Tifa Talks Fallout With Romeich Major

Dancehall artist Tifa believes the nuances of fame ultimately separate the real from the fake. 

She was once friends with entertainment mogul Romeich Major, sporting his designs during his earlier entrepreneurship years. These days, she’s blasting him for allegedly trying to sabotage her career, reasons for which she doesn’t foresee a reconciliation. 

“I don’t think about him but I don’t think we’ll ever be friends again,” she recently said on Teatime With Shelly-Ann Curran. 

The host, once working in marketing at Digicel, was behind signing Tifa as an ambassador for the telecoms giant. The brand is one of several the Spell It Out act went on to represent in corporate Jamaica, a novelty for a female dancehall artist at the time. 

“Anyweh whole heap a money deh and fame deh, you a go have a dog-eat-dog situation; everybody a go fight fi dem space and fi dem money…” Tifa reasoned. “Remember you put me in a position where you mek mi basically commercialise dancehall. I was at a space where I literally had every endorsement in Jamaica, from Digicel to Bigga to all BMW… When you’re in a position like that, people are gonna wanna knock you off because dem feel like you’re sitting on an empire or yuh deh pon the empire too long, or ‘she nuh deserve it’ for whatever reason.”

This contributed to her decision to relocate to the United States where she took a hiatus from music to recenter herself. She returned to the scene last year, but as she tells it, some things remain the same. 

In promoting her single Big Head Boy last month, Tifa claimed Major was behind the shadow-banning of her social media accounts via employed trolls.

“Every time mi have a new song a come out, every time something a gwaan, dem always shadow ban mi page, dem report me…” she said in a livestream. “That little fat sh*t weh come from round a di Boulevard, at what point does the obsession with Tifa end? Because unno try fi end me, unno try fi tek mi out of the business, unno try fi do everything fi hold mi down so fi unno people dem can reach. Mi give unno enough time; mi decide seh mi a come back inna the business, so what is the problem?”

She went on to speak of his alleged army of “promo girls” who flood blog comments with disparaging remarks. This was first echoed by Teejay in January who claimed his former boss would activate this supposed group if anyone violated his camp. Major addressed the claim in a blog comment. 

“So how me never see the 300 girls over pinkwall and everywhere a take up for me when me a vet (sic) me bashing…” Major argued in part.

The rift between Tifa and Major first played out publicly in 2017 when she said he was trying to erase her legacy by hailing Shenseea as the first female artist to land three major corporate brand deals in one year.

The Dash Out hitmaker refuted his claim by sharing her signing with Digicel, Stewart’s Automotive Group, Bigga and Fly Jamaica in one year, among other multi-signings over a 12-month period. Tifa’s overarching message was that it was fine to endorse an artist without revisionist history, a stance she maintains today. 

“If unno is that great, unno shouldn’t ah try hold me down… If unno is that great and unno people dem is that great and unno artists dem is that great, why the need fi get rid of me?”

She’d later go on to “wish them all the best,” but not before declaring that she won’t be bullied out of the industry again. 

“Whether unno like it or not, the song dem a go come and dem voice and unno give me whole ah five, six years fi write and a record that entire time, so guess what? Unno have to just get used to it and unno hand dem and unno finger dem and unno brain dem a go hurt unno fi type… Tifa is back and there’s not a damn f**king thing you can do about it. Take it up with God.”

Tifa’s latest release is Say Yes, a musical toast to the braggadocio vibrance of dancehall produced by Kemar ‘Flava’ McGregor.