Birth Name: Brayton Carter
Stage Name: “Bellows”
Born: July 4, 1999 (Age 22)
Origin: Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Residence: Hollywood, California, U.S.
Occupations: Rapper, Singer, Songwriter, Record Producer
Genres: Hip-Hop, Trap, Rap, RnB
Instruments: Vocals, Keyboards, Piano
Years Active: 2018 - Present
Associated Acts: Orion, Kara Romero, Marina Balan, Aubrey Mikkel, Madison, Alexis Brooke
Label: Tric-Jam Records
Brayton “Bellows” Carter (born July 4, 1999) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He’s widely known as one third of the rap/hip-hop trio ‘Orion’ following a highly successful breakthrough period for the group, beginning in 2020 with their debut single “Fuck Me Over” and culminating the first chapter of their breakthrough with their self-titled debut album “Orion” in January 2022. Throughout that period, the industry saw the trio rise to the precipice rapidly, releasing eight top-five charting singles. Alongside his cousins and band members Jadyn ‘Boa’ Ghalen and Jamal ‘Circuit’ Ghalen, they all signed a first option agreement to solo record deals with ‘Tric-Jam Records’ alongside their initial record deal as part of the group, the deal stipulated that should the trio choose to release work on an individual basis they would have the option themselves to continue to release under the ‘Tric-Jam Records’ imprint, this gave the trio the freedom to know that a solo deal was there for them should they choose it.
Following the release of their debut album “Orion” in 2022, the trio are set to put out an NFL/Madden supported E.P before they are expected to head out on an extensive touring schedule in 2022 with the sophomore ‘Orion’ record expected to be written and recorded towards the end of 2022 with a likely 2023 release date expected. Of course, the trio are expected to expand their horizons throughout this period, they showed their willingness to partner up with different brands and organisations with their exclusive NFL deal and the group are slated to contribute further tracks to both the NFL in the upcoming season as well as songs being created for the Madden video game franchise. In addition to this, the group are lined-up to contribute tracks to various movie soundtracks throughout 2022 as well as the potential for them to take on their own individual paths be this featured appearances or outright solo tracks expected in this period before teaming up in the studio later in the year as ‘Orion’ look to continue into 2023.
His instrument of choice is Piano and this instrumental ability has been heard on some of the work ‘Orion’ have released up to this point, he’s claimed previously that he wants to be in a position where he can consider himself a multi-instrumentalist and is continuing to learn guitar and bass. Citing ‘Prince’ as someone he looks up to as a creative force when it comes to his multi-instrumentalist ability. He’s also establishing himself as a producer with credits coming from the ‘Orion’ catalogue of releases so far as well as the 2020 E.P release by long-term friend ‘Kara Romero’ with “The Therapy Sessions (Vol. I)”, these early production credits are listed to the entirety of the trio, but it’s something Carter has spoken of about previously as something he wants to move into, citing that he wants to go in as many different directions as possible throughout his career rather than just being placed in one specific box.
Beyond music, he has stated an interest in creating something bigger around his name whether this is venturing into acting at some point, launching his own company or working alongside already established corporations as well as giving as much back to matters that are close to him as he did with the profits from their track “Make America Breathe Again”.
Alongside the chart success achieved throughout ‘Orion’s’ brief career so far, he has three mainstream awards to his name picking up ‘Artist to Watch’ and ‘Best Urban Single’ at the FCA VII Awards in 2020 where they also performed three tracks, one of which was the debut appearance of future single “Playin’” which featured Aubrey Mikkel on the track and saw the RnB star make her appearance onstage with the trio. This was then followed up in 2021 with the trio picking up the ’Favourite Urban Act’ award at the FCA VIII. Alongside this, he has picked up number one record accolades and has received critical success throughout his career for his work with ‘Orion’. 2022 is set to further establish the names of the ‘Orion’ trio as they begin to share their time between both group work and establishing their own individual careers.
BIOGRAPHYBrayton “Bellows” Carter was born July 4, 1999 in Detroit, Michigan, to Veronica affectionately known as Roni. He never met his father as Brayton was the product of a one night stand. Subsequently, he was raised solely by Roni until she sadly passed away when Brayton was only two years old. His mother was unfortunately killed in a car accident and he was then taken in by his aunt and the mother to both Jamal and Jadyn Ghalen where he was essentially raised as her own child. Brayton showed a love of music and sports from a very early age, it’s been stated that he had an uncanny ability to learn lyrics to songs from the radio incredibly quickly and would often obsess over specific lyrics from songs. His sport of choice as a child was Baseball but as he started to get older it quickly switched to both Basketball and American Football, he showed promise as he played on his middle school teams and later on his high school teams which sky rocketed his popularity around school but as he reached his teenage years from around fourteen he started to become distracted by outside interests and began running with the wrong sort of crowd.
At a period when the clothes that you wear and the things that you own carry a lot of merit in and around school life, Brayton attached himself to groups that his older cousins would run with. Although his Aunt/Adopted Mother worked hard at two jobs, they weren’t able to afford the luxuries that would bring the respect that Brayton found himself naively searching for. He started hanging with a group on the streets of Detroit at the promise of being able to attain almost anything of value that he desired but this is where the trouble really began for Brayton. Initially it began with minor theft and quickly moved onto high profile items, this began as a means to getting things of value that he would desire and keep for himself but when he discovered the fruits of selling stolen goods and the potential for heavy profits he begun selling stolen goods regularly which just grew rapidly from lower-end sports clothing items (sneakers, jerseys etc) to high end goods (watches and electronics). He admitted that this period of life forced him to grow up too quickly and changed him as a person, maintaining that he regrets it all immensely on looking back now.
