Thanksgiving Weeknd: Singer returns to ‘the scene of the crime’ at SoFi Stadium
This story originally ran on Nov. 20, 2018.
“Hang on.” As the Weeknd’s “Beauty Behind Bars” blared, I pressed play to hear the rapper perform a freestyle while wearing a face mask.
“Don’t make a face, just breathe. I love you,” he crooned while flapping his arms to keep the wind out of his eyes. The crowd cheered as he hit the mic.
As the rapper strutted onstage, he was flanked by two bodyguards holding his arms in the air. There was no sign of an audience. I couldn’t help but feel like I was in a David Lynch movie — except I wasn’t surrounded by a forest, but by a giant wall. For a moment, I panicked thinking maybe I had missed my flight.
Thankfully, it was just a dream.
But I have no doubt that’s exactly how it went down, thanks to the recent release of a new documentary, “The Weeknd: Original Sins,” set to premiere Thursday on Netflix.
Based on the life of the Weeknd, this doc reveals a dark side of the artist I grew up hearing about, and for that reason, is one of my first picks of the holiday week. It’s the story of his rise to fame and the path that led to an arrest in Sweden earlier this year and a conviction on drug-possession charges.
The weeknd is no stranger to controversy. Before stepping onto the road with his own record label, the rapper was accused of killing a friend, who was later named as one of his besties, in 2017. He denied the allegations and was acquitted. In the same year, he was sentenced to six years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting a woman. And last July, he was arrested in Sweden while on tour in connection with a hit-and-run after allegedly hitting a woman over the head and fleeing the scene. He was later found not guilty by a jury.
The documentary sheds light on the weeknd’s life leading up to those incidents and