Man In The Mirror: Term 3

It’s been said that music can be the best medicine. In a time when people are looking for rejuvenation, while feeling suffocated by the pandemic, artists like Eric Bellinger have found a way to keep their cool and offer a breath of fresh air. For Bellinger, this year has been a time of self-improvement and artistic freedom, and an opportunity to become his best self – and his recent project, Eric B For President: Term 3, reflects that.

This past year, Bellinger has found the importance of meditation and used his music to address the social issues that he felt were important to speak about. Against the backdrop of chaos and widely differing responses that we have witnessed in this weird, frightening year, Bellinger’s new ideas were flowing freely and undisturbed. “The creative process made me only dig into a deeper bag that I wasn’t able to dig through by being on the road so much. I was able to sit down and come up with brilliant ideas,” he says, referring to his writing process, marketing strategies, and music-video shoots. His Term 3 is about “finding someone, meeting them, being patient for them, getting them – and then they hold you down.”

Throughout the pandemic, the Grammy-winning songwriter and R&B artist has also utilized the extra time at home to be introspective, which has made him enjoy life more – learning the guitar, taking some dance lessons, eating better, doing yoga, spending time with family, etc. “If everybody looked in the mirror, everyone, that’d be the best way to try to start change, doing things that you want to do, being a better version of yourself,” Bellinger asserts.

Community and opportunity are at the center of his life, as he incorporates his own experiences into writing camps across the country and introduces new songwriters and producers to one another – taking the initiative to give industry newcomers the space to really create. (He has a house that all the bedrooms have been transformed into a fully working studio where they all get to create.) “All of the things that made me who I am, I just have been giving those same opportunities to everyone else,” says Bellinger, who, together with his manager and business partner Nieman Johnson, hopes to release the newly-signed artists’ music in 2021, while operating their own YFS (Your Favorite Song) label.

Writer: Hazel Mekkattukulam

Photographer: Catherine Asanov (@catherineasanov)

Stylist: Justin Madison

Men’s Grooming: Nia Joy & Andrew Delaloza & Twy B

Videographer: Jack Guerra

Editor: Eiko Watanabe

Special thanks to EPK Media (@myepk & @epkmedia - epkmedia.com)