This period lasted from around fourteen to sixteen and saw him experience a lot at a young age, drinking alcohol and smoking weed began for him during this period as well as well sexual relationships, he states that he feels anger towards the way he lived back then but at the time it was very much eat or be eaten at that period in his life. He experience some of that god-like status feeling when playing sports for his school teams but the respect that he felt when running the streets with his group far outweighed that feeling at the time. Acknowledging that he understands how easy it is to fall into it and considering that he hopes his voice from his own experiences may be able to help stop other people going down that same path that he ventured during his early teenage years.
It was at the age of sixteen when he had his eyes opened, witnessing one of his friends getting shot in an argument on the street was enough for him to step away from this world, adding to this the sort of trouble that he and his cousins brought to his aunt/adopted mothers door was something that he always felt shame about and eventually he switched focus, promising to put his energy into something more productive.
It was at this period where he begun to focus on school a little more dedicated, finding a love in the form of History subjects and a passion for the subjects that this brought close to home the reality of life and the importance in his mind to do something with it. He also begun learning to read music and learning instruments along the way and tried his hand at a little of everything. He also delved into his love of lyrics that was evident early on and begun writing raps as well as short stories and taking up reading, again mostly historical stuff. This gave Brayton a sense of focus as he was always considered a highly intelligent student, just a lot of that was negated by a lack of desire for education early on and the distractions that came his way. He ended up graduating, albeit as a fairly average student but still made it through high school better off than one would have expected.
Following high school, Brayton took on a handful of jobs but never remained consistently employed in the same capacity for any long period of time, but he always spent his spare time focussing on music, eventually teaming up with his cousins to form ‘Orion’ in 2018, it took a little while for them to figure things out and gel together but they worked on writing songs together and playing around with the technology and instrumentation of music, they realised that they had a lot of passion for the project and quickly decided to start taking it seriously as a possible career path. They worked together tirelessly to create their own songs and got some minor success with regular touring patterns in their home state of Michigan, but it was clear that there was more interest in them as DJ's in the local clubs than holding audiences attention with their own original material.
It wasn't until a run of shows in New York in the summer of 2019 when things started to really begin happening for the group, they were hired to DJ for a surprise birthday celebration for New York based rapper Kara Romero, with the rap artist stating that she was so focussed and blown away by what they were doing and the mixes they were putting together that she spent the majority of her own party at the booth, stating that they probably had a lifetime of bonding and getting to know each other in one evening. She made sure to keep in touch with them and asked them to head back out to New York in the winter for some live shows that she wanted them to provide the backing music for. This in turn led to her asking them to produce some material she was working on, initially this wasn't intended for anything but her own self-reflection but later led to becoming her 2020 E.P “The Therapy Sessions (Vol. I)”.
Following on from their work producing the E.P and it's summer 2020 release, they were praised for their work as both backing musicians for the recording and as a production team, with particular reference to their ability to understand the lyrical content and craft the sound of the E.P to match the tone of the lyrics without taking away from the lyrical content of the release. It was at this point where they were able to consider a number of different offers within the music industry, one of which was continuing solely as supporting musicians for Kara Romero, as well as a couple of offers from record labels as a group. Eventually they agreed a two album recording contract with Tric-Jam Records, falling under the Studio60 corporation, a move which saw them rise rapidly within the music industry, dropping their debut single around a month after signing to the label and immediately becoming an established name in the industry.
ORION DISCOGRAPHY;Studio Albums:•
"Orion" (January 30, 2022) [#1]
Singles:•
"Fuck Me Over" (June 24, 2020) [#1]
•
"Make America Breathe Again" (July 25, 2020) [#2]
•
"Playin'" (feat. Aubrey Mikkel) (August 30, 2020) [#1]
•
"We Bring Em' Up" (December 26, 2020) [#5]
•
"Remedy" (feat. Alexis Brooke) (March 13, 2021) [#2]
•
"Dynasty" (June 26, 2021) [#1]
•
"Rookie of the Year" (August 15, 2021) [#1]
•
"Homecoming" (October 24, 2021) [#3]
•
"Unstoppable, Unplayable, Unkillable" (feat. Marina Balan) (February 20, 2022) [#2]
•
"MVP" (August 20, 2022) [#4]
•
"Off-Season" (August 20, 2022) [#4]
Features:• TBA
E.P's/Mix-tapes/Live Albums/Compilations;•
"The Off-Season E.P" (August 21, 2022) [#1]
SOLO DISCOGRAPHY;Studio Albums:• TBC
Singles:• TBA
Features:•
"Signpost" (feat. Bellows) (June 26, 2022) [#5]
E.P’s/Mix-tapes/Live Albums/Compilations:• TBA
PRODUCTION;•
Kara Romero - "The Therapy Sessions (Vol. I)" (June 13, 2020) [#3]
•
Orion - "Orion" (January 30, 2022) [#1]
•
"The Off-Season E.P" (August 21, 2022) [#1]
AWARDS:• FCA VII - Artist to Watch [2020]
• FCA VII - Best Urban Single - "Fuck Me Over" [2020]
• FCA VIII - Favourite Urban Act [2021]
