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The Weeknd · S3 E5
Republic Records
The major label deal that let Abel keep creative control while gaining a machine behind him
Every major record label in the world is calling the same phone number. The kid who gave away three mixtapes for free now has the most leverage of any unsigned artist in the music industry.
Tyler, the Creator -- Yonkers (2011). The same year Abel was uploading anonymous R&B to YouTube, Tyler was uploading this: a one-shot video of him eating a cockroach that racked up millions of views before any label could figure out what Odd Future was. Both artists used free internet content to build audiences so loyal that labels had no choice but to sign them on their terms.
Yonkers -- Tyler, the Creator (2011)
Built on a single, lurching piano loop and Tyler's confrontational delivery, recorded in a bedroom and uploaded to YouTube with a video that cost almost nothing to make. Listen for how sparse the production is: there is no hook, no chorus designed for radio, just Tyler and a beat that refuses to sit comfortably. That DIY aesthetic is the same energy Abel channeled on his mixtapes, just pointed in a completely different sonic direction. Both artists proved that the internet had permanently changed who held power in the music industry.
The Non-Negotiable
Abel walked into every label meeting with one condition: full creative control stays with XO. The music, the artwork, the release schedule, the visual direction. His manager Sal Slaiby has said they did not want a label that got involved with the creative process. Most labels were not used to hearing that from a new artist. Republic agreed.
TAP TO REVEAL: What did Abel actually negotiate into his Republic Records contract?
Republic Records Headquarters
Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The building where Abel signed the deal that turned a Scarborough dropout with three free mixtapes into a major label artist, on his own terms.
The Fall -- The Weeknd
"The Fall" from Echoes of Silence captures the exact emotional space of this episode: standing on the edge of something massive and choosing to step off. The production is atmospheric and weightless, Abel's voice suspended in reverb, singing about surrender without knowing what comes next. It is the last sound of the independent era, the final breath before the label machine switches on.
The deal is signed, the team is in place, and Republic Records has one immediate plan: take those three free mixtapes, remaster them, and release them as a single body of work. Thirty tracks, one album, called Trilogy.
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