JESSI

Korean-American dynamo Jessica Ho (born on December 17, 1988 in Queens, New York City, US), records music as rapper and singer Jessi. Born in New York and raised in New Jersey, after moving to South Korea aged 15 Jessi began taking her first steps towards music and released her single album Get Up in 2005. She joined hip-hop collective Uptown – on whose Testimony album she contributed vocals, replacing their singer Yoon Mi-rae – and released her second single album, The Rebirth, in 2009 before taking some time away from music and returning to America. Following a five-year break, Jessi made her musical comeback as a member of hip-hop trio Lucky J with rapper J'Kyun and vocalist J-Yo, launching the single "Can You Hear Me" in 2014. She competed on the first season of the South Korean rap competition TV show, Unpretty Rapstar, which paved the way for a feature on JYP's 2015 chart-topper "Who's Your Mama?" and kickstarted her own solo rap career. She released her debut rap single, "Ssenunni," in September 2015 and follow-up "Gucci," from her first mini-album, Un2verse, in July 2017. The EP made it to Number 31 on South Korea's Gaon Album Chart and Number four on the Billboard World Albums chart. Her hip-hop career went from strength to strength after that, with the release of her second EP, Nuna, coming in July 2020, her first release for Psy's record label P Nation. Jessi dropped two new singles in 2021: empowerment anthem "What Type of X" and "Cold Blooded" (with Street Woman Fighter).