The Weeknd on the day Kendrick Lamar came over to lay down a verse on Starboy

'He's a genius. He is really a genius.'

The Weeknd gives his one and only interview for new album Starboy on Beats 1 tonight, sitting down with Zane Lowe to talk sobriety, performance anxiety and getting a haircut.

It was recently revealed that one of the few collaborations on the album is with none other than Kendrick Lamar, something The Weeknd wanted to keep secret so as to surprise listeners on their first listen, but had to make plain after it started to look like the track list would leak.

Asked what it was like working with Kendrick on the track, ‘Sidewalks’, he said: “He’s a genius. He is really a genius.

“I don't know exactly the time of day, but he probably came in the afternoon and left late at night.

“He did it there on the spot. He’d walk around. He’d play the record over and over again. I played him songs, the Starboy theme of course, which he incorporated into his verse. He would just walk around. We had food. He’s writing his verse in his head. He would go into his phone, look at it a few and then put it back and start walking around. He then at one point he went into the studio booth and I closed the door and I could hear him yelling his verse in his head.

“He was really committed, you can tell he put his all into. It wasn't just a random Kendrick Lamar verse, it was something special because again, I don’t like to say this all the time, but we’ve known each other for a while and it’s crazy how we started connecting on this record.”

Though you don’t get to hear Kendrick’s verse, ‘Sidewalks’ was teased in a short film The Weeknd posted yesterday called MANIA.

Starboy is out 25 November. The interview will air early Friday morning at 5am GMT and will be repeated again tomorrow at 3pm GMT.