the weeknd kiss land
The ever-enigmatic The Weeknd, known for his lack of chattiness with the press, overcame his usual reserve to talk to Portishead about his upcoming album, but apparently decided to ignore them when they rejected his request to sample the beat of their track "Machine Gun" on "Belong To The World." Perhaps unsurprisingly, Portishead producer/instrumentalist Geoff Barrow is not pleased with this lack of consideration and has expressed as much via Twitter:
Although The Weeknd "wrote a letter to the producers of Portishead and let them know this album is inspired by them," as he explained in his recent interview with Complex, no one told him that that's not the same as getting permission to use the band's music. While it remains unclear if the beat is an actual sample, the rhythm track of "Belong To The World" sure as hell sounds recognizably like the Portishead cut "Machine Gun" which inspired it. Tricky. There's been a fair amount of talk about the borrowing Tesfaye engaged in, so let's see what comes of the controversy in the time before Kiss Land is set to drop in August. Hopefully it dies down nicely (although The Weeknd has yet to respond via Twitter) and we can go back to wondering why the singer wants to "domesticate" his lady friend in the "Belong To The World" video...
