THE WEEKND

Dry humping, pelvic thrusts, and the art of sensual serenading are the first few things that come to mind when I think of R&B. Usher, R. Kelly, DeAngelo just a few of whom have dominated the sexy genre of rhythm and blues over the last decade or so. But who’s the new face, who’s that up and comer that’s going to melt every 13-35 year old female’s heart, who’s the next artist that’s even going to make the whitest guy in the world feel like he’s got some swag? Welcome THE WEEKND! When Drake isn’t murdering the rap game he’s busy mentoring this up and coming indie R&B singer from Toronto. After slowly leaking a few tracks, mostly showing up on hypem.com, The Weeknd released a nine-song mixtape, “House of Balloons”, in March of 2011 which pretty much hit the scene by storm. Receiving overwhelming rave reviews, The Weeknd instantly became a hit within the indie music scene popping up on almost every media site like pitchfork.com and was blogged about more than Lady Gaga. House Of Ballons is part of a trilogy of mixtapes The Weeknd plans to release, the second of which ‘Thursday” was released earlier in August leaving the third still to come. The Weeknd, however, is fairly elusive and has yet to tour in the US. He planned one show, but quickly backed out with not much of an excuse. I believe it’s all an attempt to build his hype and wait for the opportune moment to unleash his greatness upon us. The few live performances I’ve seen have led me to believe he’s just not quite ready and needs a little more time to perfect his craft. Nonetheless The Weeknd’s music speaks for itself! The featured track "Wicked Games" encompasses every aspect of R&B that I love and yet still manages to be unique, fresh, real and gritty. I love how simple yet powerful the drums are in this track. Enjoy!

-TYC