Rapper and singer Jessi has opened up about how P Nation founder PSY convinced her to join the agency.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone Korea, the Korean-American musician revealed that she did not say yes to PSY’s offer right away. “I was not convinced at first, let’s get that straight. It took a while for him to really get me,” the soloist said.

Jessi recalled how she was on the brink of giving up on her music career and was thinking about moving back to America. The soloist admitted that, despite a fully-booked work calendar, she was unsure of what she wanted to do and was not in a “good mental state of mind”.

“At that time of my life, I had another phase where I wanted to kind of give up on my career,” she said. “Fifteen years I’ve been in this game, and I’ve had a lot of up and downs, you know. I was not in a good mental state of mind.

“And then, I think that was the time where I was so overworked but I wasn’t really sure of.. what I wanted to do yet. So, I kind of felt like I needed a break and I needed to go to America and see my family and my friends.”

However, Jessi admits that it PSY made her “snap out it” and eventually convinced her to be the first artist to sign with P Nation. “[He] was like, ‘you’re coming with me. I’m gonna make you a superstar’,” Jessi recalled, adding that eventually signed with the label a couple of days after.

The 32-year-old is the first artist to join P Nation’s talent roster, and released her first track under the label called ‘Who Dat B’ in September 2019. It was later followed by her 2020 sophomore EP ‘Nuna’, which features the viral hit ‘Nunu Nana’, and her latest digital single ‘What Type Of X’ this March.

Elsewhere in the video interview, Rolling Stone Korea also talked to other P Nation artists, including former 4MINUTE member HyunA, ex-PENTAGON rapper Dawn, R&B vocalist Heize and more.

Earlier this year, Jessi said that she hoped her latest song ‘What Type Of X’ will inspire listeners to be “more confident”.  The singer-rapper noted that “the most crucial thing” for her is self-love and how important it was for her music to reflect that.