MUSIC: Weeknd - The Hills (Remixes)

Love him or hate him, the Weeknd deserves the accolades he’s getting. Four years ago he was an intentionally mysterious character, dropping groundbreaking project after project one after another with very little drop in quality for the awesome price of 'free'. What made the Weeknd stand out was that every other male R&B act was celebrating hedonism without the drawbacks; he fully embraced the characters you actually run into often at nightlife; drugged up creeps taking advantage of people's self esteem, people drinking and drugging out of self hatred, people bargaining sex for just a taste of attention.
He’s since refashioned his image into a dark pop star that does pretty great pop music. His “I Can’t Feel My Face” single is riding that 80’s pop-funk train to being one of the biggest singles this year in addition to having his first number one album. While his songwriting is a bit more Max Martin then Trent Reznor he nowadays still finds a way to infuse the darkness he is was known for in his glittery pop singles. Enter his single, “The Hills” which proudly proclaims “When I am fucked up/That’s the real me”. To celebrate that single hitting number one he’s releasing two remixes, one with Nicki Minaj and the other with Eminem. You can get them here, and watch the Nicki Minaj one performed live on SNL above.