Tell Your Friends

Tell Your Friends

The Weeknd

“Tell Your Friends” debuted live on stage in Las Vegas, and was followed by the release of a music video just days before Beauty Behind the Madness was due to release. The video also featured visuals for the albums intro, “Real Life.”

The song has our Canadian crooner inviting listeners to take a real look at his lifestyle – Abel has nothing to hide. Self destruction, chasing fame, relationships with women and drugs are all major themes throughout the album. The track was produced by Kanye West, who approached Abel first.

Everyone’s a character on my album, and [Kanye’s] production, voice, and input is a character, too. There’s so much detail in his sessions, and he definitely helped craft who I’ve been, subconsciously, for the past few years. To actually be with him and talk to him and work with him, it’s just like coming to life…Kanye needed to be on this album, because I feel like I’m going through what he’s been going through—reinventing himself and pushing the boundaries. And he looks at himself as pop. He says, “I’m a pop artist. You can’t put me in one category."

In addition to producing this track, Kanye also styled Abel for his GQ shoot where he sported the first Yeezy Collection with Adidas.

Also after much speculation of there being no OVOXO revival, Drake, the 6 God himself, decided to drop a freestyle remix over top of this song.

This beat was originally slated for inclusion on Kanye West’s unreleased 2014 album So Help Me God. West later released an unfinished track with this beat called “When I See It” to SoundCloud.