The Weeknd’s “Tell Your Friends” Was Originally a Kanye West Song

The path some songs take through the industry is rote, mechanical, boring. Teams of writers churn out dozens of demos that are cherry picked by artists, their A&Rs and their managers. But sometimes, records that are more personal still skip from artist to artist. According to G.O.O.D. Music President Che Pope, that's exactly what happened in the case of "Tell Your Friends," which ended up on The Weeknd's #1 album, Beauty Behind the Madness. Speaking to Red Bull Music Academy, Pope explained that the song, which credits West as a producer, was originally slated for the Chicago rapper's forthcoming seventh album, Swish. Pope, West and the latter's long-time co-producer, the Southern legend Mike Dean, had worked on an early version, one that surfaced recently as a demo called "When I See It."

In the above video, Pope also talks about working with A$AP Rocky on the West-featuring "Jukebox Joints," from the Harlem rapper's At.Long.Last.A$AP, and the Lauryn Hill song "To Zion." Pope expanded on the idea of G.O.O.D. Music as a creative incubator, one that doesn't hope to compete with other imprints on a financial level. The 90-minute conversation includes odes to the jazz legends who have played on songs Pope produced, and recounts the six months in Paris that gave birth to Yeezus. The veteran then jumps back a full decade to talk about playing the inside of a piano to form the beat for The Game's "Higher," from his 2005 debut The Documentary.