Sitting down with Zane Lowe for the quintessential pre-Starboy interview, The Weeknd opened up about topics ranging from working with Daft Punk to his struggles with sobriety. In one notable moment, Abel speaks on his relationship with Kendrick Lamar, and their collaboration on The Weeknd's upcoming LP. Apparently the song is called "Sidewalks," and it's a special one. Here's what The Weeknd had to say about Kendrick:
"He’s a genius. He is really a genius. Everybody who worked on the album came here. This is like our universe. We sit here and we create it together. I don't know exactly the time of day, but he probably came in the afternoon and left late at night. He did it there on the spot. He’d walk around. He’d play the record over and over again. I played him songs, the Starboy theme of course, which he incorporated into his verse. He would just walk around. We had food. He’s writing his verse in his head. He would go into his phone, look at it a few and then put it back and start walking around. He then at one point he went into the studio booth and I closed the door and I could hear him yelling his verse in his head. He was really committed, you can tell he put his all into. It wasn't just a random Kendrick Lamar verse, it was something special because again, I don’t like to say this all the time, but we’ve known each other for a while and it’s crazy how we started connecting on this record.”
Check out the clip of The Weeknd discussing his Kendrick collaboration, and some other ones from the Zane Lowe interview below.
On working with Daft Punk
On being an anxious performer
On his sobriety
On cutting his hair
