Review: The Weeknd's 'Hurry Up Tomorrow' delivers a potential farewell
Tomorrow has arrived. Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, professionally known as The Weeknd, dropped his sixth studio album, Hurry Up Tomorrow on Friday, closing the book on a generation’s worth of storytelling. A week before the release, he posted an Instagram reel showing each of his music eras. Playing over the video was his 2011 song “Rolling Stone,” a transcendent track in which The Weeknd predicts his career trajectory. Fourteen years later, The Weeknd is a global icon. The album feels like a farewell from start to finish. In the opening line of “Wake Me Up,” the album’s first track, the singer cries out the words “All I have is my legacy” over a sample of the song “Thriller” from his late idol Michael Jackson. This leaves fans to ponder life after Tesfaye retires his The Weeknd persona. The track slowly builds a synth-heavy tension along with what sounds like a heartbeat in the background. The track climaxes with a beat switch, painting shades of his 2022 album Dawn FM. He sings, “Are you real, or are you an illusion? / ‘Cause I fear your love’s my delusion.” The Weeknd appears to be questioning the existence of God, given that exploring the “After Life” was an early-set theme and the title Tesfaye led fans to believe would be the name of the album. The Weeknd has had a way of making the audience feel like they are ascending into a higher dimension. Hurry Up Tomorrow is no different. An operatic experience with seamless transitions between songs, it truly is chilling how well The Weeknd creates flowing transitions. “Baptized In Fear” into “Open Hearts” is the best of them all. The album’s second track, “Cry for Me,” is already on pace to be the most successful song of the album, offering eerie remnants of The Weeknd’s breakthrough 2015 song “The Hills.” The track begs for sympathy over a tantalizing drum, as he shows off his explosive vocals on a powerful chorus. Though “Until We’re Skin & Bones” serves as an instrumental prelude to “Baptized in Fear,” the fourth album track “São Paulo,” featuring Brazilian singer-songwriter Anitta, doesn’t really fit with the storyline of the album or the trilogy. The previously released single’s fast-paced instrumental gives disco or club vibes that seem out of place for an album as somber as Hurry Up Tomorrow. The Weeknd and rapper Future blessed fans with a duet on the 10th track, “Enjoy The Show.” In the track, The Weeknd acknowledges his previous drug abuse and while he’s left that lifestyle behind, he doesn’t mind one last encounter over a Loaded Honey sample. The Weeknd also took a moment to pop his collar and revel in his accomplishments as a high-school dropout in his twelfth track, “I Can’t Wait To Get There.” The track gives a classic 80s, slow-jam R&B vibe. He sings, “High school dropout, chillin’ with academics / And I eviscerate my enemies and piss on they grave, yeah.” The track was fittingly followed by “Timeless” featuring rapper Playboi Carti, an up-beat song boasting of success and the everlasting impact The Weeknd will have on music. Not only did the album cement the legacy of The Weeknd, but also those of producers Mike Dean and Metro Boomin. Dean, known for his synthesizing production and mixing, provides the perfect blend with The Weeknd’s falsetto. “Reflections Laughing,” “Baptized in Fear” and “Enjoy the Show” are prime examples. Within his album, The Weeknd took the liberty of mentioning a few key locations. In “Reflections Laughing,” featuring rapper Travis Scott, The Weeknd included a voice message from artist Chxrry22 referencing Dallas. In the song, she said “My girl told me she saw you in Dallas, said you didn’t look good / How much longer you in Texas for? / Don’t let this industry break you, baby / Don’t let them take you from me.” The Weeknd also highlighted his relationship with the city of Los Angeles. The city, through his ups and downs, has served as a metaphor for The Weeknd’s rise to fame and the emotional distress that came with it. In his 2011 song “The Morning,” he sings, “Order plane tickets / Cali is the mission,” symbolizing his rise in the music industry. His 2020 album After Hours catapulted him into the global superstar he is now, but it also indicated that The Weeknd was over Hollywood. The album dropped in the middle of Covid-19, helped him land a Super Bowl halftime performance and earned him the most streamed record of all-time with his song “Blinding Lights.” In “Take Me Back To LA,” the 15th album track, The Weeknd reflects on his desire to chase a life in LA, once upon a time. His imagery is second to none, detailing his life as a young man growing up in Scarborough. The track serves as a turning point in the album, a final pit-stop before the end. The Weeknd collaborated with another familiar artist, Lana Del Rey for “The Abyss,” a nostalgic track with angelic vocals from the two after asking for God’s mercy in track 17, “Give Me Mercy.” The album’s final and title track is an outcry to be freed from the life he’s chosen, pleading to be saved and begging his mother for forgiveness. “I want heaven, when I die / I wanna change, I want the pain / No more,” he sings in “Hurry Up Tomorrow.” To conclude it all, fans noticed the track seamlessly transitions into the first track of his discography, “High for This.” If this truly is the end for The Weeknd, Tesfaye has etched himself as one of the greatest artists, not only of our generation but of all time. @babyboimatt sports-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu
