The Weeknd at the 2012 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival

 

I first heard The Weeknd some weekends ago on Pandora when he was featured on a song. I thought his voice was smooth and I enjoyed the explicit lyrics so I opened a new station with his name. I caught myself bobbin’ my head to pretty much all of his songs. I googled the name and found tons of info on him.

Abel Tesfaye, also known as The Weeknd, is a 22 year old from Ontario, Canada who isn’t afraid to tell you how he really feels. The Weeknd released some tracks on YouTube last year followed by three free mix-tapes on his Tumblr – House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence. By doing that he received a lot of praise and was given a record deal plus made a lot of powerful friends. I love when artists put their music out for free to receive fan feedback. That tells me that you are in it for the love of it not because you want to get paid.  Too many artists nowadays are out here making music nonstop and it all sounds the same. Show me how much you care for your art. Show me how much work you’ve put into it and I’ll definitely be the first one to pay for your shit when it drops.

The Weeknd has worked with artists like Drake, Doc McKinney, Illangelo, Zodiac, Wiz Khalifa, and Juicy J. He is considered to be in the R&B or Hipster R&B genre. Hipster R&B or PBR&B (Pabst Blue Ribbon & Blues) has lo-fi rhythms and is richly textured with emotional & explicitly sexual lyrics by artists who lay it all on the line.  Artists in this genre are similar to Frank Ocean, Holy Other, Drake, and Miguel. The three mix-tapes The Weeknd released on his Tumblrlast year were re-released and remastered Tuesday, November 13, 2012 with the addition of three new HOT bonus tracks. His lyrics are full of miserable, long lonely nights, love in all forms, heartbreak, drugs, and wild sex. I bet a lot of you can relate to that. There’s just something about a man who can sing his ass off and still use curse words so smoothly. Umph!

From Wicked Games (no where near Chris Isaak’s version)

Bring your love baby I could bring my shame/Bring the drugs baby I could bring my pain/I got my heart right here/I got my scars right here/Bring the cups baby I could bring the drank/Bring your body baby I could bring you fame/And that’s my motherfucking words too/Just let me motherfucking love you

From Twenty Eight (New bonus track)

Hey there lonely girl/Did you have to tell your friends/About the way I got you screaming my name/Now your girls all wanna fuck/Girl you could’ve been the one/Now I gotta change my number twice a month/When you could have simply kept it on the down low

and

Baby if I knew you’d be living in my sheets/I wouldn’t have shown you any love/I would have left you in the club

If that doesn’t capture your curiosity then I’m not really sure what will. Me on the other hand.. Yeah I can’t stop listening to him rhyme about his sexual encounters with random strippers and the massive amounts of drugs he hints to have taken.

Do NOT sleep on this man. He has a distinct voice similar to Maxwell but dirtier and curse words right where they need to be. Let me know how he does in your book.