It is difficult for millions of R&B fans to fathom that if things had gone according to plan, their exposure to Eric Bellinger’s talent would have been seeing him on the field as a college football player. They’re grateful the prolific singer, songwriter and producer took an unexpected detour, turning down a football scholarship to attend the University of Southern California so he could pursue a Grammy-winning multiplatinum career in music. Bellinger did just that. In addition to garnering those accolades, he’s composed music for and with the crème de la crème of the industry, including “Lemme See” by Usher, “New Flame” by Chris Brown, “Right Here” by Justin Bieber, “On Chill” by Wale, and “Music Sounds Better with U” by Big Time Rush. Bellinger first co-wrote for pop stars Selena Gomez, Jacob Latimore, and Big Time Rush. He then contributed to the song “Death Penalty” on The Game’s mixtape California Republic.
Bellinger recently released The Rebirth 3: The Party & The Bedroom, which was quickly followed by an EP of remixes featuring collaborations with Ty Dolla $ign, Sevyn Streeter, Vedo, Jastin Martin, Ye Ali, J. Valentine, and Steven G.
Bellinger sat down with rolling out to talk about his new album, TV show, ushering in a new wave of music aspirants, and his dreams of breaking into acting.
Let’s dig into the new music.
Recently, I dropped The Rebirth 3 album, which [marks] the 10th anniversary of The Rebirth, which was, I would say, the biggest discovery point when it comes to most of my fans. Back in the day, I had songs like “I Don’t Want Her,” and that song, for example, made it possible for me to travel the world …
The Rebirth 3 was an album I didn’t want to just drop, so I put the album out, and then I dropped an acoustic version of the same album, and then I recently just dropped the remix EP from the same album. The songs that were the fan faves, I’ve got new artists on them and new features. And it’s the remix for six songs. Since it’s The Rebirth 3, I’ve got three bonus tracks …
Let’s talk about the creative process. What’s that like for you?
I don’t get enough time to write songs. I think that’s when I can be expressive. That’s when I can let people know what’s on my mind and how I feel about a situation, articulate it and give my opinion on something rather than maybe doing politics.
Tell us more about your journey. Where are you? Where do you want to go?
The next phase of my life is truly going to be dedicated to signing new talent, to putting new artists out, and just being there for them [because] all you need is some connections, some people that got some wisdom, some people that got experience and resources. I never really had [that], so I want to pay that forward and all the knowledge and everything that I’ve attained to the artists coming after me.
What powerful skills and talents or lessons will you instill in your artists?
For sure, media training. For sure, stage presence, songwriting and engineering, so they can engineer themselves and not need anyone else to make a song. When it comes down to the different tasks that we have as artists, a lot of up-and-coming artists don’t realize how many things you have to do and how much it takes. … [I want to instill] in them what it’s going to take, and not [to] scare them away, but building the confidence in them that they can do it.
Tell us about some of your other exciting projects.
I’ve got a TV show that I’ve been doing that’s actually for songwriters, up-and-coming songwriters. The pilot’s already shot, and now it’s just about finding a home for it. I’ve got my documentary that’ll hopefully inspire the world. … And movies … I want to do some acting.
Photography by Michael Ricardo
