Teejay aims for global greatness

With fiery passion and laser focus, dancehall artiste Teejay has set the bar sky-high, declaring his mission to become a world-class performer and break through every barrier standing in his way.

"From I was a kid, my dream to be one of the biggest artiste outta Jamaica, inna di world ... mi always tell miself seh mi is a world artiste, suh mi think big and mi dream big, because mi waah big rewards and mi work hard," the From Rags to Riches artiste said.

He was speaking during a recent interview on WorlMag, a media company and entertainment website based in East London.

The Drift hitmaker spoke of his dream to break into major markets such as India, noting that superstar cricketer Chris Gayle has done a lot to produce Jamaican music in that space. He said that it is his dream to get a No. 1 song in India.

Meanwhile, Teejay said he has always desired a career of longevity through music with a strong universal demand. He said he is deliberately creating music that will crossover from dancehall in the same way Sean Paul and Shaggy approach their craft.

"I'm more into crossover music than just a song. I'm more into [creating] a catalogue than even a hit song. With a catalogue, yuh always ago go on, [but] wid just a hit song, yuh might just get dah one song deh and fi about the next 20 years or 30 years before supm else fawud," he said.

"But when you have a catalogue of music, good body of quality music, that literally carry yuh on through generations. Suh mi challenge miself right now fi every time mi guh inna di studio, or touch a serious project, it a go crossover," Teejay said.

At the same time, the entertainer has stated the importance of delivering quality performances whenever he hits the stage. He said he takes his job as an entertainer seriously and tells himself that "even if a 10 people deh yah, me affi perform like a 1,000 people". He said that in addition to giving people their money's worth, an artiste may miss out on a big opportunity if a potential investor was in the crowd and was unimpressed by a lukewarm performance.

"Once it comes on to music, my mission is to be a good performer, a good artiste wid di full package. Mi [always] think mi jus always affi guh out there and duh mi best, nuh matta weh mi deh; whether mi a duh tracks or bands show, dem still a guh get di same performance from Teejay. A money people a pay suh mi just feel like people fi get dem money's worth," said Teejay.

The artiste recently released an album, I am Chippy, which featured Drift. He has announced plans to release his new upcoming album titled Untitled Folder.