Belly XO‘s very own

By-Drew

Ahmad Balshe  (born April 7, 1984), better known by his stage name Belly, is a Palestinian-Jordanian-Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer.

Born in Jenin in the Palestinian West Bank under Israeli occupation, and raised in Ottawa, Balshe embarked on a career as a musician at twenty-one years old, with the release of his debut mixtape, Death before Dishonor: Vol. 1. He then released eight additional projects in a span of six years, including his debut studio album The Revolution (2007), as well as two collaborative mixtapes, The Lost Tapes and The Greatest Dream I Never Had, with both Kurupt and DJ Drama, respectively.

After a hiatus from music, he secured a recording contract with XO in 2015, (and later an additional contract with Roc Nation) after contributing with co-writing a variety of songs for R&B artists The Weeknd and Beyoncé. Belly received a total of eleven credits across the former's latest studio albums, while also providing backing vocals and co-writing the song "6 Inch" from the latter's album, Lemonade. Belly then went onto release four further mixtapes.

 

Belly was then honoured as Songwriter of the Year at the 2016 SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada) Awards for his "significant and outstanding contributions to popular music over the past year". Alongside his SOCAN award, Belly has won a Juno Award, three MuchMusic Video Awards, and has twice attained a top chart position in the national Much Music Countdown

Career

2005–2007: Early career and The Revolution

Main article: The Revolution (Belly album)

His first single "Pressure", featuring Ginuwine peaked at number 10 on the Canadian CHR radio charts, and number one on MuchMusic's Video chart. In April 2007, Belly released the video for his second single "Don't Be Shy", featuring Nina Sky, as well as the video for "History of Violence" directed by Martin Verigin and Jeffrey Hagerman. The video remains his most controversial record to date. In "History of Violence", Belly explains his views on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the War in Iraq.

During the 2007 NHL Playoffs, as the Ottawa Senators were competing, Belly released a single entitled "Bandwagon" (produced by Hussain). When the Senators made the Stanley Cup Finals, Belly released a second version of the song which featured goaltender Ray Emery.

His debut album, The Revolution, was released on June 5, 2007. This double disc album was divided into two sections: The People and The System. The People contained more in depth songs, such as "History of Violence" (produced by Whosane?), "Follow Me", and "Revolutionary", where he challenges his listeners to discover the facts regarding the Middle-East situation. Other songs on this disc include "People Change" (produced by Whosane?), "Leave Me Alone" where he talks about his longtime friends and the memories that he kept from them. The System contained his hit singles "Don't Be Shy", "Ridin'", and "Pressure".

The Revolution achieved Gold sales in Canada and won the 2008 Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year. Singles from The Revolution won two MuchMusic Video Awards for Best Rap Video; "Pressure" in 2007 and "Ridin'" in 2008.

2007–2012: Additional mixtapes and hiatus

Belly also released a body of work that was a compilation of songs he had worked on with Dogg Pound rapper Kurupt sometime after his first album The Revolution. Some songs were unreleased with a few that had seen release dates on previous mixtapes. This mixtape was called Belly & Kurupt the Lost Tapes 2008 hosted yet again by DJ Ill Will. In 2011, Belly released another new mixtape titled The Greatest Dream I Never had which he has said will have no features.

His mixtape, Sleepless Nights 1.5 was released April 2012. The first single "Hot Girl", featuring Snoop Dogg was released on September 8, 2009.

Second single "To the Top", featuring Ava, was released in 2010. Belly's first single of 2011 was "Back against the Wall", featuring Grammy Award-nominated singer Kobe Honeycutt.

2015–present: Signing to XO and Roc Nation

In May 2015, Belly released his newest mixtape, entitled Up For Days. It featured 10 tracks, including four collaborations with Travis Scott, Juelz Santana, French Montana, and XO-label head, The Weeknd in addition to six solo tracks. On November 24, 2015, it was announced that he had signed with Jay-Z's Roc Nation label.

 

Belly was also prominently featured on The Weeknd's 2015 album, Beauty behind the Madness, earning six writing credits.

In February 2016, he released the song "Zanzibar", featuring American rapper Juicy J. On November 11, 2016, he released Inzombia which had 11 tracks.

On October 6th, 2017, Belly released Mumble Rap which the mixtape being executive produced by fellow Canadian producer