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- UTA's barbecue spot offers unique experience to introduce culture to studentsTre’s Bar-B-Q doesn't go about things the traditional way. In the back of the Maverick Dining kitchen, executive sous chef Austin Banks and his crew use an indoor smoker to slowly cook 18 to 22 briskets each night for next-day service. “We put in a system in place to where we always want to be ready for the next day,” Banks said. The setup was years in the making for Banks and Maverick Dining. Banks used to bring his own barbecue pit to smoke meat for catering events on campus, he said. After receiving positive feedback and hosting a few sold-out events, the concept slowly baked into a full-fledged campus restaurant in January 2025. Now, Tre’s Bar-B-Q looks to establish a unique experience among Arlington’s ever-growing barbecue scene — teaching student workers how to cut meats, offering vegetarians alternative options like baked potatoes with beans, corn or other toppings and introducing international students to the vast world of barbecue. “It's something that brings all cultures together,” Banks said. For sous-chef David Patton, these conversations with students opened his mind. “I can recall just a quick story of seeing international students and they're asking me questions where I'm like, ‘Oh you don't know what coleslaw is?’” Patton said. “But then having to backtrack and be like, ‘You know what? Maybe this person doesn't know what coleslaw is. They’ve never ever seen it.’” These interactions are what shape Tre’s Bar-B-Q’s flavors as it grows into its space within the university. The restaurant looks to bring barbecue to all parts of campus and do so with care. To do so, they also add something traditional. “We put love,” Banks said. “It's all about the love and what you put into it.”
- Arlington’s 18-year-old blends traditional Texas barbecue with Lebanese flavorsMarc Fadel woke up at 7:40 a.m. on a Thursday. Around noon, he would start prepping for his barbecue food truck’s 5 p.m. Friday opening. Trim the brisket. Make the rubs and sauces. Prep the vegetables. But there was an issue. “I got to UTA so fast,” Fadel said. “I’m running across campus, and I got there, 8:02. Luckily, the professor still let me take the exam.” At 18 years old, Fadel is a construction management freshman at UTA who also runs his business, Habibi Barbecue, on West Arkansas Lane. During the week, he enjoys college life: taking some classes online at Tarrant County College, playing basketball at the Maverick Activities Center and eating Panda Express in the University Center. Starting Wednesday, he begins prepping his barbecue rub for Friday and Saturday openings. On one Saturday, his brisket and ribs sold out within two hours. “Almost 200 pounds of meat — gone,” Fadel said. The food truck, which opened in September, is already on Texas Monthly’s radar. It’s a family affair. His parents, both UTA alumni, help with prep and service. His girlfriend works the counter. Born to Lebanese immigrants, Fadel creates a fusion of traditional Texas barbecue with his favorite flavors from his culture — garlic potatoes, hummus, house-made garlic aioli and tzatziki. As Fadel talked about his food truck, his face beamed with pride as he went through every piece of equipment. It’s that attention to detail that he brings to his barbecue. The bark on his roundly trimmed prime brisket. The pork belly cubes, hand-seasoned one by one. He dry-brines his meat a day in advance, then makes all his rubs and sauces by hand, including a signature bright red sauce made with Big Red. He then smokes the meat with seasoned post oak sourced from Paris, Texas. Fadel credited his drive to high school. As an Arlington Independent School District senior, he juggled culinary competitions, working 40 hours a week as a pitmaster at Tex-Ethiopian restaurant Smoke’N Ash BBQ and filming a TV documentary called “BBQ High” on Max — all while being a student in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. “I put my heart and my soul in this. I love it. Sweat, tears, blood,” he said. “A lot of blood — I cut myself a lot.” Fadel doesn’t talk much about the future for fear of jinxing himself. However, he has thought of a restaurant with a few booths and a nice wood finish in five years. He wants it to be in Pantego, Texas, or Dalworthington Gardens in Arlington. He has been playing “Restaurant Tycoon” on Roblox to prepare for that moment. For now, though, he’s enjoying UTA, which he loves despite it not being his first choice. He’s staying in school in case the barbecue business doesn’t work out as planned. He doesn’t mind being recognized on campus or while shopping for ingredients for his documentary appearance. And on Sundays, Fadel puts on his “body by brisket” shirt and enjoys sleeping in. @DangHLe news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu
- Arlington’s tucked-away gem provides explosive mix of barbecue and Mexican flavorsBarbecue has been a journey for 225° BBQ co-owner Rene Ramirez — literally. Before settling into its current location on East Main Street in east Arlington, 225° BBQ started as a food truck in Dallas in 2018. Then, it bounced to Grand Prairie, Texas, to various parking lots and eventually to where it is now. Although the location didn’t work out for a while, they were asked to come back and now own the spot. But Ramirez has not settled. He starts his day at around 3 a.m., trimming briskets, boiling beans and prepping sides. Some nights, he doesn’t sleep until midnight. “By the second day, third day, I’ve already worked like 40 hours, and then the week just started,” he said. At its current location, where the smoky scene of brisket drifts through the air, a mural of singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez lies on the wall as an intentional effort to represent the marriage of Texas pride and Mexican culture. It’s that culture of identity, history and hustle that led 225° BBQ to become KERA’s best barbecue joint in North Texas, voted by more than 9,000 readers in 2023. The Mexi-cue fuses traditional Texas barbecue with Mexican flavors and draws a loyal following. Ramirez estimated that around 70% of his customers are from word-of-mouth, with some coming religiously around once or twice a week. On the menu, brisket and shrimp tacos both have places alongside barbecue plates. With its meat, 225° BBQ provides something savory, sweet — and plenty of spice — that goes beyond salt and pepper. The rub has barely changed since the start. That meat is smoked with post oak and pecan wood in a two-to-one ratio that Ramirez sources from east Texas. After years of bouncing around, 225° BBQ now has a team of seven or eight. Ramirez never forgets its beginning. It’s the years of practicing barbecue in his backyard, taking orders from roadside pop-ups to the food truck, that have brought him here. It’s that failed brisket at his family cook-off over a decade ago that started it all. His brother, who won that cook-off, is now his business partner. “It’s still my baby at the end of the day,” Ramirez said. “I gotta make sure everything’s right.” Multimedia editor Ronaldo Bolaños contributed to this reporting. @DangHLe news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu
- Arlington’s Hurtado Barbecue finds great success through Mexi-cue flavorsBehind the modest-sized, single-story Hurtado Barbecue restaurant on East Front Street, five 1,000-gallon smokers run simultaneously. It’s around 2:15 p.m. on a recent Friday. Two pitmasters have been in the smoker area trimming and preparing the meat since 4 a.m. Soon they will tag out for the two other pitmasters who will stay past closing when necessary. “There’s no cutting corners, any of that,” pitmaster Chris Kurosky said. The smokers cook the chickens, sausages and briskets — all menu items that brought Hurtado Barbecue from serving at pop-up events to opening three brick-and-mortar locations in two years. Outside of the Arlington location, UTA alumnus Brandon Hurtado and his wife own restaurants in Dallas, Fort Worth and Mansfield. What makes Hurtado’s winning recipe? “The love we put into this,” Kurosky said. Hurtado Barbecue’s Mexi-cue flavor offers unusual fare like quail and sweet, plump bacon burnt ends. Its cultural influence is presented from the dry rubs to sides like street corn with spices and crema. On adventurous days, you can get the tostada, which consists of smoked brisket topped with refried beans, salsa verde, Valentina hot sauce, cotija cheese, cilantro and onions. As Kurosky sliced raw pork belly, his fellow pitmaster Joe Ponce tossed them in the spice blend, which is a Hurtado’s recipe but is packaged from a manufacturer that can produce big volumes. They work in tandem. Kurosky has more than 15 years of barbecue experience. “We all got a good amount of experience. This isn’t the place you come to learn barbecue. It’s a place you better know your barbecue,” he said, laughing. Heat radiates from the smokers. Once summer hits, the smoker area may reach around 135 degrees, Kurosky said. As the time goes on, they are gradually turned off. But as of right now, they need to make enough briskets for customers. No one wants a barbecue place that runs out of briskets, he said. At the front, customers lined up from the counter to outside the door, eager to put in their orders for Hurtado’s bold, sweet and spicy interpretation of Mexi-cue. @DangHLe news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu
- Arlington family turns childhood memories into award-winning barbecue restaurantFasicka Hicks still remembers the aroma of berbere, a classic Ethiopian spice blend, in her mother’s kitchen when she was a child living in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. “I always think back when I work on any of the things that I do in this restaurant because it takes me back to the time that I spent with my mother,” she said. Berbere differs depending on each household, but it has more than a dozen different spices, starting with chili pepper. Fasicka Hicks’ sister prepares the spice blend using their mother’s recipe and ships it to her. The Ethiopian flavors now make up a whole section of the menu at Smoke’N Ash BBQ, Hicks’ restaurant that she co-owns with her husband, Patrick Hicks, on South Cooper Street. Patrick Hicks grew up in Waco, Texas, and barbecue is his life, his wife said. “The skill level on the barbecue was his, and the skill level on the Ethiopian side was mine,” Fasicka Hicks said. “So, we were just doing our own thing, and at the end, where we combined everything, where we can help each other as well.” Depending on the previous night’s preparation, the Hicks’ may arrive at their restaurant as early as 4 a.m. for the day’s work. She’s still hanging on to the Ethiopian recipes. “I have learned so much about my husband now than ever, and I think we understand each other much better now than ever because we’re here together,” she said. Smoke’N Ash BBQ was recently recognized by the Michelin Guide as one of the state’s best restaurants and named a best Texas chef semifinalist for the 2025 James Beard Award. Fasicka Hicks is proud of the recognition, but she won’t grow a big head because of it, she said. “What matters is those people coming in here just waiting for the food,” she said. At Smoke’N Ash BBQ, traditional barbecue flavors blend with Ethiopian spices. The smokiness of the meat is paired with the spiciness of the seasoning. It’s rich, sweet and savory. The restaurant also serves lamb as an alternative to pork. Fasicka Hicks said she never thought there would be a platter that offers both Texas barbecue and Ethiopian dishes. If she were a first-timer, she would have doubted Smoke’N Ash BBQ the same way people have doubted them. But barbecue is about community, and Ethiopian food is about getting together. Smoke’N Ash BBQ is about sharing a meal together and hearing laughter at the table. Them being on the same platter makes sense, she said. @DangHLe news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu
- Arlington’s barbecue restaurant maintains success by embracing traditionsPaul Lovato watched Jambo’s BBQ pitmaster make a chopped brisket sandwich. He started counting. One. Two. Three. Four. Forty-three. The number of steps along the small kitchen to complete the sandwich. That was in 2013, on the day before he officially took over Jambo’s BBQ in Rendon, Texas, from founder and pitbuilder Jamie Geer, Lovato said. The restaurant later had two more locations, but following personal family matters, he now only owns the location on West Division Street, bought in 2016. He pursued the barbecue business after managing fast food restaurants for years. That experience allowed Lovato to redesign the Jambo’s BBQ kitchen to streamline the process, so customers can get their food as quickly as possible. Now, a sandwich takes 10 steps. But Lovato kept many things from Geer’s time as the owner — including the recipe. “Jambo’s is pure Texas barbecue: salt, pepper, garlic,” Lovato said about the brisket. “That’s it.” For pork and turkey, the recipe builds upon the “SPG” seasoning, adding red pepper, chili and turbinado sugar. Lovato also sources green pecan wood locally, which adds sweetness and nuttiness to the meat. Lovato didn’t change much of the building of his restaurant, which was originally opened in 1931. It wasn’t just a dining establishment and tea room. It also housed an illegal casino. Upstairs, he kept the casino table. On Instagram, Lovato has learned to produce Instagram Reels to promote Jambo’s BBQ. He calls himself a natural — most of his clips are filmed in one take. “Most of the time, I don’t even have a script,” he said. He said he’s proud of keeping the place open. He’s proud of working in a historic building. He’s proud of the people who stuck with him through everything, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Lovato stopped there. His eyes went red. “It’s just a pride of when you put some food in front of people and see their eyes light up and it makes them happy. That’s what I enjoy,” he said. @DangHLe news-editor.shorthorn@uta.edu
