R&B artist Jessie Reyez, who has tackled everything from heartbreak to domestic violence in her music, says there’s a reason she wears her heart on her sleeve.
“I don’t want to sound like a sob story, but I’ve had to deal with a lot of dishonesty in my life and people lying and it’s hurt me. It’s hurt me deeply,” the 27-year-old singer-songwriter told Page Six at Governors Ball on Friday. “So I think that part of the cause-and-effect of that has been me being brutally honest.”
She continued, “I don’t want to be hypocritical in how I deal with people or how I deal with my truth because I hate when people aren’t completely honest with me, so that’s what motivates me to want to be completely honest and vulnerable.”
During her set on Randall’s Island, the “Imported” crooner shared with the crowd, “Years ago, when I was begging people to hear my s–t, I met this producer…and I sang for that motherf—-r and you know what he told me? He said, ‘Yeah Jessie, you can sing, but if you want to succeed you need to suck d–k for a deal.’”
When we asked Reyez, who has now collaborated with stars like Eminem and Calvin Harris, what she said back to the producer, she told us “nothing.”
“I was young and I was shy and I was nervous and I wasn’t myself,” she said. “I wasn’t the person I am now and I feel like I’ve worked to be stronger and it’s a blessing to be stronger and more vocal but I was younger and naïve so I was scared.”
While she is now able to express her anger over the incident through her song called “Gatekeeper,” Reyez also stressed that she isn’t mad at herself for not speaking up at a time before the #MeToo movement took off.
“I’ve had to learn how to empathize with my younger self that I wasn’t as bold to be like, ‘F–k off. F–k you,’ because that’s what I would do now because I feel like I’ve grown and I’ve never known that will before,” she said. “But that’s why I’m empathetic to some women that take the other route because it’s difficult.”
And although Reyez opens up to her fans, the Canadian native says it’s bittersweet.
“There’s something really funny about having those time capsules of pain, of like, authentic pain and then coming to beautiful days like this and being able to sing in front of people and people are singing it back,” she told us. “It’s just like the joy of my life. It’s interesting to have that contrast, that complete juxtaposition beside each other of this little time capsule of pain beside such joy. That’s an interesting thing that I deal with.”