The Weeknd - Trilogy
A collection of three outstanding mixtapes from the thoughtful hip hop/R&B artist
Major-label signings are usually hyped to bits purely on potential. Soulfully-voiced Toronto singer/producer Abel Tesfaye emerges from the underground, brandishing substantial proof of his idiosyncratic, convention-defying talent.
Trilogy collects three outstanding self-released mixtapes. There’s moody atmospherics where you’d anticipate big donks and air horns, and sorry small-hours sex and substance abuse in place of caricature pimps and hoes. ‘Bring the drugs baby/I can bring my pain,’ sings Tesfaye over a creeping fuzz bass on ‘Wicked Games’.
Like Frank Ocean, he’s one of a new vanguard of US hip hop/R&B artists not afraid to trade in thoughtfulness and feelings – a big breath of fresh air, which the overground is only just beginning to inhale.