The Weeknd went all out for his 32nd birthday party, which took place on Feb. 19. Amidst famous guests, he also invited Drake, who was one of few taking to the stage to deliver a heartfelt speech in honor of Abel.
According to a release, Drake addressed The Weeknd as both his “brother from day one,” and “one of the greatest artists of all f-king time”.
However, Drake and The Weeknd haven’t always been as close as they are to date. The first rift in their friendship occurred about a decade ago, when The Weeknd signed with Republic Records, trademarking XO, rather than choosing to go with Drake’s OVO Sound record label. While this caused a lot of tension, the pair patched things up by the following summer.
The two went on to perform shows with their hit songs, ‘Crew Love’ and ‘Live For’. Back when Drake was working on the Take Care album, The Weeknd ended up contributing a couple songs to the project. A lot of talk began to circulate about how they were stealing from each other, which Drake shut down immediately.
From then on, the next rumors to circulate were about how Drake was said to be dating Abel’s ex-girlfriend, Bella Hadid. Whether or not that rumor is true is still up in the air, but some suggest song lyrics found in Drake’s ‘Scorpion’ are reminiscent of her.
After what seemed like the feud of a lifetime, both Drake and The Weeknd squashed their beef, and have since become tight-knit friends. Now that they’ve fixed things, if a new collab isn’t already in the works, both artists may want to consider it, especially after that birthday party. Toronto fans (and fans worldwide) are hungry for the Toronto natives to come out with new content, this time together. All previous work from the pair has done exceedingly well; as of 2020, the single ‘Crew Love’ has surpassed 20 million streams worldwide. While they do great things independently, the two have collectively built up a strong fan base over the years with fans that are yearning for their next co-collaborative big thing.
While their individual successes are equally as important, a new OVOXO project would greatly impact the hip hop/rap music industry, in ways that other dynamic duos just can’t.
