The Weeknd May Not Be Retiring Per Diddy’s Claim—But The OVO Singer May Pivot

Now that Diddy is preparing to release his first album in over 15 years, it appears The Weeknd—this generation’s biggest pop and R&B enigma—will fade to black following their upcoming collaboration.

In case you didn’t already know, Diddy—also known as Brother Love—will join forces with The Weeknd for their collaboration, “Another One Of Me,” which will appear on the Bad Boy CEO’s upcoming project, THE LOVE ALBUM : OFF THE GRID. Set to arrive on September 15, the album will include features from stars such as Mary J. Blige, Justin Bieber, H.E.R, Summer Walker, Babyface, John Legend, Teyana Taylor and many more.

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However, in the process of promoting the project, Diddy seemingly made the incredulous claim that The Weeknd’s appearance on the LP would be the OVO vocalist’s final collaborative outing of his career.

“IT’S OFFICIAL @THEWEEKND’S LAST COLLAB OF HIS CAREER WILL BE ON…. THE LOVE ALBUM : OFF THE GRID,” Diddy exclaimed in the caption of a YouTube short teasing the record. “‘ANOTHER ONE OF ME.’ SEPTEMBER 15TH WELCOME TO THE LOVE ERA. THELOVEALBUM #OTG.”

Of course, the shock value of that statement alone would shake any fan of The Weeknd to their core. But instead of taking it at face value, I’ve decided to look at the possible silver lining of it all. In short, even if this is indeed The Weeknd’s last collab, it won’t be the last his fans ever hear of him.

In May during an interview with W Magazine, The Weeknd hinted at nearing a point of drastic evolution within his career where he could soon experiment with eliminating his stage name as we know it.

“I’m going through a cathartic path right now,” The Weeknd, born Abel Tesfaye, said. “It’s getting to a place and a time where I’m getting ready to close the Weeknd chapter. I’ll still make music, maybe as Abel, maybe as The Weeknd. But I still want to kill The Weeknd. And I will. Eventually. I’m definitely trying to shed that skin and be reborn.”

But if there is anything I might add that makes me believe The Weeknd isn’t going anywhere, that one last thing would be cold hard cash—which The Weeknd is making a lot of right now. Earlier this year we reported that The Weeknd’s project The Highlights has reportedly generated nearly $9.2 million and garnered well over 23 million streams this year alone—based on the pay-per-stream (PPS) rate of $0.004. Who walks away from easy money like that? I don’t think the Starboy does!