Contemporary R&B singer/songwriter
Eric Bellinger earned his first contract as a recording artist, but he advanced his early career as a songwriter. Beginning in 2009, he co-wrote dozens of songs for high-profile artists including
Chris Brown,
Brandy, and
Justin Bieber. In 2014, he released his debut album,
The Rebirth, and followed by a pair of EPs and the first volume of his Cuffing Season series. 2018 saw the release of
Eazy Call, his third studio long-player and first to hit the Billboard 200. 2019's double-album sequel
The Rebirth 2 yielded the
Chris Brown- and
OG Parker-assisted hit "Type a Way." He remained busy at the start of the next decade and in 2021 issued both a collaborative album with
Hitmaka and the solo album
New Light.
A Compton, California native,
Bellinger starred as a running back on his high school football team and earned a scholarship to play for and attend the University of Southern California. Around the same time, the Epic label presented him with a recording contract.
Bellinger opted to go with music, but his career advanced more as a songwriter than an artist. From 2009 through 2013, he co-wrote dozens of songs for high-profile artists, including two cuts on
Chris Brown's Grammy-winning
F.A.M.E.,
Brandy's "Without You," and
Justin Bieber's "Right Here." Two of his biggest hits came with
Usher's "Lemme See," which reached number two on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart, and
Brown's "Fine China," a number ten R&B/Hip-Hop hit.
Meanwhile,
Bellinger worked on solo material such as In the Meantime and the three-volume Born II Sing series of mixtapes. In 2014, he released
The ReBirth with appearances from past collaborator
Sevyn Streeter,
Kid Ink, and
Sage the Gemini. Among its several singles were the
Kriss Kross/
Ohio Players-sampling "I Don't Want Her" (featuring
Problem) and "9 Lives" (featuring Too Short and
Ty Dolla $ign). In the run-up to the release of his anticipated follow-up,
Bellinger issued the pre-album teaser mixtape
Choose Up Season before announcing the release of
Cuffing Season in 2015. A second volume of the latter was issued just a few months later.
Bellinger returned in 2016 with the mainly acoustic-sounding EP
Eric B for President: Term 1. The more varied-sounding follow-up
Term 2 appeared at the beginning of 2017.
The following year saw the release of his third studio long-player
Eazy Call -- the title was derived from his "It's Eazy" ad-lib. In September 2018,
Bellinger and rapper A.D. released the collaborative album Nine as Poncho Belly & Dizzle. After closing out his year with the holiday single "Kisses on Christmas," he returned in early 2019 with the double album
The Rebirth 2, which included the hit "Type a Way" featuring
Chris Brown and
OG Parker. A second full-length, Saved by the Bellinger, appeared in September of that year and was followed two months later by
Cuffing Season 3. 2020 was devoted largely to smaller releases like the third EP in his
Eric B for President series and collaborative projects including Scenarios with
Chase N. Cashe and Optimal Music with
Nieman J.
Bellinger. He kicked off 2021 with
1-800-HIT-EAZY, a collaboration with
Hitmaka, and returned in September with his own solo album, the Grammy-nominated
New Light, which featured guests like
Brandy,
Teedra Moses, and
Kierra Sheard. ~ Andy Kellman