DJ Mac Credits Himself For Drift’s Success, Says Teejay’s Real Issue Is With Romeich Major

Meteoric producer DJ Mac is crediting himself for the success of Teejay’s summer anthem Drift. 

The ‘Uptop Boss’ outed DJ Mac days ago for allegedly trying to benefit from the song’s production credits, though it was produced by Panda and Teejay’s Top Braff Music label. 

In a since-deleted interview on the Let’s Be Honest podcast, DJ Mac said he served as executive producer on Drift, which saw him spending money and making connections for it to blow up. 

“Mi pay fi mix the song,” DJ Mac started. “Me and him pay fi shoot the video. Mi pay influencers on TikTok, mi pay fi promotion. Mi a send out to everybody fi the whole a di disc jockey dem get the song. Mi a go a road a night time fi mek sure people play the song… When the song play mi a dash money… Basically, the legwork of the job mi really cover and most of the expenses as well.”

He added, “The fact that you’re putting my name on a song alone means that you want to use it for your personal gain, that’s obvious. So, you cannot just go out and say DJ Mac did not produce the song…”

The story goes (per Teejay and DJ Mac), Panda, a ghost instrumentalist wanting to move from the shadows, sent Teejay the Banga Rock riddim in March, on which he recorded Drift. Wanting to give the song a fair shot, Teejay hit up DJ Mac, asking him to be the face of the production, considering he’s relevant with hits like Valiant’s Speed Off and Jahshii’s Born Fighter. 

“Mac, hear weh yuh do now,” said an alleged voice note from Teejay, which Mac shared with Let’s Be Honest.

“Just tek up everything. Just deal with artwork, all a dem thing deh. Mi a go fix up the song and send yuh the file and yuh just deal with everything weh yaa deal with fada.”

Another recording said, “Mac, mi waan tun up the thing yah to now dawg. Every two week, mi waan drop a song cause mi notice Sumfest and Dream and the whole a dem go round me… Mi nuh waan hold no song – f**k album too… All a dem song yah mi have pon the album, mi waan release dem. Me will work back pon one new album when dem song yah buss and mi build back a momentum inna the road. Mi haffi come back a Jamaica, mi need yuh by mi side… Mi nah lef you alone outta dis.”

The two had been working together for some time, as documented on DJ Mac’s social media, with him adding that he has ten unreleased Teejay songs which have stalled because the deejay allegedly doesn’t believe in them. He heard that the Henne & Weed artist was “corrupt”, but worked with him out of a natural inclination to give people chances. Plus, he liked Drift. 

“A my negligence in the sense that…yuh see because somebody come to you with dem sad story bro, yuh not even a look pon it fi seh, ‘Yow Teejay, see a contract yah’.”

He said he was presented with a contract when the song took off, but pointed to the absence of communication and paperwork as part of the contention. Overall, he believes Teejay’s beef is really with entertainment entrepreneur Romeich Major, whose camp he has partnered.

Teejay was signed to Major’s label in 2018, shortly after an impressive performance at Reggae Sumfest. He left in 2021, maintaining in early interviews that there was no bad blood, but DJ Mac painted a different story. 

Mac revealed that Major had probed whether he was being compensated for Drift appearing in commercials by telecommunications giant FLOW. 

“We have a partnership now with Romeich and from me seh Romeich, yuh know seh that is where the issue is coming from…” DJ Mac said. “Dem have the FLOW ads running on YouTube, radio, TV, all of those stuff, so, every time mi a ask somebody about what is going on with this bro, nobody cya give me no straight answer. Somebody a send me contract and a seh, ‘Yow bro, mi waan yuh sign off pon this’, and mi a seh, ‘Mi cya sign off pon something mi nuh know bout’… When mi ask bout it, ‘Yow, mi soon call yuh back’; never call mi back.”

“So, now it reach to a point where Romeich woulda link mi now and seh, ‘Yuh know bout this ads?’, and mi seh, ‘Yeah’. ‘You’re getting paid for this ads?’, mi seh, ‘No’. So, wid fi him connections now, him reach out to who him need to reach out to. Them never even know seh I had anything to do with this song because dem already sign off on paper seh Panda produced this song, Teejay produced this song, DJ Mac nav nothing fi do with this song… From that moment, you know seh is greed get involved or whatever the case may be.”

Teejay is now with Sharon Burke’s Solid Agency, who helped dot the I’s and cross the T’s in a recent deal with Warner Music Group. DJ Mac believes Drift’s success attracted the deal, and that Solid Agency is trying to exclude him from any commercial ventures involving the song.

He raised his concerns to Teejay, and said it led to the artist blasting him on social media. 

“It reached a level inna the conversation where me did haffi remind smaddi seh, ‘Yow, don’t be ungrateful. Before this, yuh literally a tell me seh yuh not getting booked, all of those stuff, and you asked me for help’… The fact seh yuh haffi remind somebody dem things deh just blow the top off everything.” 

Mac further claimed that Teejay wanted the riddim to be exclusive, and was displeased that artists like Chronic Law and Kaka Highflames had released songs on the beat. DJ Mac said Teejay has sabotaged himself with the tirade, and that he isn’t interested in reconciliation. 

“This is Teejay’s biggest song. Him can sing Rags to Riches, anything him want to sing bro. Nobody cares what you did last year or yesterday because up to that day, if you did not have this song, we would still have you as an artist who is miserable and upset because he got left out from dancehall.”

The matter has taught him to enter legally-binding agreements regardless of his rapport with the artist. 

“I know the work weh mi put in. Business is business, principle is principle. You do right business and yuh good.”

His latest project is Valiant’s 4:14 mixtape, for which he served as executive producer.