In Toronto he became as big as drake fast tbh, he was huge by Toronto standards even when house of balloons dropped.. I swear it was more anticipated in the city at the time then so far gone.. but maybe I’m wrong

You’re right, I remember everyone in the city was bumping Trilogy back then so to us he had already made it.

It was his best album I was always drunk you had to be there

I think it was more considered a flop because it was his first “official” album and the expectation was that it was going to break him through into the mainstream. instead it kept him at the same level of fame.
Can’t feel my face premiering at that Apple conference helped him more than people acknowledge tbh

Probably like 150 lbs

idk but everyone in Toronto was bumping him heavy during Kissland era and the features he was on that preceded it

He wasn’t a mainstream thing fr fr yet

Even tho it seemed like it .

I bought Kissland on cd the day it drop

It was really his debut if you don't count the remastering of the mixtapes for trilogy

He was pretty much a nobody. I remember around the same time if not the same date a new black ops game dropped and that got more hype than kissland

Holy s***, having him perform at a period where only the mixtapes were the extent of his discography would feel surreal!

imagine travelling back in time and show him his whole catalog

Feature king

He would s*** his pants lmao

Also, "hey abel, quit wanking to Jennifer Lawrence's magazine, soon there won't be no need. I don't wanna spoil it for you, but 10 years from now you'll have fornicated with Bella Hadid, Selena Gomez, and a dozed or two of the girls from the Victoria's Secret 2016 runway in Paris and 2015 in New York, to mention few lmao"

Ahem, also you derail a little and sell out, compromising your art and where you could be if you evolved your songwriting constantly, all this cause resisting the temptation to attain mammon is something that requires very strong character, morals and strong self-respect, strong willpower to never quit pushing the bar to be better, to surpass your peers and most importanly surpass yourself, unfortunately this was too much for you.
But nevertheless, later on the road you kinda make attempts to recover, and come back to the right road, so there's that too. Also future you is gonna lose the files/hard drive of My Favourite One Night Stand, so make sure you don't lose it. Or if you do, no big deal, you still have the vocals. Right? ..... Right...?

bonus here, two truths in one post

no way that pic is real

He wasn’t mainstream

Except Dawn FM

Crazy to see him, underground hype was real. Everyone knew this guy was going to blow up.

Edit: embed isn’t working but here is a ticket from The Fall Tour 2012

reddit.com/r/TheWeeknd/comments/vhsvzj/the_weeknd_ticket_2012/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

not that big.. it was a really cool roll out though..
a ton of p*** lol

Sold out multiple nights at the O2 arena and had the whole crowd, and i mean the WHOLE crowd singing every word to every song

I haven't seen anything like that since

yeah idk.. i loved it since day 1 but people panned it at release and it "flopped".

people were really against how it wasnt completely dark (had some more upbeat songs). fans thought he was abandoning the trilogy sound to a more pop friendly one.

kissland ended up being his closest projects sonically to the kissland sound

HOB drop wasnt really that hype in the city (atleast from what i experienced) but the Thursday / EOS drops were crazyyy

its crazy to think back to tbh.. living through it you dont really realize what youre experiencing. but looking back, so happy to have been there