How Eric Bellinger Found Success As An Independent Artist

Eric Bellinger is the prince of R&B… and the entire music industry can attest to that.

In fact, Usher recently called Eric the “one of the most beautiful voices of all time” on NPR’s Tiny Desk, making sure to open his standout performance with that gentle reminder. 

From winning Grammys with Chris Brown to songwriting for all the greats in the music industry, Eric Bellinger knows a thing or two about hit records. He’s also an incredibly talented recording artist, giving hope to all the independent artists that they too can turn their dreams into reality. To date, he’s put out 39 albums.. and continues to bless his dedicated fanbase with endless bangers.

Beyond the music, Eric is a big family man, father to two kids and husband to his wife La’Myia Good.

On the 68th episode of Shirley’s Temple, I sat with Eric Bellinger to discuss getting Grammys with Sevyn Streeter, bringing Trevor Jackson on tour, being discovered from singing voicemails for $1, why being independent is worth it, contributing to Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda,” meditating for 45 minutes, the making of Teyana Taylor’s “3Way” & being in the studio w/ Kanye, and more!

How much does Eric Bellinger smoke? Don’t you have asthma?

I had asthma. I think smoking helped it. 

I love these success stories!

Because look, think about when you have an asthma attack, it’s basically you got phlegm all in your chest. Another word for phlegm is mucus, I’m sorry to say it. But when you cough super hard from the weed, you clear your lungs.

Is this the life hack?

It’s the life hack people never knew they needed. I used to have the breathing treatment. I used to have the arrow chamber where they get you to blow, that’s how you clear your lungs. 

I’d imagine as a songwriter, weed opens your creative portal. 

Big time. It makes me say things that I don’t think twice about, because I’m very anal. “Okay, does it make sense though? Make sure it makes sense. Because it has to be a 2-4 2-4, or an a-b, a-b.”

Are you a perfectionist?

Yes. 1/16 quantize, all that. But if I’m high? Next part. When I’m high: where did that part come from? It’s been there the whole time. The snare just jumped out at me. [laughs]

You just dropped a new record and visual called “Drop” with my girl Sevyn. I love you guys together: it’s like the king of songwriting and the queen of songwriting. But now their own artists doing own thing! Have you guys had it in the vault for a minute or no?

That one, nah we just did it. That was the last song I had recorded for the album. Boom, we knew it was the one. We’ve been working together for years, even from songwriting for Chris Brown.  

You guys were in those sessions together?

Yes, we got Grammys together. Shout out to Chris Brown for the F.A.M.E. album and everybody that was a part. Harmony Samuels, Courtney. It was a vibe. So we’ve been working since back then: supporting each other’s writing career, supporting each other’s artists career. Whether it’s me and her working on her music or us working on my music or doing collabs, this is probably our fourth song together. Y’all gotta go check out “Film Me, “Catch 22,” “What About Us,” and “Drop.” We might as well just drop a little EP, 7 songs with Sevyn. 

What I love both is you guys are both independent as well. Can you touch on that? Because how many albums you got now? 

It’s 39. 

I didn’t know if we were at the 40 mark. You gotta celebrate that. 

Next one is 40, it’ll be Eric Bellinger’s 40th album. It’s the acoustic version of The Rebirth 3, all acoustic vibes. So we celebrating. 

Did someone request that? 

I think that’s me wanting to give the people more, just what variation. After we do the acoustic version,we’re probably going to do a remix EP. Just to have a couple songs… the fan favorites. Take it to the next level.

How many label deals did you turn down?

I didn’t really take meetings.

You didn’t even see how much they were talking? 

Because if you want me bad enough, you’re gon’… you feel me? It ain’t been to where anything stopped me. Nah, I’m gonna be cool on my own. And now I realized the power and ownership. I didn’t know in the beginning, I just believed that I deserved more. So I kept pushing.

You got back from tour recently? How was that?

Amazing. I felt like MJ. I felt like Michael. It’s dope because not only in the States were they singing the songs word for word, but also overseas. Fom Paris to London, to Germany to Amsterdam, all these places were over pouring love. 

Have you headlined your own tour there before?

A long time ago. “I Don’t Want Her” days. When “I Don’t Want Her” first popped, I was  everywhere. Since then, I’ve been dropping the albums. It was a thing where let’s see what happens, and sold out every city. So now the next time we go on tour, we know we can go bigger rooms. We know what to expect.

You toured with Trevor Jackson, how was that? Did you ask him to come on tour? 

Yes. That’s my man. My brother. So to be able to shine a light on him, that was really my goal. Anybody that goes on tour with me, it’s my choice. I want to cosign this person. I want everybody to know this person is dope. I want everybody to hear their gift. He can sing. He can dance. He can play the guitar. He’s a rapper, a model, actor. We need to be paying attention to Trevor Jackson.

