Belly

Ahmad Balshe (أحمد بلشي) (born 7 April 1984), known professionally as Belly, is a Palestinian-Canadian rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer.

Born in Jenin, Balshe was raised in Ottawa.

At 21 years old, he moved on to his main love hip-hop with the release of his debut mixtape, Death Before Dishonor: Vol. 1.

Ahmad Balshe was born on 7 April 1984 in Jenin, Palestine.

When he was seven years old, he moved to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada with his family, through Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, and Jordan, to escape violence and poverty.

Belly's first single, "Pressure" featuring Ginuwine, peaked at number 10 on the Canadian CHR radio charts, and number one on MuchMusic's Video chart.

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 Kurupt and DJ Drama, respectively.

In April 2007, he 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 latter remains his most controversial record to date, as he 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 the single "Bandwagon", produced by Hussain Hamdan.

When the Senators made the Stanley Cup Finals, he released a second version of the song which featured goaltender Ray Emery.

His debut album, The Revolution, was released on 5 June 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", "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" and "Leave Me Alone", where he talks about his longtime friends and the memories that he kept from them.

The System contained his hit singles "Ridin'", and "Pleasure".

The singles from The Revolution won two MuchMusic Video Awards for Best Rap Video: "Pressure" in 2007 and "Ridin'" in 2008.

The Revolution achieved Gold sales in Canada and won the 2008 Juno Award for Rap Recording of the Year.

He also released his sixth mixtape in collaboration with rapper Kurupt entitled Belly & Kurupt The Lost Tapes 2008.

The mixtape, also hosted by DJ ill Will, contained a compilation of songs the two had worked on some time after Belly's debut studio album was released.

Some of the songs featured on the mixtape were previously unreleased.

Belly then released his seventh mixtape The Greatest Dream I Never Had, hosted by DJ Drama.

The first single, "Hot Girl" featuring Snoop Dogg, was released on 8 September 2009.

Its second single, "To The Top" featuring Ava, was released in 2010.

In 2011, Belly released his fifth mixtape Sleepless Nights, hosted by DJ ill Will.

Belly's first single of 2011 was "Back Against the Wall", featuring singer Kobe Honeycutt.

Belly's next project Sleepless Nights 1.5 was released in April 2012.

After a hiatus from music, Belly secured a recording contract with XO in 2015, and later an additional contract with Roc Nation, after 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.

In May 2015, after a five-year hiatus, Belly released his eighth mixtape Up for Days.

It was his first project to be released under the record labels XO and Roc Nation and featured guest appearances by Travis Scott, Juelz Santana, French Montana and the Weeknd.

Belly was also prominently featured on the Weeknd's sophomore album Beauty Behind the Madness in August 2015, earning writing credits on six of the fourteen songs: "Often", "The Hills", "Shameless", "Earned It", "In the Night" and "As You Are".

On 24 November 2015, Belly formally signed to Roc Nation.

Belly was 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.

In February 2016, Belly released the single "Zanzibar", featuring Juicy J.

On 27 May, he released his ninth mixtape Another Day in Paradise, which featured guest appearances by Travis Scott, Lil Wayne, Kehlani, Starrah, Waka Flocka, Juicy J and B-Real.

On 11 November, he released his tenth mixtape Inzombia.

Belly then went on to release four mixtapes, and his second studio album Immigrant in 2018.

In 2020, he co-wrote tracks on the Weeknd's fourth studio album After Hours, including the 2019 single "Blinding Lights", which eventually became the Billboard #1 Greatest Hot 100 Hit of All Time in 2021.