Throwbacks: The Weeknd - Thursday

August 18, 2011. The Weeknd dropped *Thursday*, the second mixtape in a run that completely mutated contemporary R&B. Toronto was suddenly the center of a dark, drug-fueled universe. People treat *House of Balloons* like the undisputed crown jewel of Abel's early era, but *Thursday* is the actual blueprint for the decade of alternative R&B that followed. It’s a claustrophobic, paranoid masterpiece. Producers Doc McKinney and Illangelo locked in across Toronto’s Liberty, Site Sound, and Sterling Road studios to craft the entire project. They pulled back heavily on the samples that defined the first tape, building murky, electronic walls of sound for Abel's soaring falsetto to pierce through.

Then you get Drake sliding through on "The Zone." That guest appearance felt like a cultural shifting of the guard. The OVO and XO connection was cemented right there in the fog. It was toxic and completely alien to what was spinning on urban radio at the time. Hit play below.