aies Baptiste was born in Galveston, TX to Patricia Wade and Darrell Freeman. At an early age, Patricia noticed that her daughter had a keen interest in music and sought to nurture that interest into a talent. At eight years old, Patricia enrolled Jaies into a music program where she took violin lessons from Pricilla McMullen. By 13 years old, Jaies was Concert Master (1st chair, 1st violin) at William James Middle School, under the direction of John Jones and 1st chair 16th violin in Fort Worth’s All City Orchestra. Even though she loved the violin, she wanted to venture out into other avenues of music, broaden her horizons. She began singing in the show choir at her high school as well as the Chamber Singers (only 12 members who dressed in Madrigal outfits and competed on a regular basis) under the direction of Wilbert O. Watkins. Jaies competed solo and in ensemble and gained many superior ratings at U.I.L. events, TMEA, and was a top 5 scholarship finalist.

While in college at Texas A & M University, Jaies participated in many of the local talent shows for extra money. During one of her talent shows at the University Tower, she was approached by the manager of an up and coming R & B group who went by the name of Essential Shades. Essential Shades was a group that had open up for various artists which included Houston’s own Destiny’s Child and had regular airplay on the local radio stations there. While in the group, Jaies learned more about contemporary music after having such a classical background, was able to work on her stage presence while performing at different shows, and get to share her songwriting ideas that had been brewing since the age of nine when she wrote her first song, “Tell Me”. After 2 years, Jaies left the group ES after the group had worked intently with producer Kojack (produced “The Way We Ball” for rapper Lil’ Flip) in pursuit of a solo career. The other two members of ES were deadlocked into a contract with Heslip Productions, while Jaies sought out the legal advice of Attorney Greg Avalon and found extenuating circumstances that allowed her to move forward, even if it was to be alone.

It was in college when Jaies developed an interest in acting. She was cast in a supporting role in the stage play by Modupe Ajibole, the Legend of Ogboni Land. During the time until the present, Jaies was featured in the Mark Harris’s movie Black Coffee, auditioned for a new film from David E. Talbert, played supporting roles in the films “The Sisterhood II” and Juicy Confession by Big Walt Anderson which are listed on IMDB. She has had two song placements in two films, Note to Self (2012) starring Christian Keyes, Eva Pigford, Clifton Powell, LaToya Luckett, Brian McKnight, and Jason Weaver and Somebody’s Child starring Michael Jai White and Lynn Whitfield. Jaies is a registered songwriter with BMI.

Jaies has worked as a promotional model for various brands (Dove, Axe Angel, Hanes, Gillette, Def Jam, Doritos, and Revlon), has done print work, and is the current cover model for