The Weeknd's New Album Features Rare Basquiat Drawing on Cover

The Weeknd, born Abel Makkonen Tesfaye in Toronto in 1990, will release his new album 'Harry Up Tomorrow' on January 24, 2025. This is the third and final chapter of a trilogy that began with 'After Hours' (2020) and continued with 'Dawn FM' (2022). The album explores existential and reflective themes with tracks blending electronic, R&B, and synthwave sounds. The cover features a rare 1977 sketch by Jean-Michel Basquiat titled 'Upon Leaving the Norm,' created when the artist was a teenager. The drawing shows a stylized figure flying attached to a balloon over a city of incomplete buildings and a faceless crowd identified as 'working class heroes.' The figure floats above, with thoughts inside a cloud drifting away from the constraining reality. This is not Basquiat's first musical collaboration: in 1983 he made the cover for 'Beat Bop' by Rammellzee and K-Rob, of which only 500 copies were produced, with a sealed copy selling for $126,000 at Sotheby's in 2020. In 1984, he also created the cover for San Francisco punk band The Offs' 'First Record.' Basquiat's raw, provocative style is evident, though this early work shows a softer touch. The Weeknd's lyrics similarly explore identity and inner darkness, paralleling the airborne figure's refusal to land and join the masses.