Frequent collaborators turned frenemies, The Weeknd and Drake have had their ups and downs over the last half decade or so. But with the two finally back on good terms—for now—OVO Sound was the perfect place for The Weeknd to drop off his cover of R. Kelly's "Down Low" (Nobody Has to Know), a song he has been performing live for the past few years.
The Canadian singer hadn't exactly been cryptic about teasing new music on the horizon. On Sept. 7, he teased a bit of new music as he prepares to hit the road for the next leg of the Starboy Tour. Just a day before the latest episode of OVO Sound, he teased the radio show with a simple, two-word caption: "Down Low."
The Weeknd and Drake have plenty of successful partnerships under their belt, and they're much better off when they work together. Publicly, the former has always tried to show love to Drake for helping him make it in the industry, though it's well-known the singer gave Drake a bunch of material that became the spine of his beloved album, Take Care. Now that they're competing for a lot of the same fans, it would be easy for the relationship to remain icy, as it had for much of the recent past.
But some high-profile appearances onstage together this year helped clear any misconceptions about their relationship, and if anything, excitement should start to build about the two getting back into the studio together once more. If he's dropping bars about Drake's brand of whiskey, Virginia Black, The Weeknd is clearly focused on building bridges to his old partner-in-crime, not destroying them.
Drake even hinted that they should make new music. Captured by New York Times pop music critic Jon Caramanica, he wrote in a caption on Instagram: "Subliminally trying to tell you we need to make music."
Listen to the cover, below.
