The Weeknd and Future have reunited for the former’s latest single “Double Fantasy,” which appears on the soundtrack for the Toronto singer’s upcoming HBO series, The Idol.
The Canadian crooner first revealed the new soundtrack, titled The Idol Vol. 1, during a surprise Coachella cameo last weekend, and previewed “Double Fantasy” before fully dropping it on Friday (April 21).
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The project is slated to be the companion album to The Weeknd’s upcoming HBO show, which after multiple delays is finally set to debut on June 4.
Watch the video for “Double Fantasy” below:
The new video doesn’t feature King Pluto or the XO leader, but it does feature a few more snippets from the upcoming drama, which stars Lily Rose-Depp as a young pop star looking to achieve A-list fame, and in turn, enlists the help of an enigmatic and sexually-deviant club owner named Tedros (played by The Weeknd).
The raunchy and controversial series has already raised eyebrows before it even started, with an explosive Rolling Stone Op-Ed speaking to 13 cast and crew members who in various ways described the series as “sexual torture porn.”
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Abel Tesfaye snapped back at these allegations, implying the publication was “irrelevant.”
“@RollingStone did we upset you?” The Weeknd added in a tweet to further taunt the outlet.
Rolling Stone‘s editor-in-chief, Noah Shachtman, responded to The Weeknd’s jab, tweeting: “Not at all!” while sharing images of the singer on the cover of its magazine in 2015 and 2020.
Controversy aside, “Double Fantasy” marks the fifth collaboration between Future and the Trilogy hitmaker. They’ve previously worked together on the songs “Low Life,” “All I Know,” “Six Feet Under” and “Comin Out Strong.”
In other news, an AI track featuring augmented vocals of the 33-year-old crooner has been causing quite a stir since it appeared on YouTube and streaming services earlier this month.
The track, titled “heart on my sleeve,” also features some artificial Drake bars, and caused UMG, to which Drizzy and The Weeknd are both currently signed, to issue a statement on the song and remove the track from all DSP’s. Before getting taken down it had racked up over 630,000 listens on Spotify alone.
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“UMG’s success has been, in part, due to embracing new technology and putting it to work for our artists — as we have been doing with our own innovation around AI for some time already,” the statement began.
“With that said, however, the training of generative AI using our artists’ music (which represents both a breach of our agreements and a violation of copyright law) as well as the availability of infringing content created with generative AI on DSPs, begs the question as to which side of history all stakeholders in the music ecosystem want to be on: the side of artists, fans and human creative expression, or on the side of deep fakes, fraud and denying artists their due compensation.”
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While many don’t know how to feel about AI’s influence in music, Meek Mill couldn’t help but admit the controversial track is catchy and said the AI tune just shows how desperately the world needs new music from Aubrey Graham and Abel Tesfaye.
“This my 5th time banging this and it’s flame,” Meek wrote on Twitter. “We need new music from y’all 2.”
