This is some serious bullsh*t. I have lost mad respect for you Abel.

um...wow

I'm not gonna read this whole interview, just these comments

Yeah Abel really fucked up on this one.

lol wow

I could care less, It's not going to affect how much I enjoy the music

^^^ that's what I mean't. my bad. typo

Yes the music is still amazing of course.


Rose should have stuck with it. He really let his pride get in the way when he decided not to work with him anymore.


Still, the production on The Weeknd records is seriously 75% of the equation, and it looks like the whole f*cking concept came from Rose. Tesfaye owes his popularity and livelihood to this guy and is putting a dick in his ass instead (whether he likes it or not)

Well yeah it doesn't make me hate the music, I love everything The Weeknd has put out, but it's still a bitch move on Abel's part.

Of course, the one R&B artist I enjoy is an asshat.

Oh well, music is still fucking awesome.

Good article by the way.

what a dick

dude seems really at peace about it, gotta respect that

yeah i don't see how tesfaye could be anything but a major douche

dude is 22 and went from working in american apparel to chilling with drake in less than a year. that's going to get to anyone's head

if anyone's played tony hawk's underground, this is kind of like what eric sparrow does to you lol

Scoot made my day

Agreed, the guy seems really cool for what he went through.

So that's why there is no e in The Weeknd

I do not think he does Lewis but don't quote me.

Zodiac's case is pretty legit from what I have read and to be fair there is much more to The Weeknd than just Abel. Even though he's obviously the spotlight.

Everyone needs to get his money and then make more mixtapes.

gotta break a few eggs to make an omelet, etc. he produced a few early weeknd tracks. this doesn't by any stretch devalue the other 24 classic tracks the weeknd has released since then. if he wanted compensation maybe he should have, you know, gotten something in writing? as far as i'm concerned this just proves abel is ambitious enough to do what's necessary to further his career. no fucks given over here, no lost respect.

He didn't get anything in writing cuz it was just two unknown kids making demos

I knew that fairy-voiced fool couldn't have been doing shit.

Oh well, glad the guy behind it is still Canadian and I don't see this altering my enjoyment for the music.

I sort of agree, but it sucks that this guy was involved in the actual creation of this concept and image but was just completely ignored. The group is a lot cooler with the second half. That said, the dude sort of owned himself for bailing on the project. It got famous, he was like "fuck", he should be given credit for the tracks he did but the way things are he will never be associated with The Weeknd like he should be.

Definitely a dick move, he's had a lot of success this past year and I don't think it'd hurt for him to give Rose the recognition he deserves and maybe toss him a few dollars. Basically, people are just dicks. But The Weeknd is still pretty fantastic.

the thing is, no one ever thought abel was the mastermind behind the production. he is a damn fine vocalist and lyricist, and that's all we ever thought he was. the current production team has done far better work over the course of the three mixtapes than how those demos sound anyway. he might have had the idea for the dark rnb project first, but it came to fruition without his involvement, and he was already out before house of balloons dropped and started the most massive wave of hype in recent memory. the weeknd owes little of their current success on this guy, is all i'm saying.

Damn nigga.

it def wasn't particularly cool of them to completely ignore the guy, but they don't owe him anything.

well put

Wow, that's fucked up.

Won't really hinder my enjoyment of the music, but Abel is an asshole. Hopefully this guy receives his dues.

damn the production was the only part of the music i cared for.

all the production on all three mixtapes is still done by the dudes who do the production now.

sniper you're completely missing the point I'll post on this when I get out of the car

i think the genius of the weeknd is tesfaye's lyricism/delivery and the narrative quality of both the production and the lyricism over the course of the the three mixtapes. even if the dark r&b thing was rose's idea (which i will concede), the point is that the vision of the whole trilogy is still not his, and the fact that he had a hand in some early demos is cool, but not really what makes the project.

if you were going somewhere else with that i look forward to hearing it.

Tesfaye still writes it all really well, but stupid kind of shit like that happens in the industry all the time.

Sounds like the classic case of artistic vision versus profit.

