: A fan-favorite upbeat track from his very early career.

Between Beauty Behind the Madness and Starboy , Tesfaye experimented heavily with various hip-hop and electronic producers. Dozens of leaks from this 2016 era—such as "I Wanna Feel You," and "Drunk in the 90s" —suggest an album that was much grittier and more rap-infused than the sleek, retro-futuristic Starboy we eventually received. The Scrapped Melancholy Album

While Abel Tesfaye rarely looks backward, he has occasionally thrown a bone to long-time listeners. In 2021, for the tenth anniversary of House of Balloons , he officially brought the original, un-sampled mixtapes to streaming services.

Before adopting the moniker "The Weeknd," a teenage Abel Tesfaye recorded music under his actual name and as part of a rap/R&B duo known as Kin Kane. The most prominent artifact from this era is a collection of tracks recorded with a production group called . When these songs leaked in May 2011—right as House of Balloons was building mainstream buzz—they initially confused early fans due to their surprisingly bright, radio-friendly pop-R&B tone.

Around 2016 and late 2020, massive leaks hit internet forums like Reddit and Leakbase. Dozens of studio-quality demos surfaced, revealing entirely different directions for his most famous albums.

Most artists stop at 50. The Weeknd keeps going until he taps a vein. Consequently, the "reject rate" is higher than any mainstream pop star. Additionally, his paranoia about his narrative means he often scraps entire projects if a real-life relationship ends or a controversy erupts.