The Weeknd’s ‘Tell Your Friends’ Video is a Gritty Desert Drama

The Weeknd's Beauty Behind the Madness album is set to release this Friday, but he's gifted fans with the video for "Tell Your Friends" today.

The Kanye West-produced track is a slick ode to, well, The Weeknd. "I'm that n---a with the hair / Singing 'bout popping pills, f---ing bitches, living life so trill," he sings. Fair enough, that's an accurate description. "Tell Your Friends" is a champion's anthem, displaying Abel Tesfaye's defiant started-from-the-bottom confidence, as opposed to the emo crooning he excels at on album track "Prisoner" with Lana Del Rey.

The clip takes a darker turn than one might expect, given the lyrics — no models and no bottles here — and it opens with the singer burying a body in the desert. Soon it's apparent that the body is singing through its tarp confines, and it's actually The Weekend burying himself. Things only get more violent from there, but it all looks so cinematic by the dusk's light. Watch the video above.

Beauty Behind The Madness is due for Friday August 28. Check out the track list, and listen to an album preview below:

1. "Real Life"
2. "Losers" feat. Labrinth
3. "Tell Your Friends"
4. "Often"
5. "The Hills"
6. "Acquainted"
7. "Can’t Feel My Face"
8. "Shameless"
9. "Earned It"
10. "In The Night"
11. "As You Are"
12. "Dark Times" feat. Ed Sheeran
13. "Prisoner" feat. Lana Del Rey
14. "Angel"