention to the likes of chief keef, gucci mane, future still, young thug, lil durk, migos & studied them whenever I didn’t have practice of some sort on the computer for hour watching their videos, watching their mannerisms, looking for interviews, looking at live shows, because at the time I didn’t know but unconsciously deep down I knew I wanted to be J$ & I wanted to be prepared for when that day came, not even knowing then if it’ll ever come I had no idea how I would even start. I just knew I needed the knowledge of the game if from the hottest in the game if I wanted to be anything one day. Once I did this, I started sitting at the computer writing music in my notes or in notes books, almost secretly because I wasn’t totally confident about being a rapper, but during this time my style changed tremendously, my lingo had changed from Atlanta already so home I had a unique complex because it was more urban, city than laid back island like. So when I would go out it drew attention not bad attention but just attention to people wanted to know what I was on or doing or getting my influence from.. because I embodied it so well some people liked it, some people told me I was trying to be too America but I knew what I wanted and was always comfortable within myself so it never phased me… I was about a junior at this time & the next year, I diligently worked on setting myself up to be artist just by the way I moved and presented myself in public, but it always came out natural never forced… everything from the speech to the dressing to the persona it never seemed like I was being outside of me which I also think captivated people.
Before getting dismissed from riverside, I started to play football and was an all American talent.. literally I was GREAT at any sport I played which helped my confidence with music ultimately, but from playing football I put down baseball & started commenting to football as a sport. Once I was dismissed, I went to one of the worst schools in the islands after homeschool as punishment (Government High) but I always had da vision of getting back & playing football in the US. My complex was so unique by this time from the influence of music, at GH they called me “American” which wasn’t a knock but more a compliment to my style and people understood and accepted me 1000% because I was just me I wasn’t trying to be American & they knew it, but coming from America they understood how it influenced my style and persona and accepted it. I also had good weed that I was selling at the time coming from the high-end side of town so that maybe played a role lol but I was respected for in a hostile environment, being able to hoop also helped me with this cause I was good so they respected me for that too. Around this time was the time I first started going to the studio with the lil money I was making from this when I linked up with Rasta & Cardo in Elizabeth Estates and J$ was “born” but still developing into his own.
Now by 2015, I did everything I had to do & continued playing football in a local league to get ready to leave for college and ultimately get back to the states so I could play football. Which I was able to do, I left again to play football in Coffeyville, Kansas at CCC I went to juco to hopefully transfer into a d1 program which seem easier than try to just walk on D1 & to make up for lost time of not playing in high school competitively. So I left for Kansas where J$ came out 1000%. Once again, I was in a new place, new faces, but it wasn’t like high school because I had already created my own flavor this time, I wasn’t looking for anything to inspire me, I was inspired within myself and who I was & becoming & what I knew I was capable of. So during downtime in football, I would always be turning up to music or rapping around campus and my style was like a rapper or real urban you know? You could tell my influences by how I dressed so people would ask if I do music and a few of my friends, I had let them hear the few songs I had already from back home, and the feedback was good. One day I was chilling a friend of mine told me that he was going to record in this ” white boy ” room, his words verbatum, so I went with him to check it out. His name was Jacob he was from south ben, Indiana and probably the coolest ” white boy ” I ever met. At first, I didn’t rap at all we just grew as friends and I would kick it around his room and freestyle and play the game cause I just wanted to watch and liked the vibe. I watched him record people day in day out some stuff was good some stuff was bad, we bonded through music politics and just discussing the business of it. He knew I did music and suggested I get in the booth (the closet) but I never forced me always told me to take my time.
