Belly credits two of the biggest rappers of all time — Biggie Smalls and P. Diddy — for inspiring his rap career.

In the Palestinian-Canadian rapper’s new song “Ambiance”, off his upcoming album Mumble Rap 2, he raps: “I’m Biggie and Puff combined, at least that’s what I feel like.” While chatting with ET Canada’s Morgan Hoffman in a new interview, we asked Belly if he really feels that way.

“I was raised on Biggie and Puff, you know. So I think I took a little bit from each one of them when it came time to come out as my own artist,” the 39-year-old said, elaborating that he took “Puff’s influence on the business side of what I do. And Big’s influence on the music side of what I do.”

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“I was able to take both. So I’m grateful for that,” he continued, adding that, when he started listening to Biggie, he “barely knew how to speak English. So, you know, that’s my English teacher right there.”

Belly, who knew he wanted to be an artist from a “super young” age, went on to explain how he convinced his mother to let him buy Biggie’s 1994 album Ready to Die.

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“My older brother had bought Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle album. And then like a year later, I dragged my mom into HMV to get the Notorious B.I.G. album [Ready to Die], and I convinced her to get it. I was like nine or ten years old, but I convinced her to get it for me because it had a baby on the cover,” he shared. “So she had no idea that it was like one of the greatest, most classic hip hop albums of all time. And yes, that’s really what got me into it. Listening to Biggie, watching Biggie on TV and being like, ‘Yo, this guy to me just embodies greatness.’ And I think it just started from there.”

Mumble Rap 2, the first of Belly’s three final albums, drops May 19.