As much as I don't want this to color my view of The Weeknd, I can't ignore the fact that Tesfaye does come off as an asshole in this interview...however, it is solely from Rose's point of view. I'll withhold judgment until Tesfaye's side is given, if ever. Although it seems to me that Rose should have sprung up and laid claim to those beats the moment this project started catching.

I recently just discovered the Weeknd been jamming them hard all day today and it isn't stopping for nothing.

That moment when you realize House Of Balloons is drastically inferior to everything else he's done.

Except for the fact that House of Balloons is the best of the three mixtapes.

sniper, 50% of any new business venture is the idea, 50% is the execution. It is obvious that Rose had the idea, while the rest of the producers involved and Tesfaye took care of the execution. If Rose did not hook up with Tesfaye, I can guarantee you that this trilogy would not have happened in its current incarnation.

For example, why aren't Bilal, Jamie Woon, or The Dream internet hipster household names? They are easily as talented as Tesfaye, but their production isn't nearly as exciting. Throw any of those names in his position, and they would be superstars (not to say they aren't right now, but they aren't hailed as revolutionaries the way Weeknd is right now).

That said, the vision of The Weeknd is definitely Rose's; he should be credited and compensated for that. If this would have happened in the technology sector, you bet your ass there would be a massive lawsuit ongoing, and the person with the original idea usually comes out on top. Granted, this is due to the IP protection technology firms have in place - but that just shows you how much Tesfaye is royally f*cking Rose.

That's fine if you like Tesfaye's lyricism. I like it too, and I think he's a top notch crooner. But anyone can make lyrics like that to be honest, and in the interview it even appears that the lyrical/thematic concept was Rose's as well. The production vision is what made The Weeknd what it is and not just another stupid contemporary R&B record.

sup lewis.

sniper, i re-read your other posts. It seems like you are dwelling on the fact that all production post-Rose is excellent and not devalued. You are right. But this has no bearing on the situation. In IP law, you need to find the root idea-maker per-se... once an idea has been thought of and presented to people, anyone can replicate it. This is why your ipod is manufactured in Shenzen. It's still an ipod and a top notch product, but anyone can make it now given the proper tools and skill. That's exactly what is going on between Rose and Tesfaye's current production team... none of this would have happened if not for Rose, the catalyst of the entire concept apparently.

If he's a big fat liar, then color me surprised.

Well, that's shit. I can understand them parting ways because of creative differences, but to not give his first producer any credit? Abel, you cumdumpster.

that was an interesting story. doesn't ruin my feelings for the albums though, actually makes me want to listen to them more cause they're like all conspiracy'd and backstabby and shit.

i really hope people boo the shit out of tesfaye at coachella. what a colossal douche.

sometimes it's hard being a fan :[

he sucked anyways so who cares

"if anyone's played tony hawk's underground, this is kind of like what eric sparrow does to you lol"

I lol'ed soooooo hard! hahahahah

No one really cares, sadly. This news has been out for weeks and it still hasn't even gotten enough reaction to the point where Abel has been forced to address the situation.

"if anyone's played tony hawk's underground, this is kind of like what eric sparrow does to you lol"

holy shit ahahahahahahaha best reference ever

I guess, but it's only been posted for about a week. That's really not enough time to cycle through the internet. Rose needs to sue, then it'll get more attention.

wut a flippin cuntfag

http://www.acceptancetake.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/how-could-you.png

how could you

tbh im kinda confused about wat the big deal is. while this guy was a good producer it does not seem like he was essential. and it wasnt like he made the weeknd big, drake was the one that did that

sobhi's comments pretty much wrap it up

Right. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who think the way thomas and sniper do. That's why this story hasn't exploded yet and perhaps never will.

lol so hes Jeremy Rose aka Zodiac aka The Weeknd aka......

Hmmph..

No, he's not The Weeknd, dumbass.

why are you being hostile

it'd be nice if he was booed at coachella but i don't think this story is going to gain enough traction to get that kind of response

The most he'd get is recognition and compensation of the first three tracks - which it seems is all he really wants anyway. It baffles me when people don't formalise collaborations with a legally binding contract. It just makes so much logical sense to do so, no matter how insignificant the collaboration is.

