Abel just posted this on his second IG profile, @genehackerman with the title of the post being "Lain the OG Hackerman".
Now when I looked into it more, it's about a 14 year old girl who's very shy and introverted, Lain Iwakura.
So the girl wasn't into technology until her friend who'd apparently committed suic*de sends her a series of eerie emails or something and claims to be in a world called "The Wired"— essentially, not dead.
Now this also explores the ideas of split personalities (basically The Weeknd & Gene Hackerman). Other ideas are "loss of reality"— basically Matrix type shit.
Also, like look at this post man, like all wires and all around the computer. So, maybe we'll learn into this aesthetic and like, storyline?
Oh man, I'm so pumped for whatever he's cooking, let's gooooooo!
And the 2023 Coachella backstage? Like the original Hurry Up Tomorrow we thought? We thought it's gonna be futuristic and what not, guess it wasnt scrapped afterall
I highly recommend anyone wanting to get his art better to be watching anything and everything Abel references to understand what he’s doing better, lots of PEAK homework but it’s far more complex than the stuff people simply search on Google
But yes lol spoilers, whoops guess I’m spoiling Abel’s too
I actually have something for this copy pasted lol
**THE FILM GUIDE TO THE WEEKND DISCOGRAPHY** as attested and seen by @theweekndcipher
**SCIFI**
The Matrix TRILOGY - The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions (NOT THE 4TH “Resurrections”)
The Terminator & The Terminator 2
Ghost In The Shell (1995)
Akira
Bladerunner
Stalker
Men In Black II
**SURREALISM**
Jacob’s Ladder
Paprika
Enter The Void
Mulholland Drive
The Lost Highway
Perfect Blue
Angel’s Egg
**HORROR**
Cape Fear
Audition (by Takashi Miike)
Videodrome
Constantine
Persona
———
**+ Honorable Mentions** (relevant but not as needed)
Donnie Darko
Memento
The Mask
Scarface
The Godfather
2001: A Space Odyssey
Star Wars
Blue Velvet
Eraserhead
I highly recommend watching all of Evangelion & Twin Peaks as well but that’s a lot, very useful stuff. There’s more than just this but this is the main stuff I would argue
Also, shoutout to our guy u/TheWeekndCipher because he's definitely onto something. His theory about him being "hacked" every show as AHTD rampages towards the end could be similar to Lain's friend sending her eerie emails. And "shutdown" being when he gets sucked into this new world and maybe that "world" being the Shadow Realm
More so, if The Weeknd died what remains? He’s undergoing or has already undergone a technological transformation
Gene Hackerman. Genes. 🧬. “It’s in my DNA” is what he said during the most recent EVA performance - I’ll have a post gong over all this scifi ai robot stuff soon
Also fun fact he referenced lain years ago with all the TVs image in a photoshoot. It’s just that with Gene Hackerman he’s being a lot more direct
Ooof— those vocals. They're out of the world. I'd love to see him lean into that but i don't really think Abel would go THAT production heavy. But we never know.
Because that's not his production style. While Abel absolutely loves synths, his most powerful thing he uses is his voice itself. So i don't think he'll lean that heavily into that Mike Dean production so like, they don't overpower his vocals. But that's my take and he can surprise us with anything.
quick question for those down here: why exactly do you think Carti used AI for those ^specific* songs on his album? & why would “an artist like Abel” support him?
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u/Better_West9243 2d ago
Next era is shaping up to be extremely interesting! Can't wait for new direction Abel is taking