August 26, 2021 at PDT
See You Next Wednesday
If you’d been wondering where Canadian MC Belly was since he dropped one of the most impactful projects of his career, 2018’s IMMIGRANT, the answer was: not in the greatest of headspaces. “I took like a heavy break, in terms of making my own music,” he tells Apple Music. “And it wasn't voluntary, at first. I was in a bad place, dealing with different mental struggles.” He’ll politely decline to detail the specific events that knocked him off his square, but as he began making music again, roughly a year and a half ahead of what would become his third proper album See You Next Wednesday, he saw a parallel in the backstory of one of America’s beloved movie directors.
“See You Next Wednesday is paying homage to John Landis. That phrase was kind of like an Easter egg that he would drop in all of his movies. Even in ‘Thriller,’ when MJ's walking out of the theater, you hear somebody whisper, 'See you next Wednesday.' The reason why is because I believe it was like the first script that he wrote—and he just never made the movie. So there was parts of this process where I felt like this might be the album that never sees the light of day. Just based on me trying to find myself again.” Luckily for Belly fans, the MC bounced back in grand fashion, delivering a 15-song project that not only features The Weeknd, Young Thug, Moneybagg Yo, and Nas (to name a few), but also some of Belly’s most honest and impassioned rapping. Below, the MC gives us insight into each song on the album, explaining track by track how See You Next Wednesday came to be.
“Snakes & Ladders”
“‘Snakes & Ladders’ was a good way for me to set the tone and really let people know that I'm back. I think not only to remind people, but also to remind myself, when the album kicks off, that this is what I do.”
“IYKYK”
“I think The ANMLS and DannyBoyStyles did a great job of just making this sound like a movie. I love when it almost sounds like there's a soundtrack behind me, as opposed to just a beat, that's like looping over and over. This was one of the songs that helped me come back around, too. Because it was one of the first times that I could really write deeply about things that were affecting me. I was writing this from a place of hurt. It was just me trying to be as honest as I could.”
“Better Believe” (feat. The Weeknd and Young Thug)
“Abel [Tesfaye] played me a version and we just went from there. I had DannyBoy and The ANMLS also put their touch on it. But Zaytoven, to me, is like such a musical dude. So it was like a team effort. Thug came right at the very end. I just felt like he matched the vibe so well.”
“Zero Love” (feat. Moneybagg Yo)
“I think when people hear the word ‘love,’ like they automatically think I'm talking relationships and all that. Love is a complex thing. You know, we love so many different people, on so many different levels. So at that point, I had just zero love for all the fake fuck shit—everything that was affecting me negatively, that's when I was learning to push it out of my brain, and to really have no attention for it. And that's where 'Zero Love' comes from—me not giving a fuck, really. I was trying to put a second verse on it, but every time my hook would end, I would be like, 'Man, I hear Moneybagg Yo on this shit.' I just kept hearing his voice.”
“Moment of Silence”
“I was in Miami for ‘Moment of Silence.’ That was like one of the first trips I took since the hiatus. I linked up with Infamous and Ben Billions and I remember just hearing that beat and just wanting to talk my shit on it. I was just starting to find the confidence again. By the time I finished rapping on it, I was like, ‘We can't do no more on this. We've got to give these rappers a moment of silence.’”
“Flowers”
“I say this all the time: If you're underrated, you've got to put blame on yourself to a certain degree. There must have been times when you could have did more. And I do feel that way. I do feel like I could have done more, certain times. And I could have been more. But at the same time, I feel like you've got to know when you're not getting your due. My reaction will always be to work harder. Nobody owes me shit—but I deserve more. And that's where I'm at with it.”
“Razor” (feat. Gunna & PnB Rock)
“I’ve known PnB Rock for a long time. And we always linked up and made vibes together. This is just the first one we ended up putting on something. He's somebody that's super talented and I've always like really fucked with his sound. This is the first time me and Gunna have done something, but again, that's somebody I feel is extended family. When I was in Atlanta running around, he pulled up and always showed love.”
“Die for It” (feat. Nas)
“I went through certain stuff that affected my ideology. A lot of it stemmed from incidents that I can't really talk about due to legal stuff. You know when you grow up and you spend most of your adult life even believing something? And then there's events that can shake the way you think or believe in something? Coming back from that for me was pretty tough. Now it's not something that even affects me negatively anymore. I think about it, and I'm just happy that I made it through something as extensive as I did.”
“Requiem” (feat. NAV)
“‘Requiem’ is complex. I wanted it to be more of a feeling, like a mood. A lot of the lyrics in it are obviously self-explanatory. Especially in the verse, in terms of like relationships—situations, or things that I've waited for and never got. I think the hook is more of like a mood. In the verses, I get into that feeling of almost like FOMO: the fear of missing out. I think that's what the verse kind of represents. And of course my brother NAV went in on it. I think his verse is like 24 bars.”
“Two Tone” (feat. Lil Uzi Vert)
“That was like a one-take freestyle. And at first it was hard for me to take the song serious. I was like, 'This is just some cool shit we could just listen to.' And the homies were like, 'Bro, you're bugging. You've got to fucking put this on the album. We've got to put Uzi on this.' And then I remember playing it for Abel and Abel was like, 'Oh nah, this shit is out of here. You need to definitely work on this.'”
“Wu-Tang”
“When I say ‘Wu-Tang, C.R.E.A.M., wrist Dairy Queen,’ the shit's blinging, my shit's colorful. My shit is flicking. I love to pay homage to Wu-Tang, too. Because 36 Chambers is one of the albums that made me look at themed albums differently. It made me like appreciate and love that somebody can make something so cohesive, and make something that sounded like it had a heartbeat, all the way throughout. So it felt good paying homage to one of the best rap groups, you know, if not the best rap group, of all time.”
“Sucker”
“I use the word ‘bitch’ a lot. I think ‘bitch,’ to me, is a word that goes both ways. Like when I say ‘bitch,’ it could just as well mean a guy. Now when I'm saying 'sucker,' I'm talking about one specific type of woman: the kind that catches, let's say, the more docile type of man. And she's able to take advantage of such a person. And the thing is, who do you blame at the end of the day? Do you blame the guy that allowed it to happen? Or do you blame the person that did it? It could go both ways.”
“Scary Sight” (feat. Big Sean)
“Big Sean is one of the most talented people I think I've seen in a session, in terms of how he approaches records. His shit just sounds like he sat for hours writing it, dope punchlines and dope bars, but he's really coming off the top of his head. So I think that's where that free-form feeling of that song came from. And I just picked up where he left off.”
“Money on the Table” (feat. Benny the Butcher)
“Shout-out to Benny the Butcher. You can't be a rapper—that like enjoys the sport of rap—and not be inspired by what Benny's doing. If you actually love this shit, you've got to feel something when you hear Benny. Just to see the progression of him rapping his ass off and getting the due that he deserves, all of that to me is inspirational, motivational.”
“Can You Feel It”
“I was in the studio with The ANMLS and my boy Faris was playing just songs off of YouTube. He came across this band Bedstudy and I was like, ‘Yo, we've gotta sample this. This is special right here.’ We created the beat out of that. And it took me to a place. It made me want to be a little introspective. It made me want to bare my bones on the record. So that's really what I did.”
19 Tracks
