By Demii Niles [1]
BELLEVILLE – The Belle Pub in downtown Belleville has become a showcase for local rap artists trying to get their music heard by a wider audience.
“The boys call and ask for a day to perform, they bring their friends and take their videos and help with the set up,” said Sylvia Paz, the owner of the Belle Pub.
Paz says the bar has been experiencing more people who want to come in and show off their talents.
She said this gives the artist chances, allows them to take videos, and get the attention needed, but also helps out with her bar.
“They may have no other place to go, but not everyone is as welcoming. There’s not many bars in Belleville that allow this and they are a good group of boys.”
Christopher Bennett “painting” the side of the local bar Belle Pub. He’s also known as “Dislexsick SeRnA”“
Gaven Cole, known as “ColdCole” helps with the planning and set up of these shows.
“Basically I call, book the day off and pay the sound guy or DJ for the music and do all the advertising myself.” Cole also performs with Jason Burns, known as “Dirty Burns” and together they are called the “Deadly Duo”. They are planning to book more shows at the pub.
Christopher Bennett, also know as “Dislexsick SeRnA” [2] has done numerous shows around Canada and has performed again recently at BellePub. Bennett is also known as one of “The Originals” for being one of the first artists to bring his talent to the community.
Bennett wanted to bring his talent to the community to influence and promote new generations of artists. He started out with his career as a graffiti artist and a break dancer and now teaches a class instructing youth on how to break dance and keeps up with his art talents.
Local rap artist Ned Powell, also known as “NedLoh”
“The local scene hasn’t always been flourishing and it has been quite hard over the years to find influence and I want to be that influence to try to inspire others to do that in the Belleville and Quinte Area.” Bennett said.
Ned Powell, a young local rap artist known as “NedLoh” has been in the music scene quite often in downtown Belleville. Powell started writing at a young age and started putting videos on YouTube.
He had started using SoundCloud to get his name out there more. Recently Powell has performed at Little Texas opening for Merkules [3] who is a popular rap artist.
“We really like to have fun with what we are doing. I believe if you don’t follow your own dreams, you get made to follow someone else’s and I refuse to do that.” Said Powell.
Paz from the Belle Pub says she is excited for more shows to come in the future.
“Anyone is welcome to perform here, they just have to call and set it up.” Said Paz.