The Weeknd Clarifies His Comments About Usher Copying His Sound on ‘Climax’

These smooth singers are setting the record straight once and for all. The Weeknd’s response to his “feud” with Usher proves that there wasn’t really anything going on there in the first place. According to the 30-year-old “Blinding Lights” singer, his controversial copycat comments about Usher’s 2012 song “Climax” were actually meant as a compliment—not shade.

The Weeknd, whose real name is Abel Tesfaye, says this misunderstanding is all the result of fans blowing things “out of proportion.” According to the After Hours crooner, fans took his comments during a Variety interview the wrong way. At the time, The Weeknd was talking about Usher’s 2012 effort and seemingly suggested that his song sounded just like a Weeknd song. “I heard ‘Climax,’ that Usher song, and was like, ‘Holy f—, that’s a Weeknd song.’ It was very flattering, and I knew I was doing something right, but I also got angry,” he told the publication, before adding, “But the older I got, I realized it’s a good thing.”

Fans didn’t take the initial comments lightly, hyping up the admission as something like when “Soulja Boy accuses Drake of ‘stealing my whole f-cking flow.’” But in a new post to his Instagram Story on April 9, Abel proves that he was trying to highlight the “flattering” portion of his comment—not that Usher was jacking his sound.

Source: Instagram

He reposted a screenshot of a tweet by Usher’s XO producer, Diplo. “The production on ‘Climax’ lends itself to House of Balloon era The Weeknd,” the tweet reads. “When I heard those early records, they blew my mind – soulful in their silences, and a spacey iconic voice that felt uniquely Internet. The idea of R&B having dark edges was what I wanted to bring to Usher,” Diplo added.

Clearly, Abel was aware of the influence—and again, he didn’t mind. To have a master producer and “king” of R&B, Usher, borrow from his sound was a good thing, according to the singer. “Of course, [the] media blows things out of proportion and takes things out of context,” Abel added to the screenshot. “Usher is a king and always an inspiration. So, it was flattering to hear what him and Diplo did on [‘Climax’] XO.”

So there you have it; this “beef” is squashed.

Source: Stylecaster.com