One day we was in the car coming from the gas station getting some gars and bad & boujee came on, and for whatever reason, it just took over my mind to do a freestyle like I felt the need to do it in my toes and he told me come on let’s do it. I had it written already because I was initially shy about doing my music, not shy but not fully confident so after I left Jacob’s room most nights, I’d go in my room and play beats and write to them all night until I felt satisfied with what I had written. So once he loaded up the laptop, I went in the closet and started doing my thing, gettin activ in there lol & he was astonished… liked blown away, I knew because he had a gloss in his eyes about it and mixing it he was super eager. This was just the beginning of our relationship. I went on to go in his room everyday from now on but to record, we relentlessly went at it recording day in & day out sometimes up all night and only sleeping a couple of hours before practice & class. He did powerlifting. I had football but we communicated all day throughout classes to make sure we would make music that night. It got so bad lol some of the people would be jealous because how much time & effort he would put into my music and not there’s, but we had a divine connection.. to make music I went on to record countless songs, some I dropped on SoundCloud & they’re still there, but some we never released. I also collabed with different artists from around school and made some hard music. I had found my passion finally it was music nothing made me feel more alive or better than music; it was refreshing! While at Riverside, I also met a producer you guys did an article on, CamBeats he inspired me to take music head on & walked away from football because it wasn’t his passion. I didn’t immediately do the same but eventually, I did because it was an eye-opener the world was against him and he still did it despite coaches begging him to come back. He showed me that if you have a dream or a passion, be intentional about it, no matter what anybody else might say. We became great friends, too he’d come to jacobs room while I record and we’d chill and hang around school & talk about everything we wanted to do within music.
During my freshman year at Coffeyville, I want to say spring break, I flew back to Atlanta to link with a friend from back home who had, moved to go to college too that person being my homeboy to foreign & he had just started making music as well, so I got back to Atlanta once we linked up and we just functioned as family, he had his people who embraced me and it all came together. We was out & about in the city for ten days til I had to go back to school. With the first trip being a success I planned to come back that may for summer break, which I did & for the first time ever, I went to an ACTUAL studio which was like summer 2017, I got on a verse on his song & from that, we went on to do a whole mixtape called foreign money which actually did pretty well for two amateur artists just figuring everything out with no help or advice from anybody. This was the birth of 3rdwrld! We came up with the name in the process of making foreign money and being in the studio together. It’s still on SoundCloud right now to check out.
After locking in with Jacob & Ravi my freshman year, I went home with my musical confidence through the rough, I had received a lot of feedback from people everywhere about my music & they all complimented on my style the way I delivered my words and the aesthetic of the music. This lead me to go in the studio definitely once I got home & stay active working at my craft whenever I got the chance or put together enough money to. I wash the car for my pops sometimes, sell old clothes, just straight up ask my parents sometimes for studio money… whatever it took to make a new song, I was willing to do it once it didn’t breaks my morals. I got home with motion from foreign money and linked up with other artist who were also mutual friends of me and Ravi and we created 3rdworldBDE! Which took the islands by storm. We all went to the same high school initially in the islands so it was familiar faces and vibes. We started doing shows and parties in the islands, we started bringing photographers to Sherwood Studios, me and an artist named ky $ who was a part of 3BDE did a song called on a mission and got pictures of the entire session, it was epic.. something the islands never had really seen before. Young playas in the studio actually chasing a dream seriously and presenting it the right way on Instagram. This got us a lot of motion within the islands and made us arguably front runners of the Bahamian underground rap scene. With the right aesthetic behind us, we continued to grow and stay in the studio.
Ultimately I opted out of going back to Coffeyville and set up to transfer to Georgia State. I got accepted but ultimately didn’t go anymore because I went all in behind music. I always gave it 50% and made great strides so one day, I was sitting down alone at the beach in the islands and told myself that I’m giving this all I got and taking it all the way, I always felt chosen as a young kid but never knew for what I knew I had a great purpose but didn’t know exactly what it was… I had an epiphany that day at the beach and chose music, making an oath to never look back no matter how hard it may seem or get.
With this newfound passion and hunger for music, I acted on it immediately. I upgraded my style even more & this is around 2018 with the likes of new influences such as Moneybagg Yo, Lil Keed, Lil Gotit, Dababy, Hoodrich Pablo Juan… I took J$ and embodied him in FULL, all the way I wasn’t holding back anymore or anything; I just let loose with my whole style and persona. Once I did this the 3BDE movement kept growing, it benefitted all of us directly and indirectly! my confidence passed on throughout the group and we was all over the city networking within music. Through this, we met more and more people and got invited to more and more events, store openings, parties, vip sections… everything.