At the height of “I Don’t Want Her,” it was all over the clubs. All over the radios. At that peak, how crazy was your life?

It was busy! I was all over the place. Bookings, features. Price went up. That’s when it went from, “Aye, can I just come to your club? And can you play my song? I’ma just stand there the whole night to hope to hear it, to hope to get a video.” I did all that, you can ask any DJ. We had that relationship and that rapport in the beginning, because I was always willing to put that time. To transition from that to now: when I go in there, “we got Eric Bellinger in the building!” I am here! I am in the building! But it’s definitely still a humbling feeling. I always go to the DJ: yo what’s up? Thank you. I appreciate you for playing my music, for your support. They see that and that’s why it’s always genuine.

As an independent artist: when you drop, do you have to be the one to send it to these DJs? “Hey yo, play my record” type shit? Because the labels ain’t doing that for you.

You should because you can’t count on anybody. Especially when you’re going to these places, you going to events and you’re networking and meeting the DJs, and making relationships of your own. Think about it, does the DJ want to hear from you? Or from an A&R that he doesn’t know? Or maybe he knows him, but he also just sent him 3 other songs from 3 other artists. At this point, now you’re in the bunch, as opposed to making your own relationship and connection.

Were you outside when that record was poppin’? Were you partying? 

A little bit. I didn’t understand the importance of being outside with having a song. I had a song, but I was outside only when I got booked. It felt like work. I just had a family, I’m trying to be at the crib. Back then, it was fresh. Now I’m outside with the songs and it’s making such a bigger impact.

So you were singing voicemails for $1?

That’s true. I used to do voicemails on answering machines. That’s how I got discovered.

Someone heard your voicemail? 

Yes, Erika Nuri heard me singing on her God daughter’s voicemail. 

Have you said this before?

I said it in my documentary, but it’s not out. This is an exclusive. She worked for Babyface at the time. She was trying to sign me to Babyface. But at the time, my parents were like, “No, let’s finish school.” 

Your dad was a pastor, right? 

Yeah, dad was a pastor. After I got out of high school, I reached out to Erika and she was ready to go. It’s one of those stories, I wasn’t even doing music. I wasn’t even interested. I was doing the voicemails and playing football. I wanted to play in the NFL, that’s it.

How good were you at football? 

Shifty. Quick. Fast, little speed. I was quick. I was a little too short and I saw that ahead of time. So when it was a longevity play: keep playing football or try this music thing out. 

What life would have been like if you took that football scholarship at USC? 

I wanted to go so bad. I wanted to do it. I was gonna redshirt and had to rehab. It was a double re, I couldn’t do it. I hurt my knee and I had to redshirt. It was a thing where I was gonna either do that or take this deal and immediately go on tour. Back in the day, I literally was like” let’s try out this. I can make hits and I don’t gotta get hit.

Shirley’s Temple has a focus on mental health. How are you doing?

I’m doing good. But at the same time, life be lifing. 

That’s literally how I feel. 

Life is life. I’ve been through so many things at this point that I’m numb to surprise. I don’t get shocked. Especially the things that I see going on around the world. Things that are happening to babies, the things that I’m used to. The censorship has just decreased. 

It’s alarming how desensitized the world is becoming. 

Desensitized is even a better word. 

I know you said life is lifeing, you good? 

 I’m at a place where I love the roller coaster. Because after going on tour, I was at the highest height. We was at the Eiffel Tower, I’m eating lobster and shrimp. I go home, so I’m already planning another tour. I’m able to keep going and keep working. I keep my mind off anything that will pull me down. But once I’m done and I’m chillin’. I’m in this a down part of the roller coaster where I just have to wait for more shows. Because we’re strategically… we want to stay away from certain markets so that the tour can be good. Certain things we gotta chill on, but it’s all a part of it. That’s the independent route. That’s why we pay that much attention, as opposed to artists that’s not really worried about recouping.

I was gonna say, you gotta recoup. 

Yeah, I want to recoup because I want to make my money every month. I need that monthly.

As an independent artist, at least you have that minimum baseline so you know you’re good.

Yeah, that’s the part. That’s why I dropped so many albums too. The more streams, the more green.

My girl Bali Baby was telling me she does a Christmas album every year and she sees her streams go up during Christmas, because she’s making that album. I feel only an independent artist would notice that. 

