Kiddo [Explicit] Jessie Reyez Jessie Reyez could've given up the night five years ago that she was propositioned and threatened by a "big producer" whose name has never been revealed; instead she is sitting here with a record deal with Island Records. "I was this close to selling my soul that night; I was this close to breaking," she says in the short film Gatekeeper: A True Story. Reyez was born in Toronto, to Colombian parents. Her family later moved to Brampton. She played guitar as a child and began writing her own music in high school. Her roots brought her back to Toronto during her sophomore year but after graduating she opted out of college and instead chose to pursue her music while doing other odd jobs on the side. She moved to Florida, where she was primarily bartending and busking on the beach but returned to Toronto in 2014 after being accepted to The Remix Project's Academy of Recording Arts.