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Paper and Magazine Reviews
BLACK ISSUES BOOK
REVIEW MAY/JUNE 2007
TO READ IT
IS TO LIVE IT
A petty “teef”
in the Caribbean becomes a major player in the Jamaican, drug
underworld in America. Prince Kofi’s writing put you right in
the middle of the drama, the schemes, sex, love, violence and
betrayals as Rudy Boy ‘Richie’ charms and fights his way to the
top. Retaliation against Richie’s woman takes the violence to
another level.
Yardies
is drawn from true events and captures a tale that’s above urban
lit; it’s urban reality. The realism makes Yardies a classic for
years to come.
BOOK REVIEW -
The Voice UK August 11-17, 2008
Yardies: The
Making of a Jamaican Posse by Prince Kofi
Review by
Garfield Robinson
FROM the very
start of this book, I was catapulted into the world of the
Yardies, thanks to the book’s clean, clear and descriptive
language.
The
reader is like a fly on the wall, as author Prince Kofi
skillfully takes us to the various locations and scenarios
taking place.
Rude Boy Richie is a master chess player, but his pawns are real
people doing real things in a real world. Or is it make believe?
This book is not for the faint hearted.
A
word to the wise: before reading, please check the glossary at
the back for word meanings you will need to be aware of to gain
the best understanding.
While Yardies takes us into the underworld, the Jamaican
patios is skillfully represented and I certainly look forward to
other gifts from the mind of Prince Kofi.
Yardies is
available for sale by emailing:
Jamaicaheritage@yahoo.co.uk.
Book Review
Weeken’ Chat October 10-12, 2008
Yardies – the
making of a Jamaican posse
Had an
opportunity this past weekend to read the book Yardies: The
Making of a Jamaican Posse. Not sure if it is currently
available in Jamaica but it is a well written book that gives
readers the opportunity to experience life through the eyes of
posse member Richie, a youth from the slums of Kingston, Jamaica
whose idea of “the good Life” centers around the collection of
material possessions; guns, drugs, women, and sex at any cost.
Take his journey and feel his vengeance, fuelled by pain and
disappointment, friendships and loves lost all driven by his
undying will to simply survive.
Yardies is written by Prince Kofi, who migrated to the USA from
Jamaica at age 17 after graduating from Wolmers Boys School.
The
book is published by GhettoLife Publishing Company, Inc. which
was established in February 2007 by Phyllis Cross, a native of
Kingston Jamaica who got into the business with the mission to
give a voice to the otherwise voiceless. Cross is currently
working on her next publication which will be available next
summer. Yardies Part 2 will hit stores in the Fall 2009.
The Sunday
Gleaner June 21, 2009
The gripping
tale of Richie’s life.
Title: Yardies
– The making of a Jamaican posse.
Author: Prince
Kofi with Pe Cross
Publisher:
GhettoLife Publishing Company, Inc.
Reviewer:
Barbara Nelson.
Richie, a tall,
brown-skinned, curly –haired, impoverished youth from Waltham
Park in St Andrew, is the main character in this saga that
exposes the ugly, violent and brutal roles some Jamaicans play
in the drug business in parts of the United States.
Early in the 229-page book the author, Prince Kofi states that,
“Jamaica contains two societies masquerading as one. You have
the rich and affluent and the sufferer…the foundation of this
social construct is the sufferer …some of the most resilient and
creative people in the world. For all their shortcomings, it’s
from this unlikely root, the dregs of society, that the people
who make the Jamaican culture a unique culture of world renown
arise.”
Kofi says that many of the youths out of desperation and lives
of abject poverty “choose a life of crime …willing to risk their
lives for one chance at success, however temporary and fleeting”
that success may be.
The
story moves quickly into an encounter that Richie and his friend
Blacka have in Premier Plaza with Jimmy Gorgon, a boy who made
some money in the United States. Blacka is adamant that he wants
“the gold teeth” that Jimmy has. The overwhelming desire to own
the dentures cause him to be shot to death and Richie, although
wounded, has to run to save his own life.
RUNS THROUGH THE CEMETERY
He
escapes through the nearby church cemetery and “his chest paints
a bright crimson streak of blood sacrifice of atonement to the
dead for the desecration of their sanctuary.”
Richie makes a narrow escape from the Jamaican police, who, the
author writes, “is notoriously known to be a gang of
cold-blooded killers.”
He
leaves Jamaica as a stowaway on a ship bound for New York City
where he seeks, but does not receive any help from his uncle who
resides there.
Almost immediately, Richie links up with Geeko, a gregarious
Yardman who drives “a black tinted, kitted M5 BMW with gold
plated grills and rims” and has obviously done well for himself
in the United States. Geeko in turn is, as always, on the
lookout for a recruit for his drug operation and Richie is
hungry for the opportunity to make money.
And
he does make money – lots of it. The drug business is accepted
as a normal means through which the ghetto youth liberate
themselves from the bondage of poverty.
It
is an absorbing, violent and bloody story that unravels the
peculiar intertwined relationships of the drug don, Donovan
Chinqwee, Geeko, the other drug dealers, including Richie, and
the women and men who became junkies by using crack cocaine.