If you’re not an independent artist, when you get the monthly royalties, the label gets it. You don’t even know what that feels like to get a check every month. You got your check in the beginning. Here go yo advance, and don’t be out here: diamonds, in the club, bottles, whatever car. Because once that money is gone, you have to wait until your album recoups and the streaming numbers have went down and the royalties have went down. Now, it’s taking longer to recoup. Now, it’s taking you longer to get your next check. But as an independent artist: smaller budget, more restrictions, faster pay off, longer payout. And you get it to you, that’s a different thing. Artists need to experience getting paid monthly on their streams. But it’s a harder journey at the same time. Between me and Andrew and JoJo and Travis, we gotta do a lot. And Echo, setting up interviews. It’s all us. It’s so much more work, but it’s worth it more in the end. 

B.o.B starts off his last single like “people always ask where B.o.B been at,” so obviously I asked him: where have you been at? He’s like, “people don’t understand when you’re independent, you literally have to build your team back.” He had to literally rebuild those things that the major label did for him. He’s like, “I’ve been here working, I just got more shit to do. It’s a lot.”

It’s more hats you gotta wear. When you’re with your label, you’re just the artist. You got an A&R that’s sending you beats, someone that’s setting up your sessions, you got a budget for the video. But when you’re independent, you literally have to do every single thing. As you drop projects, songs and music videos, you learn a little bit more each time. I could’ve done this better, I’ll apply it next time, then you do that. Oh, we did this and we added that, but we also seen a crack where we could fill this in now. That trial and error has made my team and the All Wins label unstoppable. We’ve found every plug, every leak and we’ve fixed it up proper to where now, it’s a well oiled machine. You seen Katt Williams when he’s like, “Line them up. Line them up.” That’s us.

You helped contribute to Nicki Minaj’s “Anaconda” and didn’t get songwriting credit. 

That’s why they canceled their Amsterdam show. Petty LaBelle. [laughs] It’s cool, but you never know. Maybe I’ll beat the case if I get a lawyer.

At that point in your career, were you upset?

No, I wasn’t because I understand it. As an artist, I be dropping albums and people say, “Yo, I worked on that.” I’ll be like, what? Because you might have worked on it with the producer in Milwaukee that sent it to the A&R that said, “let me get 5%.” That sent it over to my homie, that I liked the beat and now you’re somewhere along the line. And I didn’t know.

There needs to be a way to keep tabs. 

No, each producer if you do a co-production, you need to tell the artist, tell the A&R: “Hey, I did this with somebody.” Look out for them in the beginning, so they don’t gotta come later and attack the artist. How am I supposed to ghost know that really you didn’t do the beat?

What if some artists are unintentionally forgetting that?

That’s what I’m saying happened to me. So that’s why I don’t blame Nicki in that situation. I seen her, I was there in the studio. Hey, I’m right here. But I was in the cut. It was one of those situations. It was early in my career. I just did my work, got in the booth, got out of there. I did the placement of the sample for the actual “Anaconda don’t.” I did the bassline selection, all that stuff. But she wasn’t in there when it happened, when that work was getting done. When she was in there, it was time to press play. 

Justin Bieber’s “Right Here.” He cut it right after you played it for him, which is crazy. You said, “The song was done. So I wondered if Drake would write a new verse or something. Drake cuts my bars, bro.” What did you mean by that?

So “say you’ll be mine, say we’ll be fine. Say we’ll be together.” After that, he started rapping. He wrote those parts, but the singing parts, I wrote it. I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. I be seeing people do it and they be endinh up in the slums. Y’all got mad at me because I told everybody that I wrote the song? I’m cool. I’ma just collect.

I feel songwriters have it tough.

The toughest. The lowest on the totem pole. That’s why I had to start dropping, because these artists started flopping. 

Are songwriters able to have a sustainable career when it’s not a hit record?

I’ma say no. If you’re just a songwriter — unless you are getting all your publishing, you have a publisher that’s collecting, you ASCAP or BMI and they’re collecting for you, and the artists didn’t take half the publishing, you’re not getting paid. Because the royalties are so far in between. You get paid once every quarter, and the artist is doing a show every night getting a quarter million. 

Recently, a reference track of Vory doing “Mob Ties” leaked. What are your thoughts on that? Ghostwriting?

He probably got his publishing. I grew up studying The Temptations, Motown. Them songs, they didn’t write them. Smokey Robinson was writing all the songs. I look at it like when Aaliyah was dropping her music and R. Kelly was writing it, or when SWV was working with… or whoever. These people have professional songwriters, that’s why the songs sound amazing. It wasn’t until people started frowning upon it, when artists started taking it upon their own hands to not just be the entertainer. It’s cool to entertain us. That’s why you’re on stage, because you can entertain. I’m good with that, so I wasn’t mad at it personally. Especially because that’s how I get paid a lot, from writing others’ songs. Don’t take my job away. 

How did you feel about the Drake versus Kendrick? 

I was tuned in. We was locked in. Group chats was group chattin. Another one? Wake up! Gotta be quiet. We was tuned in.

