By Krista Henry, Staff Reporter

Producer Stephen McGregor. - Contributed

Producer Stephen McGregorcontinues to wow the music business, proving himself to be 'Di Genius'. The 17-year-old producer, and son to reggae crooner Freddy McGregor, recently got signed to EMI Publishing and earned himself a mention in Vibe Magazine as a producer to look out for in the future.

EMI is the world's largest independent music company, operating directly in over 50 countries. EMI Music Publishing is the world's leading publishing company, representing artistes, song writers and producers in all genres. Persons signed to EMI include the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Eminem, Alicia Keyes, Beyoncé, Kanye West, Janet Jackson and countless others- now including Jamaica's own Stephen McGregor.

Despite the success and all the accolades being thrown on the youngster when he spoke to the STAR recently, Stephen is as humble as ever about his new business venture.

"The deal with EMI came about when the A&Rs (artiste representatives) said they had seen a lot of work coming from me. They contacted my manager Zachary Harding and made an offer," he said.

Although McGregor is a part of his family's company Big Ship Productions, the young producer was not officially signed to anyone.

Best offer

Many companies made offers for Stephen but EMI came out on top. As a part of EMI Publishing, Stephen will be more visible on an International level, with more deals, more career opportunities and they will be handling the rights to all of his songs and riddims.

For Stephen, it's feeling good to be on top. "Its great, its a totally different side of the business, they have practically everyone signed to them. So far, it's already working, it has opened doors. Internationally there are a lot of stuff going on but, I can't get into the details," he said.

In the meantime, Stephen is always in the studio going through his 'dark' phase with the riddims 'Darker Shadow' and 'Dark Again', as well as working on albums for artistes such as Vybz Kartel, Sean Paul and Elephant Man.

But his time in the music industry is not without controversy.

There have been reports of an ongoing feud with fellow producer Don Corleone. It was alleged that the two monster producers were in conflict with each other as artistes from each other's labels dissed the other in songs.

Stephen lays the story to rest saying "its not anything really, nothing personal. Its more like ignorance. A certain artiste on his label said something about our label. That's all of the whole quote and quote beef."

But Stephen is not paying his detractors any mind. He says he continues to look forward to his future and his music.