INKED Exclusive: Belly

Meet The Weeknd’s Right-Hand Man

When you’re in the middle of an international tour and you have a few days in New York City where you just put out a killer performance a few nights earlier at the Governor’s Ball, what do you do to relax? Well, if you’re Belly you smoke a little weed (maybe a lot of weed), grant an interview to INKED magazine, go live on Facebook and get tattooed by Victor Modafferi…all in the same afternoon.

Belly and “international” go hand-in-hand. Born in Jenin, Palestine, Belly (born Ahmad Balshe) moved with his family to Ottawa at a young age to escape the violence and poverty of his home country. Things were moving sure and steady as Belly carved out a niche for himself as a songwriter, but that all changed when he landed a RIAA Platinum-certified smash with “Might Not” [feat . The Weeknd] from his 2015 project Up for Days.

That pairing up with the weekend proved to be influential and the two have gone on to work together right up to present day. Belly has also collaborated with heavy hitters such as Young Thug, Jadakiss amd Ty Dolla $ign to name just a few. Oh, yeah and let’s not forget that he co-penned Beyonce’s “6 Inch” featuring The Weeknd, which is taken from the acclaimed visual album Lemonade.

However, Belly also has a politically active side that has been around since he first starting writing back in Canada. In fact, during the 2016 promo tour for the album entitled Another Day in Paradise, Belly and The Weeknd cancelled their appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live to protest the appearance of Donald Trump while he was campaigning for his presidential seat.

Time to read what Belly had to say in between tokes and tats.