Hip Hop/Rap
Matt Carney
I was finishing up college when the then-more-mysterious R&B project The Weeknd dropped their first mixtape, “House of Balloons,” for free online. Unfortunately for 21-year-old Canadian Abel Tesfaye (who’s credited as singer and songwriter) not enough has changed in that time to warrant increased praise for “Thursday,” although that’s not to say he’s produced (with the help of veteran Doc McKinney and the also-mysterious Illangelo) a bad album.

Hip Hop/Rap
Matt Carney
Two leering, damaged R&B mixtapes in and I was nearly certain that provocative Toronto collective The Weeknd (the brainchild of remarkable singer Abel Tesfaye) had exhausted its scuzzy-production-and-luxurious pop-voice-singing-about-banging-groupies shtick.

Hip Hop/Rap
Matt Carney
If the minimal, Toronto R&B sound of Drake and collaborators Abel Tesfaye (AKA, The Weeknd), Boi-1da and Doc McKinney winds up as influential on hip-hop as many critics seem to think, then “Take Care”’s legacy will be long-lasting and often-marked.