Teejay continues to reap tremendous success with his single “Drift” dominating dancehall airwaves in Jamaica and globally.
Although the Uptop Boss has a lot of hit songs under his belt, “Drift” is arguably his biggest song to date. In case you still have doubts about the reach of the song, we should point out that it earned Teejay his first major label deal with Warner Music, putting him among a small group of dancehall history to ever secure major label deals.
Teejay admitted that the song still has further to go, and he won’t stop pushing it until it debuts on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Last week, Urban Islandz reported that Teejay was in Nigeria filming a music video with Davido for “Drift” remix. The pair is set to drop the song in the coming days, and the dancehall star is looking to breathe new life into the song on the international market.
Teejay says the original “Drift” already features elements of Afrobeats with 90s dancehall nostalgia. Speaking with Kiss Fresh’s DJ Davda in the UK, the Jamaican singjay says his aim was to record a happy song that people can vibe to.
“Definitely 90s Dancehall,” he said. “What we do now is add the Afrobeats style around it, to give it that body, that happy sound that people need to hear.”
“That happy vibes that people know,” the Mobay artist continues. “The world know and love Jamaica for the happy culture. Everything about us is organic, everything is genuine and real, so the world just also want to feel that also in the music.”
“Drift,” which was produced by DJ Mac and Panda, has since made its way onto the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay and Rhythmic Airplay charts since the song’s meteoric rise earlier this year, making it one of the biggest dancehall songs released for 2023.
Teejay and Davido filming “Drift” remix video in Lagos, Nigeria pic.twitter.com/6h7c8k5IxK
— Urban Islandz (@urbanislandz) November 8, 2023
Despite the song’s success, it did cause a rift between Teejay and DJ Mac over ownership rights, which is a timely reminder to dancehall artists and producers to pay attention to the paperwork aspect of the music industry. Nevertheless, it appears that some compromise was reached behind the scenes, resulting in Teejay and his label securing rights to the song.
Teejay was also briefly sidetracked by a recent beef with Byron Messia that spawned diss tracks from both sides. Both artists have two of the biggest songs in dancehall this year, with Messia’s “Talibans” also dominating the space. Ultimately, both artists realized the feud was nothing more than a distraction for their careers.
