Eric Bellinger’s dreams of R&B stardom weren’t initially supported by his religious group as the singer had to carve his own path.
In an interview with HipHopDX that was published on Friday (March 1), the “G.O.A.T.” singer discussed his upbringing in the church and how he wasn’t able to secure their backing as he pursued his musical journey.
“Growing up in church taught me faith — to believe in the unseen, to imagine and think that it could be real,” he began. “I think I carry that in my daily life and it translated for me just being an innovator. On the positive, I definitely gained that and morals, values, you know?
“I’ve been married now going on 10 years. I think having the example of what’s really right, all those things were instilled in me. As they say, ‘Train up a child when he’s young and when he grows up, he shall not depart those ways.’”
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He then shifted his attention to the less supportive aspects of said community.
“But on the on the flip side, it was tough following a dream that I felt God gave me [but] was frowned upon by the people that I love so much, and the people that raised me,” he continued. “I felt like everybody had their own story though, and my version would just look a little different.
“Now, here I am, and people are telling me at meet and greets and things like that, just how much I’ve been able to impact their lives spiritually. So I just think it looks different to everyone, and the traditional church way wasn’t to become an R&B singer, but I had to just make my own little way.”
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Elsewhere in the interview, he recalled having a secret CD collection that his aunt discovered and threw away.
“I had everything in that one!” he revealed. “I think it was Chronic 2001 by Dr. Dre, she brought that in and I knew it was trouble from the get-go.
“But man, I had everything in there. Joe “I Wanna Know,” I had Blackstreet in there. That kind of stuff is what taught me how to sing and taught me how to do music. Luckily I listened to it enough so it was already embedded in my head and now we got streaming so it’s all good.”