That said, I'd say he's still got a strong case if he does take it further.

Also, he looks nothing like what I expected, sitting there chilling with some basil by the looks of it.

dat voice do

yo soby, i basically agree with/understand what you're saying.

i just doubt that when those three tracks were recorded and released, that rose had any plans for a project of the scope that the balloons trilogy ended up being. they're just three tracks. those tracks are def the sound of the weeknd emerging, i just think that the concept for the project still belongs to tesfaye and the current team. the quality of the music that makes it smart and rewarding has as much to do with the superb overarching structure/flow of the music as it does with the actual sound of the music. the three songs were just demos outside of any kind of context, and don't really point to what made the project a success, at least the way i see it.

even if they ripped off rose's sound, they wove it into a concept and built an entire wordview from it that those demos did not in any way implicate. the project as i see it still belongs to tesfaye.

yo soby

i'm really happy for you

imma let you finish

but the weeknd has one of the best mixtapes of all time.

i just doubt that when those three tracks were recorded and released, that rose had any plans for a project of the scope that the balloons trilogy ended up being.

they're just three tracks.

those tracks are def the sound of the weeknd emerging, i just think that the concept for the project still belongs to tesfaye and the current team

the quality of the music that makes it smart and rewarding has as much to do with the superb overarching structure/flow of the music as it does with the actual sound of the music.

the three songs were just demos outside of any kind of context, and don't really point to what made the project a success, at least the way i see it.

even if they ripped off rose's sound, they wove it into a concept and built an entire wordview from it that those demos did not in any way implicate.

three

actually two because thursday is a little lacking

technically the versions of the songs that appeared on house of balloons are different.

and you'll notice my first comment on the thread said if he wanted credit he should have gotten something in writing. the whole thing really comes down to really poor business decisions.

The sound and the music that is being created as a result of that sound are one and the same

Uh no it wouldn't, you've completely missed the point of that comment. You're arguing that Abel and co have since branched off on their own, but their output is still defined by that initial idea that was either sparked by Rose himself or, he played a rather significant part in it. Either way, credit where credit is due.

I really don't know how you read that and came up with that particular analogy

hey

Ho


Let's go

okay id go anywhere with you

Foxxxy you roxxx my world

damn dev youre on a roll you make me smile

interesting issue (though I assume this happens rather often)

I think it's important to keep in mind while reading this though that Rose is, apparently, on the verge of dropping a mixtape of his own...

I think it's also important to keep in mind that this has been an issue since House Of Balloons dropped

My boner for this dude is not as strong now.
















nvm it's still the same

Does the music still get girls out of their soaking panties and into my bed? Yep.

Not a single fuck was given this day.

I think it's also important to keep in mind that this has been an issue since House Of Balloons dropped

I wonder how Abel will respond to this.

What do you mean?
I thought Rose said that he hasn't gone public about it really whatsoever.
I was implying that maybe he's bringing it up right now because of the convenient timing with his release.

the 4 they mentioned are like my favorite weeknd songs. does this rose dude have any of his work out there?

"The music scene there was just kids playing screamo shit."

I lol'd

http://soundcloud.com/zodiacbeat

grazi senor

I know what you were implying, but this has been an ongoing issue since the first mixtape. It's just been bought back into the spotlight recently because Rose has a release due out soon and zines are trying to build hype by alluding to his background with The Weeknd. I remember when P4k reviewed HoB and included Rose in the production team they received an e-mail from the XO crew where they attempted to distance themselves from Rose. The interview with Rose is recent, but the beef is old

^ not ongoing to public consumption sure but these insinuations have been murmurous rumbles for a while now.

