THE WEEKND IS HERE
Belly also in town; five things to know
1 Homegrown hitmakers hit the big time When The Weeknd capped off a blockbuster 2015 by scooping up his first two Grammy Awards, it was “just the beginning” for an Ottawa-based management team that was hitting the big time.
Amir “Cash” Esmailian, a Merivale High School grad, and friend Tony Sal were the engine driving The Weeknd’s rapid ascent, with their connection going back to Ottawa-based label Capital Prophets Records, which was founded in 2002, with Belly as its marquee performer.
When Esmailian first heard The Weeknd, he boarded a flight from Miami back to Canada and assumed managerial duties in 2011, around the time the House of Balloons mixtape was released. Sal joined in a year later, just before the release of 2012’s The Trilogy.
Shortly after the pair made Billboard’s list of 40 Under 40: Music’s Young Power Players, they joined with Maverick, the mega-management group originally founded by Madonna. In a Billboard interview, both gave credit to Belly and recalled their formative years hanging out in local studios in Ottawa.
“He convinced me to get into the music business,” Sal said. “I didn’t know anything about the music business at the time, but the fact that he trusted me so much and I was willing to take that chance and now he’s my best friend, almost 20 years, and we believe in each other.” 2 The Sens Connection “We bringin’ home the Stanley Cup this year, blood sweat and tears we’re still here ... . ”
Perhaps it was an omen that Belly was booked to perform in his hometown on the eve of the Stanley Cup final. His connection to the home team goes back to the Senators’ last Cup run in 2007, when his playoff-themed single, Bandwagon (Go Sens Go), boomed through the arena rafters.
The tune debuted in May 2007 during Game 3 of the Eastern Conference final, in which the Senators beat the Buffalo Sabres en route to their first modernday Stanley Cup appearance, and it featured “Sugar” Ray Emery, a pal of Belly’s since meeting at a Snoop Dogg concert. The rapper rhymed off most of that year’s roster, from Chris Neil’s fists to Jason Spezza’s assists, from Alfie to Volchenkov.
“Ottawa is my hometown, so I’ve got to be involved,” the aspiring 23-year-old rapper told the Citizen at the time. “People know me for bringing fresh, innovative music. And that’s what I’ve gotta keep on bringing to the table … . The fans out here love the Sens, and the fans out here love Belly. So once you mix the two, you turn fans into fanatics.”
Maybe we’re due for a remix. With a few name changes, the song’s original lyrics would certainly have suited this year’s playoff theme: “We got the top teams fallin’, they can’t skate and they left crawlin’, No holding back we’re going All In ... . ” 3 Trump Snub Belly and The Weeknd created quite a stir when the two pulled out of a scheduled appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! a year ago in protest over the episode’s marquee guest, Donald Trump.
The move made waves in the wake of controversial statements made about Muslims by the then-presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
“I just didn’t want to feel like I was a part of a celebration for somebody who has beliefs that the majority of us don’t agree with,” said Belly, the Palestinianborn Ahmad Balshe, in a statement to The Associated Press. “For me, being Muslim and being somebody that appreciates my access here in America, I love the fact that I’m able to be here. To play my part in this business is a privilege and a beautiful thing. The fact that I could lose that ability through the actions of someone such as Donald Trump isn’t right to me. At all.”
The Weeknd was born Abel Tesfaye in Toronto to Ethiopian parents.
Fresh off The Weeknd’s Grammy win for his album Beauty Behind the Madness, which prominently features six Belly co-writing credits, the pair were to perform Belly’s track Might Not on Kimmel’s ABC late-night talk show.
At Belly’s homecoming show at Bluesfest a few months later, his backdrop featured Trump’s image with a Hitler moustache. 4 Belly bust gone bad During last year’s homecoming Bluesfest set, Belly explained his exile by saying he had been “driven out by the powers that be” when his Greely home was raided by police in 2008.
Acting on a search warrant and expecting to find weapons, Ottawa police stormed the twostorey brick home with the full force of the guns and gangs unit, tactical squad, K-9 unit and an OPP weapons unit.
The raid came up empty, apart from a BB gun and a perfectly legal bulletproof vest.
“The only thing they’re going to seize from my house or studio are plaques from my music. That studio (a big garage) is a place of business. They left the house ransacked. They broke down the doors, there’s glass broken,” Belly told the Citizen at the time.
“They came in and broke down my doors as if I was making weapons of mass destruction. The only thing I’m making here is music and hits.” 5 Hauling in the hardware If he isn’t a household name already, The Weeknd’s popularity is peaking as a massive worldwide tour, dubbed Starboy: Legends of the Fall in support of his chart-topping third album, brings him across Europe, South America and North America.
He’s already racked up nine Junos, a pair of Grammys, two American Music Awards, eight Billboard Awards and an Academy Award nomination for his collaboration with Belly on the 50 Shades of Gray soundtrack. The hit-making duo shared 2016 SOCAN Songwriter of the Year honours, nearly a decade after Belly snagged the Juno for Best Rap Recording with his 2007 full-length debut, The Revolution. ahelmer@postmedia.com twitter.com/ helmera