The Weeknd Talks Working With Kendrick Lamar, Going Sober and More

After killing 2015-2016 with his project Beauty Behind the Madness, The Weeknd is set to do it all over again with his latest album Star Boy, which drops tomorrow, Nov. 25.

The Canadian crooner recently sat down for a one-on-one with Zane Lowe for Beats 1 and opened up about some aspects of the recording process for this project, including working with Kendrick Lamar and sobering up.

K. Dot appears on the the track "Sidewalks." According to Abel, the TDE rapper's musical aptitude is on a whole other level. "He’s a genius. He is really a genius," the singer told Lowe.

He went on to explain Lamar's course of action when recording. "He’d walk around," Weeknd continued. "He’d play the record over and over again. I played him songs, the Starboy theme of course, which he incorporated into his verse. He would just walk around. We had food. He’s writing his verse in his head. He would go into his phone, look at it a few and then put it back and start walking around. He then at one point he went into the studio booth and I closed the door and I could hear him yelling his verse in his head. He was really committed, you can tell he put his all into. It wasn't just a random Kendrick Lamar verse, it was something special because again, I don’t like to say this all the time, but we’ve known each other for a while and it’s crazy how we started connecting on this record."

The XO singer also touched on overcoming alcohol problems. Early on in his career, he says he used to perform drunk in order to get over anxiety issues about being in front of a large crowd. He has recently curved that need with the help from his core crew. "I have a good team," he said. "It's good to have a good team."

Listen to the full interview below via HHNM, and watch video clips of the interview after that. In the complete audio, Weeknd says he might do a whole album with Drake.

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