Were you routing for Kendrick because he’s from the city?

I was. I was definitely rootin’. I got nervous at one point.

Really? 

I did, I just thought that Tupac AI was genius. What is he gonna do? Then he came so crazy. Wow, king Kendrick. 

How long do you meditate for?

I’m a good 45er.

First thing in the morning?

First thing. Everybody’s asleep in the house. Gotta wake up, the waterfall in the pool. It has a certain timer. I like to catch it. Balcony overlooking the city. It’s very Mufasa. 

Do you start at 5 and got to 45? 

Yeah, definitely started at 5 minutes. They have the breathing exercises on YouTube. You can go to a 5 minute breathing exercise, then you go to 10 minute breathing exercise. You can go to when it’s guided, but the breathing one is a great start.

Because I love that you meditated before you recorded “G.O.A.T.”

When I wrote “G.O.A.T.”, I was early for the session. I was unfamiliar, so I just went to the park in the middle of the grass and laid on the grass. I was looking up in the sky, then wrote “G.O.A.T.” They were like, “we’re here. Pull up.” Pulled up to the studio, boom. 

Are your kids following in your footsteps? 

They love music. They do love music, but Eli wants to be a gamer. And he wants to be a YouTuber. And Eazy, I’m still trying to figure him out. That’s my little twin, what you up to bro?

Would you let them be an artist, given how hard the music industry can be on mental health?

Yeah, just gotta make sure that they know the right intention behind it. Why are you making music? Are you doing this? Because you want to be famous? Are you doing this because you want to be rich? Because both of those roads lead to destruction. Are you doing this for the release? Because then you’re doing it for the right reason. When it’s like, I just gotta get this off my chest. And it’s really no letdown.

You taught your son how to meditate and that’s so powerful.

Pandemic. During the pandemic, what are we doing? We meditating bro. Not only because y’all too loud, but this will help you.

Can you bring us back to the session for “3Way” with Teyana Taylor? You were in there with Kanye?

She was working on her album. Kanye was there approving everything, hearing everything. She be knowing what she want to talk about. She said “Yo, I got this song called ‘3Way.’ I want this sample and I need it to talk about this, and go.” Then I could tap in like, alright cool. I have a direction. I know what you want to talk about.

So you like getting that direction? 

I do, because I want to be on your frequency. It’s like going into the gym all lights off and trying to make a basket. If you tell me everything you want, I’ma nail it. Guaranteed.

Is it easy for you?

It’s easy. It’s super easy. I don’t think about what we’re doing. I don’t think about writing a song, I literally think about telling the story. As easy as we can have a conversation, because you know what happens next in the conversation. You open the door, you sit on the couch, you turn on the TV. It’s the same thing in a song. As long as your writing a story, you know where to go next. 

How did you end up there? 

I had people teach me and coach me like Erika Nuri. Once she saw: “yo, I want you to be an artist. A songwriter.” She started taking me with her to her sessions and showed me how to do it. This is how you format a song. This is how you come up with the title. This is how you make it interesting. From me being able to get hands on with the direction of the song, I was able to apply my church background of all the runs and the gospel vibes. Also input the freestyles, because I used to rap freestyle. I used to love rap freestyle at school, in the car, with family. That’s what we did. Now, I’m a gumbo of every style of music. 

Teyana can sing. When you hear her cut those bars, are you proud? 

For sure. Some songs we do, maybe it’s straight from the beat. Some songs, maybe there’s a hook already there. Some songs, we in there line by line together. We got “How You Want It.” We got “69.” We got “Brokenhearted Girl.” Each time is always a different energy. For her, she trusts me. As a songwriter, when you have an artist that trusts you, you don’t have to come back. You can just vibe and each person is going to feed off each other’s greatness.

Had you met Kanye before? 

No, that was my first time. That was fire. The perception of him in person is different than what’s portrayed in the media. All I saw was hunger. All I saw was passion. All I saw was somebody that was the hardest worker and trying to pioneer. Every single day and every single conversation, we talking about elevating. To only see that, then to see what happens when it comes out? It didn’t look like that in the studio. But I see how people could think this, because the way that it be painted… it be weird. The media be like ooh. The headline is like damn, he meant that. 

I love this story about how your first studio session with Brandy, you fanned out. You were like: everything sounds amazing!

Yeah, that was tough. Tat was tough working in those circumstances just because I study her music. To me, everything that she does is just fire. It sounds good. 

How is that moment for you? Is your inner child screaming? 

Yes, for sure. YI’m still very much human. I’m very like, wow I’m honored to be here. With her, she low key had to tell me to snap out of it. “Snap out of it bro.” [laughs] Alright, carry on.

Photo Credit: Shirley’s Temple