Video will appear as you scroll through the story
The Weeknd · S2 E3
Drake Co-Signs
Toronto's biggest star tweets about a mystery artist. The internet starts digging
March 2011. Drake posts a link on his October's Very Own blog to three songs by an artist nobody can identify, and overnight the anonymous musician's play count jumps from hundreds to hundreds of thousands.
Drake: Over (official music video, 2010). This is the artist who co-signed The Weeknd. At the time of that blog post, Drake was the biggest name in Toronto and one of the biggest in the world. Understanding the scale of his platform explains why one post could transform an anonymous YouTube account into the most talked-about new artist in music overnight.
Over
"Over" is the moment Drake stopped asking for permission and started making declarations. Over a Noah "40" Shebib beat built for a coronation, Drake raps about dominance, inevitability, and the weight of being Toronto's chosen one. When the man behind this song tells millions of people to listen to a mystery artist, they listen. The gap between the Parkdale bedroom where Abel was recording and the arena where Drake was performing is the entire point of this co-sign.
TAP TO REVEAL: How did Drake actually find The Weeknd's music?
“I checked my email and there were hundreds of messages. I didn't understand what happened until someone sent me the blog post. One person changed everything in a single night.”
— Abel Tesfaye, Complex, 2013
The Co-Sign: By the Numbers
Crew Love (Drake ft. The Weeknd)
The direct musical result of the co-sign. After Drake discovered The Weeknd's music online, he invited Abel into the Take Care sessions. "Crew Love" was born from those studio nights: Abel handles the hook and the atmosphere while Drake floats over an Illangelo production that sounds like House of Balloons with a bigger budget.
What platform did Drake use to share The Weeknd's music with his audience?
On March 21, 2011, Abel drops an entire mixtape for free, and its centerpiece is a track that splits from euphoria into horror without warning. Next: "House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls," the two-part song that proved the mystery artist was building something nobody had heard before.
0 XP earned this session