Through networking, I met Fury, another Bahamian artist who I had became familiar with from networking and just moving within the small music industry home, he had a video in 2019 & invited me and Jknottz (3bde) member to pull up to his video shoot at sandy port, we was at the Bahamas resort earlier that day chilling, contemplating going and almost didn’t make it, because we was with some females lol. We chose to ditch the females after sitting down in the car and didn’t want to go but still decided to go anyway. This was our second cameo in a fury video so we knew the vibe was gonna be top tier the video is Fury – It’s up freestyle if anybody wanna check it out. There I met a good handful of people some I knew from Instagram some I didn’t know at all!
One I didn’t know at all but we instantly clicked was Univer$al FLO! We pulled up poppin it like we usually do and made great connections by far, but the vibe with FLO was special, he immediately held his hand out and we shook hands, shortly after he invited me to his studio the following day & we agreed (me & Jknottz). The following day we pulled up to his studio in union village off wulf rd back home, and from the outside, you may not think much, but inside is the best studio layout arguably I’ve seen anywhere & by this time, I had seen a lot of different studios just moving around within music. He asked to hear some of our music & instantly gave us our flowers for the music then asked us if we was ready to record that day. Me & Jknottz had just recorded a song with Sherwood too and he heard it and wanted to engineer it himself because we wasn’t pleased, we gave him the concept and he said definitely. Initially, we was hesitant on doing it, not knowing what the pricing would be for his set up, but he quickly let us know it was free of charge! We did the song and it came out amazing everybody was please, I’m getting ready to drop it soon, look out! Once we did this me, Flo & Jknottz locked in almost everyday from June 2019 – Jan 2020 when I left again for atlantad, but while there we made great music and had Zoey Dollaz and other various artists come thru the studio even females such as Chynadollrae whos a good friend of mine, but Flo played a vital role in my growth as an artist just allowing me the space to create and embrace myself as an artist knowing he didn’t judge or question anything I did in the booth he trusted my creativity and even added creativity. It’s a blessing to have people like that in life, you know? Priceless to me, I could never repay him for that opportunity.
From his studio, I went on to drop my debut video for “Who It Iz” that same year which he engineered & helped me bring to life, this was my coming in video, letting the game know who I was & that I’m here to make a statement which you can still go on youtube and watch super hard.. shot by Bahamian videographer TCFILMZ in Nassau, Bahamas. Once I had locked in with flow for about 6-8 months, I got tired of the somewhat stagnant music industry home because we’re so small music isn’t even viewed as something thats worthwhile or something thats totally respected as an art specially hip hop. So I switched locations so that my music could thrive more in an area where its more accepted and respected, because once the masses take it on home definitely will fall in line… its messed up but just how it is but I must admit to this day I have a lot of support in the islands, more than I expected initially.. some fell off once I moved but they’ll be back lol I’m gone work my ass off until then.
Once I came to Atlanta (2020) 3BDE had issues and poor communication lead to it being narrowed down to just 3rdwrld with the BDE aspect of it gone, leaving the ball basically in me and to foreign court to make something shake. So we hit the ground running! Once I got back in 2020, we immediately hit the studio and started working on FM2 (FORIEGNMONEY 2) set to release sometime this year and we studio hopped ALOT! Networking and feeling out different areas and different things. This time in Atlanta, my music was buzzing to those that knew me so while moving in & out of studios, I had a friend from military school that took notice, named Shaq or Shaquielle Wallace aka Anchor films. He had just got a camera and proposed to shoot for us! At school, he was my homeboy and even came to visit me one time. I was in New York with my sister and he was out there too, so it was instantly love! He shot two vin studio vlogs for us that definitely helped the brand and came out amazing! This was a blessing because we really needed somebody we knew to come get down and believe in what we was doing, he did and still does!
