Soulful Enigmacy

Chapter Two: The Noise

I had a bleak vision. It was bleak, but it was there. I wouldn't say it was taking shape, but it was forming in the distance. A couple of years had gone by now and I wouldn't say that my life had gotten better since I'd left home. It was a lot worse emotionally. No one really looked after me other than Lamar. He was always there. Sometimes, as cheesy as this sounds, I was lucky to have him around. If it wasn't for him, maybe I wouldn't have gathered the courage to leave home..well who knows.

Through some friendly connections, and my willingness to make the most out of the time I had, I met a group called The Noise, music producers who were humble in exposure, timid in marketing as well. At that point I was trying my luck..it felt like I was sticking my head in the middle of nowhere, just for a chance to make something out of myself. I was taking a gamble, but i knew I could sing..they just needed me to find a direction. What was my stage name gonna be? Abel Tesfaye sounded too ordinary. I took a while to think of it before I got back to them.

THEWEEKEND. The Weekend I left home and never came back..well until now. I guess I could say it was the pinnacle moment in my life at the time. Why not? It's different. Unique. If I took out the third "e" in the Weekend and made Weeknd. Presented the idea to Lamar and he could see no wrong in it. The Noise loved it and we got to working.

Truth is..R&B greats like R.Kelly had inspired me to write love songs..and as cheesy as it was, the girls fucked with it, they really did. Not enough of them though. The Noise wanted to embody various tracks into an EP. The Noise EP. It was never officially released tbh, and didn't garner much attention. Perhaps my vocals weren't evolved. The songs had seemed to most, lackadaiscal which was bad feedback to get from a whole EP we just did.

The group of producers were sad to hear that the little reception that it got was poor, but it's producers took it lightly, they really did believe I was worth the time. They thought that with the resources and time, I could make a breakthrough. They promised me to get in contact with several record producers and see what they could do about me. That left me very hopeful. I now knew that this was a stepping stone to something great. That maybe music was the way forward for me.

Parties continued though, and Lamar and I were partying non-stop, girl after girl, pill after pill, weekend after weekend and bottle after bottle. It wasn't healthy, no, but I didn't know how much all these experiences would help me in the near future, and how they'd be the inspiration I needed.