Former collaborator Jeremy Rose has blasted reclusive Canadian producer The Weeknd.
On record, The Weeknd is a reclusive, dark, intangible experience. In real life, Abel Tesfaye seems to do his best to match their trilogy of mixtapes – refusing to give interviews or chat to the press.
So it’s down to former collaborator Jeremy Rose to reveal all. Speaking to VICE, the producer revealed that he had been left deeply unhappy after contributing to The Weeknd’s output.
Firstly, Jeremy Rose claims to take credit both for The Weeknd’s name and their sound. “I had this idea for a dark R&B project… When I met (Tesfaye) I heard some of the stuff that he was doing. It was called the Noise. Remember that? It came out after he broke. It was this group, with him and another producer and it was called the Noise.”
“They were a straight kind of R&B, just really light and kind of candlelight… (sings) “I wanna see you in your birthday suit”… And I was just like, “Aw, fuck that shit. No man, let’s talk about, fuckin’ and getting too high and trying to fuck bitches and it not working out. Let’s get really grimy about it.””
Contributing to a number of early tracks, the relationship between Jeremy Rose and Abel Tesfaye soon soured. According to Rose, Tesfaye began “pushing for some things I didn’t want to do, and it got to the point where he wouldn’t respect my opinion. He wanted me to produce for him without any of my input. And I was like, “Well then, what’s the point of being a group?” and he was like, “You can just be my producer,” and I said, “Are you going to pay me?” Then (I realized he was) not going to pay me. That’s why I backed out”.
“I was like, “You can have those three or four tracks, I’ll give you the stems, just take ’em, but I don’t want to work with you anymore.” I was really congenial about it, but I told him, “Just make sure that you give me credit,” and that’s where things went sour.”
The Weeknd has yet to respond to the claims.
