Jessi (musician)

In 2003, Jessi successfully auditioned for Doremi Media and moved to South Korea at age 15.[2] She released her debut single album Get Up in 2005 and performed the title song "Get Up" on the TV series Music Bank. In 2006 the hip hop group Uptown featured her in their album Testimony, replacing their original vocalist Yoon Mi-rae.[3] Jessi's second single album, entitled "The Rebirth", was released in January 2009. After the release, she took a break from music, and left Korea to return to America.[4]

In 2014, after a 5-year hiatus, Jessi returned as a member of hip-hop trio Lucky J with rapper J'Kyun and vocalist J-Yo.[5] Lucky J debuted with the digital single "Can You Hear Me" under YMC Entertainment in July of that year.[6] A month after their debut, Lucky J made an appearance in KBS's music competition program, Immortal Songs 2.

From January to March 2015, Jessi was part of the first season of Unpretty Rapstar, a spin-off of the program Show Me The Money.[7] Unpretty Rapstar is a female rapper survival program, where contestants compete for the chance to be featured on tracks in a compilation album. Jessi was chosen as the second-place winner of the show by audience vote.[8] After her appearance on Unpretty Rapstar, Jessi was featured in JYP's single "Who's Your Mama?" and its music video, which were both released in April 2015.[9] The track topped all nine major music charts in Korea as soon as it was released.[10] Throughout 2015, Jessi appeared as a guest in various popular variety shows, including Running Man and Happy Together.[11][12] She released her first ever solo rap single, "Ssenunni", on September 15.[13] Jessi's first live performance in the US was held on October 16. She performed at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles with hip-hop duo Mighty Mouth as her opening act.[14] When Unpretty Rapstar 2 aired, Jessi appeared in several episodes as a mentor. She and Cheetah, the winner of the previous season, were also featured in Unpretty Rapstar 2 tracks produced by Verbal Jint.[15] In December 2015, Jessi performed her song "Ssenunni" at the Mnet Asian Music Awards.[16]

In 2016, Jessi starred as one of the permanent members in season one of popular Korean variety show, Sister's Slam Dunk.[17] In 2017, Jessi released another rap single, "Gucci" from her first mini-album, entitled Un2verse, both of which released on July 13.[18][19] In 2018, Jessi starred on Yo! MTV Raps. The show aired on MTV Asia on July 6.[20] On the same day, she released a single titled "Down".[21] According to Soompi, AOMG producer Gray took part in producing the track.[22]

Jessi's contract with YMC Entertainment ended in October 2018, and in January 2019, she signed a contract with PSY's record label P Nation. Her first single under the label, "Who Dat B," was released on September 23, 2019.[23] "Who Dat B" peaked at number eight on the World Digital Songs Sales chart and 68 on the Billboard Korea K-Pop Hot 100.[24][25] She released another rap single, "Drip" featuring Jay Park, on November 2.[26] The collaboration reached number 16 on the World Songs chart.[24]

The singer released her third extended play Nuna on July 30, 2020.[27] The lead single, "Nunu Nana" was released in conjunction with the album. "Nunu Nana", peaked at number two on the Gaon Music Chart. Promotions of the single ended on August 23, 2020 as she performed on SBS's Inkigayo. On August 14, 2020 the music video for "Numb", another single under the Nuna extended play, was released.

On October 10, 2020, Jessi collaborated with singers Uhm Junghwa (Man-ok), Lee Hyori (Cheon-ok), and Hwasa (Silbi) to release the single "Don't Touch Me" under the band name "Refund Sisters". In this group, Jessi used the stage name Eunbi. This collaboration took place on the show "How Do You Play" from episodes 58 onwards, with Yoo Jaeseok (Jimmy Yu) as their producer, and Kim Jongmin (Kim Ji-sub) and Jung Jae-hyung (Jung Bongwon) as their managers.

Before debuting as a singer, Jessi cited that she listened to Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Christina Aguilera, Lauryn Hill, Jay-Z, TLC, Tupac, and Biggie when she was little.[32][33] She performed Aguilera's Genie in a Bottle during Doremi media audition in the states at age 15.