Just finally blew up. Understand what you're getting at tho Eric : )

Some webzine contacted him and asked him some questions and he answered, its not like he opened up a dialogue on some public forum and had a good cry about it

And the fact that he hasn't been paid or credited for it yet obviously wants to be would imply that it's an ongoing issue

Erm, sooooo..... etc etc

My mistake, I assumed that because an interview had been conducted it that he had initiated it in some way... that certainly changes the circumstances a little : p

--------------------------------------

and this is only vaguely related but:

I < 3 YETI

"(until now, apparently)"

It read to me as they had sought him out or at the very least were completely aware of who he was. The interviewer brought up his getting credit on the older blog entries.

awww shucks : )

This is huh... wow

If he's so pissy, why doesn't he take a fuckin midol, and record his own shit? Oh yeah that's because he can't. Abel's voice is awesome, and I bet his would be fucking awful.

lol did he ever claim to be a singer? irrelevant post is irrelevant.

he should've been in court months ago. i dont know why he's waiting.

@DotEight the man still deserves his credit.

"If he's so pissy, why doesn't he take a fuckin midol, and record his own shit? Oh yeah that's because he can't. Abel's voice is awesome, and I bet his would be fucking awful."

In Other News:

Reviewers along the likes of Deviant., Rudy Klapper and Conrad Tao need to make an album pronto, or else all of their reviews are invalid. Good job Conrad!

'If he's so pissy, why doesn't he take a fuckin midol, and record his own shit? Oh yeah that's because he can't. Abel's voice is awesome, and I bet his would be fucking awful.'

On the same tack, how about we get Tesfaye a console and let him record his own music? it is, after all, about 90% of what makes the Weeknd good.

Oh wait, you wouldn't, because it'd probably be shit

funny thing is if rose's new mixtape sucks then everyone's opinion on the situation will change real fast

it would if everyone was a massive bellend yea

I know the dude was trying to "take the higher ground" or whatever, but if he really wanted his money he should have
been crying about it as soon as House of Balloons blew up a year ago. Whoever said earlier it was a poor business
decision on his part is right.

That being said, Abel has so much money up his ass now, I don't see why he can't throw the guy a couple grand and
everybody just shut up about it.

The three tracks that Rose worked on are coincidentally Weeknd's best songs.

"but if he really wanted his money he should have been crying about it as soon as House of Balloons blew up a year ago."

Just because this article was recently published does not mean that it's the first time Rose has said anything about it.

^yes it does, he even says in the article he didn't speak up about it. The only reason he is now is because the mag approached him to do the interview and, not coincidentally I'm sure, he's dropping an album soon and wants publicity.

Eric Sparrow shit here.

This is seriously disappointing.

the mixtape was also free, just saying, it's not like he was uncompensated for a platinum record or something, although i understand that the weeknd has generated other income. but tesfaye hasn't been paid a cent more than rose for those tracks, which is worth remembering. most pop stars don't write their own music, so they pay the people who write the songs for them. but they don't pay them based on the money they make on tour or w/e, they pay them for the actual recording. look, i think it boils down to this: if rose thought he had any ground to stand on asking for money, he would have done so a long time ago. he even says in the interview he gave them permission to use the stuff he worked on with abel.

you know what, fuck every other argument:

“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.” “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.” “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.” “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.” “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.” “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.” “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.” “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.” “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.” “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.” “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.” “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.”

stop being wrong

ire rules

Sniper when did you start becoming so wrong and silly?

yeah he should be credited, just not compensated.

final answer.

I don't find Sniper to be (completely) wrong.

I think he deserves some small compensation, but the credit is more important. In my mind, at least.

I think it's a bit bullshit blaming the guy for not putting something into contract. What happened to making music with friends? Saying its poor business decisions undermines the whole point in creating music.

Not in this day and age. In fact not in any day and age. Making it formal saves a whole lot of this same 'bullshit' in the long run.

It doesn't even have to be overtly 'formal'. Just whack it in writing, date, sign, file that's it. If you don't do it, chances are that your gonna be wishing you did later on. It's just not even worth debating. And no it doesn't undermine creativity between two parties, it in fact reinforces it. Collaboration agreements are made all the time for obvious legal reasons and they're only there to solidify intent. It's the same as prenupt, it's same as any legally binding contract. And it is hardly a restrictive form of agreement beyond standard commonsense.