So once we successfully shot a few vlogs with anchor, we locked in for a video at studio space Atlanta for my song “UP FAST” set to release on my debut album late this year! Stay on the lookout. The video was a huge success! I couldn’t ask for naything better & it was super comfortable that it was with somebody I genuinely knew so we actually created the visual and it wasn’t like a job or work or anything. We recently just shot two days ago in the city for a song I’ll be releasing called “New Things” SUPER HARD! And we gonna continue working.
During the time at FLO and from 2018, I recorded north of 100 songs! Not all I can find but I still have at least 40-50 songs ready to go! Locked and loaded, I’m just going through the business of each and setting them up right finding the right people to guide me through the release process, but it’s a lot of music from me on the way & I can wait for you guys to hear. I have more now but that’s a whole nother wave that’s definitely otw as well! Sports definitely shaped my work ethic, me and flo would be in the studio from 7-4am and have work but never made excuses it was always about the art, the sleep was never important and I miss that so much I ain’t find nobody to connect with like that in Atlanta yet, but I’m always willing to go the extra mile or five because I understand that’s what it takes just from always being good at sports and watching myself get better I know for a fact hard work pay off.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all.
Some of my struggles along the way to this point one was definitely lack of funds! But that never bothered me it just made things a lil harder at times to get certain stuff done in a timely manner. I used to wash cars, clean windows, cut grass whatever I could do for some money to get in the studio I did it.
Not being home also is tough at time, sacrificing time away from family and friends it play on me at time but I just keep looking at the bigger picture & reminding myself how proud and worth it everything will be when it’s all said & done.
Finding the right people is an obstacle to keep you motivated and positive and confident about what you are doing, I battle that right now at times but I’m working on it… that can take a toll just mentally if you are not strong or understand how to revert negative energy to positive energy regardless what anyone gotta say about you.
Even now, a challenge for me as well is finding a home studio where I’m as comfortable as I am home to create the same… my creativity level still high but I just need that at home vibe here and an engineer I can diligently work with no matter the time place, I got crazy work ethic and always liked to work so a obstacle is finding someone to match that and keep recording me.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
1. I’m a recording artist known for making music & I’m from the Bahamas, I specialize in walkin dese beats down for a living! 😂
2. I’m known for now my music! but always was known as a baseball all star and represented the Bahamas on the national team. So a lot of people from back home know me for that and that definitely helped the music aside from me always being in trouble. I played on the Bahamas national teams numerous times traveling to Puerto Rico & even California for the pony world series in like 2010.
3. I’m most proud of my brand and what we created, I always wanted to know what it was like to build a successful brand from ground up and sometimes I sit back and realize I’m literally in the process of doing that it’s surreal & I’m proud of myself for making it this far and not allowing anybody to mislead me, trusting my intuition and making the necessary things happen even when I don’t have a way, I always have will and faith from God I’m most proud of that.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
I learned a couple along the way like, you can’t change people! So if you are a passionate person about what you do and you realize the people around you are not passionate just change how much your with em or hang around because it’ll rub off on you if your not careful. Another lesson is to always keep working, never stop no matter what! Never listen to critics most of the time you got to block out all the negativity, use discernment to allow yourself to identify good criticism & take it in but don’t take it HATE or BAD energy. Most important lessons for me was trust God and always PRAY. I don’t know how a lot of things happen but I pray a lot or try to as much as I remember and always remain humble within God knowing he can take it away at any second but also knowing he blessed me enough to be in the position I’m in and be a light to my country & also the world… GOD IS KEY
Pricing:
- Features – 300
- Features & video – 600
- Brand promoting – 100
- Show booking – 500
Contact Info:
- Email: moneyszn096@gmail.com
- Website: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/j%24/527911
- Instagram: instagram.com/3moneyszn
- Twitter: twitter.com/jmoney3rdw
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UC–MqllyUqh1G3DqRY3RIkQ
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/wyQZWNUU9g2uSuft6
- Other: https://audiomack.com/jmoney3rdw