Later in the story, Richie the man from Waltham Park who once
hid in a cesspool in Kingston to escape the law and who pays
great attention to every detail, eventually gets rid of the
competition. He sends for his old friends in Jamaica – Jah Blue,
Stretch, Indian, Buju and Ray. They form a posse, call
themselves the ‘Yardies’ and swear that they will never bow.
“We
can’t play games with nobody. Now is our chance to run things in
America,” Richie tells them. And the do …for a while.
Richie and the posse recruit their own workers. Richie gets his
own permanent gold tooth with a large diamond in it and with
Blacka’s name inscribed in his memory. He also has no problem in
using his gold plated .45 to remove anyone who stands in his
way. His drug business has tentacles that reach Philadelphia and
Miami.
NEVER FORGOT HIS ROOTS
Even with his wealth, however, Richie never forgot his roots and
sent money for his mother and clothing and barrels of food “for
the youth them from Ambrook Lane” in Jamaica.
“Where I come from, no one give sufferer a helping hand Nuff
youth and youth have to walk barefoot and them have to thief and
rob just to buy shoes. So I an I a do what little I can with the
blessing what reach me because as them say, nothing too good
last forever,” he tell his American girlfriend, Twana.
His
words are almost prophetic. Soon the police and the Feds become
very suspicious of the activities of the gang of “armed,
dangerous, cold-blooded killers” and they move in to get rid of
them.
Do
the Feds succeed? What happens to Richie and the Yardies?
The
end of the book is a gripping as the beginning.
The Weekly Star
June 25 – July 1, 2009
YARDIES
The making of a
Jamaican Posse
Author: Prince
Kofi with Pe Cross
Reviewer:
Barbara Nelson.
Publisher:
GhettoLife Publishing Company, Inc.
Richie, A tall,
brown skinned, curly haired, impoverished youth from Waltham
Park Road in Kingston, Jamaica is the main character in this
saga that exposes the ugly, violent and brutal under-belly of
the roles some Jamaicans play in the drug business carried on in
parts of America.
Early in the 229-page book the author, Prince Kofi states that,
“Jamaica contains two societies masquerading as one. You have
the rich and affluent and the sufferer - the foundation of this
social construct is the sufferer - some of the most resilient
and creative people in the world. For all their shortcomings,
it’s from this unlikely root, the dregs of society, that the
people who make the Jamaican culture a unique culture of world
renown arise.”
Kofi says that many of the youths out of desperation and lives
of abject poverty “choose a life of crime - willing to risk
their lives for one chance at success, however temporary and
fleeting” that success may be.
Deadly encounter
The
story moves quickly into an encounter that Richie and his friend
Blacka have in Premier Plaza with Jimmy Gorgon, a boy who made
some money in the United States. Blacka is adamant that he wants
“the gold teeth” that Jimmy has. The overwhelming desire to own
the dentures cause him to be shot to death and Richie, although
wounded, has to run to save his own life.
He
escapes through the nearby church cemetery and “his chest paints
a bright crimson streak of blood across the top of the wall as
if paying a blood sacrifice of atonement to the dead for the
desecration of their sanctuary.”
Richie makes a narrow escape from the Jamaican police, who, the
author writes, “is notoriously known to be a gang of
cold-blooded killers.”
He
leaves Jamaica as a stowaway on a ship bound for New York City
where he seeks, but does not receive any help from his uncle who
resides there.
Almost immediately, Richie links up with Geeko, a gregarious
Yardman who drives “a black tinted, kitted M5 BMW with gold
plated grills and rims” and has obviously done well for himself
in the United States. Geeko in turn is, as always, on the
lookout for a recruit for his drug operation and Richie is
hungry for the opportunity to make money.
And
he does make money – lots of it. The drug business is accepted
as a normal means through which the ghetto youth liberate
themselves from the bondage of poverty.
It
is an absorbing, violent and bloody story that unravels the
peculiar intertwined relationships of the drug don, Donovan
Chinqwee, Geeko, the other drug dealers, including Richie, and
the women and men who became junkies by using crack cocaine.
Later in the story, Richie the man from Waltham Park who once
hid in a cesspool in Kingston to escape the law and who pays
great attention to every detail, eventually gets rid of the
competition. He sends for his old friends in Jamaica – Jah Blue,
Stretch, Indian, Buju and Ray. They form a posse, call
themselves the ‘Yardies’ and swear that they will never bow.
Almost prophetic
“Where I come from, no one give
sufferer a helping hand Nuff youth and youth have to walk
barefoot and them have to thief and rob just to buy shoes. So I
an I a do what little I can with the blessing what reach me
because as them say, nothing too good last forever,” he tell his
American girlfriend, Twana.
His
words are almost prophetic. Soon the police and the Feds become
very suspicious of the activities of the gang of “armed,
dangerous, cold blooded killers” and they move in to get rid of
them.
Do
the Feds succeed? What happens to Richie and the Yardies?
The
end of the book is a gripping as the beginning.
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