Belly Says He’s ‘Like Biggie And Puff Combined’; Shares How His Career Was Inspired By The Famed Rappers
19.05.2023 - 05:17
/ etcanada.com
Belly credits two of the biggest rappers of all time — Biggie Smalls and P. Diddy — for inspiring his rap career.
In the Palestinian-Canadian rapper’s new song “Ambiance”, off his upcoming album Mumble Rap 2, he raps: “I’m Biggie and Puff combined, at least that’s what I feel like.” While chatting with ET Canada’s Morgan Hoffman in a new interview, we asked Belly if he really feels that way.
“I was raised on Biggie and Puff, you know. So I think I took a little bit from each one of them when it came time to come out as my own artist,” the 39-year-old said, elaborating that he took “Puff’s influence on the business side of what I do. And Big’s influence on the music side of what I do.”
READ MORE: Longtime Collaborator Belly On The Weeknd’s Decision To Kill Alter Ego: ‘I Trust What He Wants To Do’
“I was able to take both. So I’m grateful for that,” he continued, adding that, when he started listening to Biggie, he “barely knew how to speak English. So, you know, that’s my English teacher right there.”
Belly, who knew he wanted to be an artist from a “super young” age, went on to explain how he convinced his mother to let him buy Biggie’s 1994 album Ready to Die.
READ MORE: Will.i.am Reveals He Isn’t A Huge Biggie Or Tupac Fan: ‘That Kind Of Music Doesn’t Speak To My Spirit’
“My older brother had bought Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle album. And then like a year later, I dragged my mom into HMV to get the Notorious B.I.G. album [Ready to Die], and I convinced her to get it. I was like nine or ten years old, but I convinced her to get it for me because it had a baby on the cover,” he shared. “So she had no idea that it was like one of the greatest, most classic hip hop albums of all time. And yes, that’s really what got