“A Lesser Man” by The Weeknd
Concurrent with the release of “A Lesser Man” on 19 June 2023 was the airing of the first season of The Idol, an HBO television series which is more or less being helmed by The Weeknd. For example, besides being one of its executive producers, Tesfaye also serves as one of the two acting leads.
And of course, being the A-list musician that he is, Abel is heavily involved in the series’ soundtrack.
Furthermore, being that The Idol is in large part based on the music industry, the audio side of the program is being taken very seriously.
For instance, by the looks of things this first season will be five episodes in total, and each episode comes complete with its own EP through Republic Records and The Weeknd’s label, XO Records.
On 19 June 2023, The Idol Episode 3 (Music from the HBO Series) was released, a day after the said episode itself (which is titled “Daybreak”) premiered. And this particular EP, which consists of three songs, is credited as a collaborative effort between The Weeknd and Moses Sumney.
Who is Moses Sumney?
Moses Sumney is an American singer who, although not being born in his parents’ homeland of Ghana, did spend a notable part of his childhood there.
Thus far he has dropped a couple of studio albums, “Aromanticism” (2017) and “Græ” (2020), both through indie label Jagjaguwar. And relatedly, his debut LP did win a Libera Award in 2019 in the category of “Best Outlier Record”.
The Team behind “A Lesser Man”
Besides XO and Republic, UMG also backed the release of this track. It was produced by Mike Dean, another musician deeply involved in The Idol. Dean and The Weeknd, who happen to be regular collaborators, also wrote this song, with its third writer being Sam Levinson, the director of The Idol.
Lyrics of “A Lesser Man”
First of all, let it be stated that the second verse of this song is, all things considered, far from being easily understandable. But as for the track’s thesis sentiment, it centers on the vocalist revealing to the world at large that he’s “a lesser man”.
As more clearly premised in the first verse, what that means is that he’s always been what may be considered a badass. However, this isn’t something you’re likely to gather simply by looking at him or studying his surface disposition.
And that’s exactly the point, i.e. the singer presenting himself as sort of a Bruce Banner if you will, i.e. someone you “don’t want to see… get mad”. And to reiterate, that’s because he is admittedly “a lesser man”, i.e. not the type of upstanding individual you may perceive him to be. Or put otherwise, if pushed he would likely opt to take the lower road.
And with The Idol in mind, the pre-chorus especially implies that the narrator is compelled to make such statements towards his business associates, presumably those within the music industry.
With that said, going back to the second verse it does seem that the vocalist is referring to being a celebrity or music star, though again, what exactly is being put forth in that segment isn’t really clear.
