Belly

Ahmed Balshe (in Arabic أحمد بلشي) (born April 7, 1984), better known by his stage name Belly, is a Palestinian-Canadian Juno Award-winning rapper.
Born in Jenin, Palestine, his musical career has been based in Ottawa, Ontario. In addition to a Juno, he has won three MuchMusic Video Awards and has twice attained a top chart position in the national Much Music Countdown. Belly has written many #1 and platinum gold/hits for other artists. His stage name of Belly/Rebellyus was derived from the term "rebellious".
His first single "Pressure" featuring Ginuwine peaked at the #10 position on Canadian CHR radio charts, and #1 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.
Shortly after, he released "I'm the Man" featuring Kurupt produced by Footage Entertainment. it was premiered as the "Big One" on MuchMusic station. He also released a video for "Smells Like Money" (produced by Whosane?) on MySpace in early October 2007.
In late October 2007, his third single featuring Mario Winans entitled "Ridin'" was released. The video features Mario Winans, model KD Aubert, who plays Belly's lead-girl, and Dr. Benjamin Chavis.
During the 2007 NHL Playoffs, as the Ottawa Senators were competing, Belly released a single entitled "Bandwagon" (produced by Whosane?). 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 long time 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.
A major police raid was conducted at the artist's home in Greely, Ontario on August 15, 2008 based on a search warrant to seek firearms there. However, the only items of note found in this raid were three BB guns that were purchased, on sale, from a Canadian Tire store. No charges were laid and Belly later commented that the raid "was a waste of Ottawa taxpayers' money, but now my neighbours can see that I don't have anything to hide."
In 2009 Belly spent some time in Miami, Florida working with some of the industry’s most notable producers and artists. (Jim Jonsin, Blackout Movement, Snoop Dogg, Diaz Brothers, DJ Infamous, Da Heala, Whosane, Mario Winans and more). Later that year, Belly released a mixtape titled "DJ Smallz Presents: Back For the First Time Vol. 1". Artists featured on the mixtape were Snoop Dogg, Drake, Kurupt, P Reign. Stack Bundles, Bynoe and Belly’s brother Truth.
After *Back For The First Time* Belly worked with labelmate and Canadian pop star Danny Fernandes for his single “Automatic” and released records like “Kill Bill” with Mistah Fab and “Murder Music” with Barrington Levy among others, which were featured on his mixtape Sleepless Nights hosted by DJ Ill Will released in 2011. The second song, “Must Be Nice” featuring Vado was released shortly after. Production on the mixtape was mainly handled by DannyBoy Styles of Blackout Movement, with tracks from Boi-1da, Da Heala, Aliby, Whosane? and JGramm as well.
Belly's also released a body of work that was a compilation of songs he had worked on with Dogg Pound rapper Kurupt some time 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.
The Greatest Dream I Never Had was presented by DJ Drama, which dropped on November, 11, 2011 and premiered on The Source Magazine. The tape is dark, personal and intimate. Each song samples records from the 70's, 80's, 90's including artists like Love Inc. (band) (Broken Bones), REM, Lana Del Rey (Videogames), James Blake (musician) (The Wilhelm Scream) among many others. The tape was produced and arranged by Belly, DannyBoy Styles, Da Heala and The Weeknd.
His second album, Sleepless Nights 1.5 was released April, 2012. The first single "Hot Girl" featuring Snoop Dogg was released in July 2009, and the video, directed by MMVA award-winner RT!, was added on MuchMusic’s “BIG ONE.”.
Second single "To The Top" featuring Ava, was released in 2010. Belly's first single of 2011 was "Back Against the Wall" featuring Grammy nominated singer Kobe Honeycutt. Last single "I Drink I Smoke" featuring Snoop Dogg was released in 2011. In August, 2012 Belly released "Hartwin Cole" ft. Faber Drive, the video for which premiered on Muchmusic.com

Official Website: http://www.bellylive.com/

MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/bellylive