^^^

I'm not saying its restrictive, just I really don't think it's something people think about when they're making music with mates. It doesn't seem like a business venture.

Yeah but the simple fact of the matter is that they were working on a "project", they weren't just screwing around on a Friday night after a few brews. You're entering into a partnership, an enterprise. Even if it is with friends there needs to be some kind of contractual agreement, just to guarantee insurance. It's common business practice, regardless of whatever intentions you may have for the final product

"technically the versions of the songs that appeared on house of balloons are different."

I have a friend in Toronto who knows Abel and he sent me House Of Balloons/Glass Table Girls 2 months before the mixtape dropped and it was the same version as on the mixtape, same with "What You Need". The early version of "The Morning" was the only difference on the mixtape release.

It's lame this guy never got credit, but those 3 tracks dont take away from Abel's talent. Whatever this guy said about the whole grimy, drugged out, sex idea Abel has taken the small sketch and made it into something way bigger than it originally was. In interviews it's been said he goes into the booth and freestyles his lyrics, so it's not like he's singing someone else's words, he took and idea and ran with it.

word.

can't we all just XO till we overdose???

hella down

my clan tag on mw3 is [ xo ] true story

Compensation or not isn't really the argument for me - that kind of thing can be determined in a court room. The important thing is that there is definitely a HUGE amount of musical and conceptual credit due, especially if truth holds that Tesfaye was never initially heading in this Weeknd direction whatsoever.

Jash, you are right. He TOOK an idea and ran with it.

An idea that wasn't THAT original in the first place, like this was the first time sex and drugs have been a main lyrical focus. Abel has always lived the lifestyle he sings about according to a friend of mine who knew him before he got huge, so it's not like Jeremy was all "it'd be cool to sing about drugs and fucking chicks" and then Abel goes out and starts doin tuckloads of M and brings X amount of woman to his loft so he can have something to sing about, he sings about what he does and has always done. If anything Jeremy was the one who made Abel think "Okay maybe if I sing about my bender last week people might actually be down to hear about it". As far as those 3 beats go, I do think it's a dick move that he didn't credit him, but this whole thing about the essence of The Weeknd being all Jeremy's is bullshit

Based on the interview, I'm going to have to completely disagree with you. Why didn't Abel take off before with the Noise? It's because he didn't have the idea.


Sure he's doing a great job running with it, but you see this all the time in business with other companies taking an established concept and turning it into something huge. If Rose didn't have the idea, none of this would have happened; it's that simple.

As an aside... dark/ electronic R&B IS an original idea, that's why it was never really done much/well before.

Yeah, even after letting this information sit for a while to see if my mind would change, I still
think that Rose was very significant. If it weren't for him, Abel could still be a no-face doing
weekend Toronto gigs for chump change, regardless of how great his voice is.

Jash, you realize you're focusing on the lyrics for the most part? Rose clearly states in the interview that Abel always had lyrics floating around, and that he would freestyle over some of the beats that Rose had. No one's arguing that Abel didn't have the idea of detailing his supposed hedonistic lifestyle prior to Rose, but he certainly didn't have the means and the outlet to do so before. It wasn't Abel's idea to turn this into a big project; or, if it was, he clearly didn't think of it alone

As an aside... dark/ electronic R&B IS an original idea, that's why it was never really done much/well before.

Dev in the interview Rose says "before he was singing about oh I wanna see you in your bday suit and I said nah we gota get grimy" so he was trying to take credit for Abel's direction in lyrics. I'm not saying Rose wasn't a catalyst for this at all, but to say Abel is where he's at now because of Rose isn't true. Abel could've started off with those 3/4 songs of his which were amazing and then released a bunch of shit along side them, but we all know that's not the case. Not to mention Roses stuff is cool, but nothing he's done has come close to those couple beats, especially the original The Morning beat, if Abel had stuck with him he probably wouldn't be where he is now