The Weeknd Talks Working With “Genius” Kendrick Lamar: Watch

With the Weeknd’s new album Starboy on the way this Friday, he sat down for a conversation about the new album with Zane Lowe on Beats 1. The full interview airs tomorrow at midnight when the album is released. In excerpts below, Abel Tesfaye details the process of working with Kendrick Lamar on “Sidewalks.” “He’s a genius,” he said. “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.”

He also further discussed working with Daft Punk on “Starboy” and “I Feel It Coming.” He talks about finishing both songs fairly quickly and how he heard the “Starboy” drum loop for the first time by accident. “Guy-Man and Thomas were kind of directing me, they want it to sound as authentic as possible—as retro as possible,” he said. “And while I’m recording, through the talkback I can hear some sort of feedback—a sort of drum loop every time Thomas is like ‘OK, next take.’ So I’m like, ‘What the fuck is that?’”

During the interview, he also discussed his sobriety, keeping the hair that he got chopped off, performance anxiety, and more. Watch more footage below. 

Read our feature “The Dark Knight Returns: A Conversation With the Weeknd.”

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