User:Uoit lyons/sandbox

(September-October 2014)
On June 26, 2014 The Weeknd, announced his third major headline tour which will be taking the artist to four different stops including Los Angeles, California, San Francisco, California, Brooklyn, New York, and Toronto, Ontario. The North America tour included performances from Top Dawg Entertainment rapper Schoolboy Q as well as RnB singer/songwritter Jhene Aiko. The tour is set to end in San Francisco's Bill Graham Civic Auditorium October 10, 2014 and the overall reviews thus far of the young RnB phenomenon remained fairly positive. Noisey, of Vice (magazine) wrote a review of the young vocalist Toronto show, saying the dark, mysterious singer captivated fans keeping them wanting more throughout the shows long stormy night, convincing all audience that The Weeknd fan base is very much serious about him.

(Background)
Kiss Land is The Weeknd's second LP after Trilogy, however, it is the artist debut Studio album which was sold to the public on September 10, 2013 in North America. Although Trilogy was a compilation and remastered version of his three previous mix tapes; House of Balloons, Thursday, and Echoes of Silence, Kissland was the first album sold to the public that was made up of completely new material. The album has one feature from fellow Toronto, Ontario Native Drake on the single Live For, and every song from the album was produced and or co produced by The Weeknd, DannyBoyStyles & DaHeala. Other production efforts include producers Harry Fraud and Silkky Johnson. The album includes six singles that managed to get raido air time, the singles include; Belong to the World, Kiss Land, Pretty, Live For, Wanderlust, and Love in the sky. The album had several songs that were promoted through music videos which included singles such as; Kiss Land, Love in the Sky, Pretty, and Belong to the World.

Inspiration
In an interview given by The Weeknd to Complex (magazine) the young artist explained that the album Kiss Land was heavily inspired by a cinema and filmmakers such as; John Carpenter, David Cronenberg, and Ridley Scott. In addition, The Weeknd goes on to say that Kiss Land represents the tour life he has experienced and all that comes with it.

Controversy
After releasing the music video for the song Belong to the World the The Weeknd was under attack by portishead member and producer Geoff Barrow. The single samples portishead drum's from their hit song Machine Gun. Barrow went to write a series of tweets on Twitter criticizing the artist saying: ''"I think it’s a load of bollox." ''"When someone asks to sample you and you refuse they should have the respect as a fellow artist to not use it." ''"We usually give sample clearance to tunes we like. its got fuck all to do with money! As most of them are hiphop artist that are skint." "I don't wanna get paid... I just want my beat back." The Weeknd and his camp went on to release a statement stating that their was no sample of Portishead's Machine Gun and no warrant of infringement could be made. No further reports have been made about the issue.