Teejay

Timoy Janeyo Jones was born October 3, 1994, and grew up in the Glendevon area of Montego Bay, St. James. He began recording music remarkably young and took his stage name, Teejay, from his older brother and fellow musician, Dan Tippa. He built a local following through the 2010s as a singjay known for melodic, socially observant dancehall before crossing over to a wider audience.

Teejay's true breakout came with "Drift," released in mid-2023, a summer anthem that paired a hypnotic dancehall riddim with an easy, viral TikTok dance. The song amassed over 60 million global streams and more than a quarter-billion TikTok video views, entered several US Billboard airplay charts, was licensed for use in Fortnite, and led to a 2023 recording and publishing deal with Warner Records. A remix with Nigerian star Davido followed, extending the song's reach across Afrobeats audiences.

Building on that momentum, Teejay released his Shaggy-co-executive-produced debut EP I Am Chippy in February 2024, which debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard Reggae Albums chart. A significant controversy followed the success of "Drift": in mid-2023 Teejay publicly disputed production credit and ownership of the song with producer DJ Mac, arguing the actual beatmaker was an engineer known as Panda. Teejay subsequently left Warner Records and announced he was going independent.

As of 2026, Teejay continues to record and release music as an independent artist. His significance within trap/modern dancehall lies less in adopting hard trap production than in demonstrating dancehall's viral, cross-genre commercial potential — "Drift" is frequently cited by industry press as a case study in how a Jamaican record could break into US pop consciousness via social media and Afrobeats crossover appeal.