Jessi confessed recently that she had reached a point where she was on the verge of giving up on her career after a decade of struggling without much success. However, a pivotal moment came when she uttered a phrase during her appearance on 'Unpretty Rap Star,' and it changed the course of her career forever.

On November 5, Jessi appeared as a special guest on the YouTube talk show 'The Psick Show' and talked about various things, including her journey in the Korean music industry. She confessed that when she was first cast for the show 'Unpretty Rap Star,' she was actually thinking about giving up her career in the Korean music industry and returning to the States. 

She explained, "Many people might not know this, but when I decided to be on 'Unpretty Rap Star,' it was when I was about to give up. So I was doing 'Unpretty Rap Star,' but before I went to 'Unpretty Rap Star,' the producers and directors came to me and said, 'I need you on Unpretty Rap Star.' But I was like, 'I don't want to do 'Unpretty Rap Star.' What the f**k is a 'Unpretty Rap Star'? Are you trying to say we're ugly?' So, I didn't want to compete." 

She continued, "I don't like to compete because my competition is myself. I don't need to compete with people. But then they needed me. At that time, I was going to go back to the United States. So I gave up. And I thought that show was going to flop. I thought it was going to fail so I decided, 'You know, I'll just do whatever.' That's the mindset I went on the show with."

Jessi added, "But I got big. Because of the phrase 'This is a competition!' What in the world, I did everything for 10 years but I got big because of that one phrase. So I realized that there is the right timing for people."

The pivotal moment that catapulted Jessi to Stardom:

Jessi revealed that through her 10 years of being unable to gain success, she learned the importance of being humble. She explained, "Why did I succeed? I thought it was because I was talented but when I see these competitions, it's not going to last forever. At one moment, you do well (you succeed, but then you plummet). I've been doing this for a long time, so I stayed humble. I saw everybody do well but in my mind, I thought I should do well and stay humble because this is not forever."