Drake and The Weeknd’s five best collaborations
There are few steamier collabs than Drake and The Weeknd. The two Canadian singers bring their seductive production and clever wordplay to joint tracks, which cover everything from doing business to getting down to business.
Drake and The Weeknd first teamed up back in 2011, on ‘Crew Love’, which featured on Drake’s second album, Take Care. At the time, The Weeknd was huge in the underground trap scene but hadn’t quite surfaced to the mainstream.
Did Drizzy give him a hand up? Probably, but fast forward to today, and the two have fairly equal stardom and a selection of vibe songs for all occasions.
They’re currently rumoured to have a huge beef, but for now, let’s reminisce with our sultry-voiced boys.
Drake and The Weeknd’s five best tracks together:
‘Live For’
Watching the video for ‘Live For’ feels like going back in time. Drake and The Weeknd look fresh-faced among flashing lights, and the youthfulness kind of fits with the song. It’s a sweet but sincere claim about their seriousness about music.
The simple riff layered with The Weeknd’s warbling builds up to a classic drop, while Drake comes in during the second half, following with some clapping beats. We hear his familiar pensive content, and something about the move from fast to slow hits just right. At its core, the track is a gentle reminder of The Weeknd and Drake beyond the bullshit of fame.
‘The Zone’
‘The Zone’ is everything you’d hope for from Drake and The Weeknd coming together; it’s hot.
The drum machine paces The Weeknd’s lyrics as he walks us through all the things he’s gonna do to his lucky lady. The bridge gets breathier, climaxing to Drake’s entrance, where his voice goes deep and assertive. We switch back to the Weeknd, who finishes crying “I’ma touch your right”, and boy, does he.
As one YouTube comment says, if the two kept making tracks like ‘The Zone’, the world would be overpopulated.
‘Crew Love’
We have to include the track where it all started. ‘Crew Love’ is packed with iconic moments, the weird metallic sliding sounds dotted through the song, the opening line “Take your nose off my keyboard”, and the heavy beat that punches through Drake’s verses. ‘Crew Love’ is a damn good piece of music, ready for the club, a house party or a gym session.
It’s a snippet of darkly sexy trap culture and the fierce loyalty that Drake has held to the people around him.
‘Ride’
Also taken from Drake’s Take Care, ‘Ride’ is more soulful than the other songs on this list. It feels mature in how it blends genres, but it also keeps a simple beat, emphasising Drake’s vocals, which bounce atop. You could almost miss The Weeknd on ‘Ride’ if you weren’t paying attention, but in between Drake’s pauses, his wailing comes centre stage and his harmonies reach impressive heights.
‘Ride’ has the smoothness of most Drake and The Weeknd collabs, but it has a smarter flair because it isn’t overtly sexual.
‘Cameras / Good Ones Go Interlude (Medley)’
Yes, we’re including this one. The middle track on Take Care is often overlooked as a collab due to The Weeknd’s fleeting appearance, but he doesn’t need long to leave a mark.
Among synth sounds, the distorted Weeknd’s whines elevate Drake’s effortless rhymes on ‘Cameras’. It has the texture of an old school hip hop release, until it fades into ‘Good Ones Go’ and The Weeknd brings us back to panting with his “Oh yeahs”. Drake then steps into his own Weeknd-ness, stacking soft adlibs over hard percussion.
‘Cameras/Good Ones Go’ is a good summary of Drake and The Weeknd’s sort of symbiotic relationship. They go well together, and they’re even better at creating dreamy audio spheres where men, women, and children all swoon.