Before they broke away from one another in becoming pop music icons, Drake and the Weeknd (a.k.a. Abel Tesfaye) first came together in a major way on the rapper's 2011 full-length Take Care, teaming up on the song "Crew Love." Now, a demo track for the collaborative cut has surfaced online.
Aside from a few minor production tweaks, the noticeable difference is that Drake's bars about smoking weed outdoors and higher education are no longer present, leaving layers of Tesfaye's vocals uninterrupted among pianos, bells and cymbals.
In 2015, Tesfaye told Rolling Stone that he had given Drake a handful of tracks for Take Care that would have ended up on one of his own first efforts in House of Balloons, calling him "my closest friend in the industry at that time." The reference track perhaps points to "Crew Love" being one of those songs.
"I gave up almost half of my album," he told the publication. "It's hard. I will always be thankful — if it wasn't for the light he shined on me, who knows where I'd be. And everything happens for a reason."
You can take a listen to the reference track and think about what could have been over here.
Aside from a few minor production tweaks, the noticeable difference is that Drake's bars about smoking weed outdoors and higher education are no longer present, leaving layers of Tesfaye's vocals uninterrupted among pianos, bells and cymbals.
In 2015, Tesfaye told Rolling Stone that he had given Drake a handful of tracks for Take Care that would have ended up on one of his own first efforts in House of Balloons, calling him "my closest friend in the industry at that time." The reference track perhaps points to "Crew Love" being one of those songs.
"I gave up almost half of my album," he told the publication. "It's hard. I will always be thankful — if it wasn't for the light he shined on me, who knows where I'd be. And everything happens for a reason."
You can take a listen to the reference track and think about what could have been over here.
