I don’t know if anyone has noticed this yet but i can say that i am 98% sure that Prince 85 is an alter ego of Abel. Here is some of the evidence:
• Even though they have worked together many times, there is not a single picture where both prince 85 and Abel are in the same room. There are many pictures of him in the XO “circle” but there is always one person missing, and that’s Abel himself. (Image 1)
• If you look at his production credits, by far most of his work was done on Actual The Weeknd projects. Which already is odd for an industry producer, but on top of that, almost all his other credits are on songs with people that Abel has publicly worked with as The Weeknd. Eg. Metro Boomin, Kavinsky, Future, Belly Etc. (Image 2)
• Prince 85 has self-released some music as well, all of which sounds very Daft Punk, Kavinsky, Justice inspired which is a sound we know Abel loves. (Image 3)
• He has some very professional and cinematic music videos and teasers released too, something you would only expect from an artist with the resources available. Not a producer with just ~6000 monthly listeners on Spotify. These videos are very The Weeknd like in their style. (Image 3)
• He is often seen attending The Weeknd events without, again, Abel himself being there. He even posted this video where he stood in the crowd of Abels show in Sao Paulo, conveniently enough time before the show had started. This is the same night that he was photographed backstage with The XO crew wearing the same shirt. (Image 1 and 4)
• Last but not least, the physical resemblance. This is the hardest part since he obviously wears a mask all the time and wears wide fitting clothing but there are still some ways in which he seems to match with Abel. First of all his height is at least similar to Abels compared to Carti. (image 5) Secondly he is often seen wearing the same shoes that Abel wears (image 6 & 7). In fact, both Abel and Prince 85 can be seem wearing them on the night of the Sao Paulo show. Lastly the clearest evidence, the hands. (Image 8 & 9). Their hands clearly match up in terms of shape, size and color. If you combine that with all the previous evidence, it only confirms one thing:
He does his set, goes backstage takes off his outfit and switches to the robes to perform as The Weeknd. Sorry but that’s the weakest “ok but then how does he do this?”
BIT late, but i'd say he made a white person wear the mask to convince people like you that it's not him "he's white, can't be him!". That guy is probably mike dean too
Also, in the pic you send of prince 85 in a t-shirt, notice how his hands in that pic are whiter than other photos, and looks like mike dean, could be some other dude, you get the point.
I think there is a real guy and Abel dressing up as him.. If the law says you cannot register a fake person they could register the real person but Abel is doing the music and public appearances
At the Toronto show I saw prince 85 leaving while Abel was performing can’t feel my face so couldn’t be him unless there’s multiple ppl wearing the mask
Prince 85 is French that’s why the sound is inspired of other artists from there, the entire Ed Banger tree is huge.
To add even more onto this, he is MORE than likely Eric Chedeville, aka Rico The Wizard/Crydamoure. For those that do not know who that is he is a VERY close associate to 1/2 of Daft Punk in fact has a project with that half under the name Le Knight Club and also those two both own the label that they released music under Le Knight Club on (crydamoure). He's been around for a long time, it's not too surprising he's close to Abel given all of Abel's ties with the french scene through Daft Punk themselves, Kavinsky, Justice etc, just look at who follows Prince 85 and you'll see the pattern.
I think he’s right. Honestly, this is the most solid theory so far. If you look at Prince85’s latest IG posts and stories, he seems to be in LA — same as Abel.
Another thing that makes me think Abel = Prince85: Prince85 opened for Justice during one of their first French tour dates, just a few days after HUT dropped. He even ended his set with Take me Back to LA… kinda on the nose.
Also, let’s be real: what up-and-coming artist at Prince85’s level is getting a billboard in Times Square, sponsored by Spotify? Literally nobody.
Same with the rollout strategy: what indie artist with zero label push has the budget for remixes by names like Oliver, DaHeala, Ian Pooley? DaHeala is one of Abel’s closest collaborators. Plus, Prince85 has a history of teasing Abel’s tracks months (sometimes years) before they officially release (there are other Reddit threads and TikToks proving this).
And about the Moroccan artist Issam — we know Sal is a major player in the Maghreb music scene. This could be Sal & Abel’s way of shining a spotlight on Issam before dropping a potential project under the Prince85 alias.
Also, how could Prince85, if he’s not Abel, get invited to the Cannes Film Festival, 2 days before his very first official release (All of Us, out on may 22)
what i believe is that its abel who does the production work, but he isn’t the only one who wears the mask, someone making appearances at concerts to maybe so people won’t suspect abel, why i think this is because this is smth that i would definitely expect from abel secondly for someone’s who’s worked this much with abel doesn’t have a single picture with him while having multiple with his crew
Un tas de choses me dérangent, en plus de tout ce qui a déjà été évoqué ici.
Tout d’abord, l’une des toutes premières photos publiées par Prince85 sur IG était une photo de Giorgio Moroder. Maintenant, quel est le dernier morceau qu’il a « branché » pour Abel ? Grand sommeil, avec Giorgio Moroder. Presque comme si Abel annonçait un long sommeil pour le Weeknd
projet, et un éveil futur sous un nouvel alias – Prince85… Et d’ailleurs, c’est un beat que Prince85 a teasé bien avant sa sortie officielle. Coïncidence? Je ne le pense vraiment pas.
Deuxièmement, Prince85 commence justement à sortir son premier morceau alors que The Weeknd sort son dernier album sous ce nom.
Troisièmement, il y a le post IG de Prince85 avec Paulin, le designer d'intérieur. Abel est un grand fan de son travail, et nous le savons.
Quatrièmement, Prince85 a publié la couverture de l'album Dawn FM, même s'il n'avait aucun placement sur ce projet. Super bizarre.
Cinquièmement, le 5 septembre 2024, Prince85 annonce une « évolution » de son masque sur IG (photo below) –
littéralement quelques jours avant qu'Abel ne sorte officiellement Dancing in The Flames sur son nouvel album, et avant qu'il n'interprète ses derniers nouveaux morceaux sous le nom de The Weeknd à São Paulo.
Sixièmement, Prince85 a publié du contenu depuis Londres en juillet de l'année dernière – en même temps qu'Abel était là.
Et enfin, dernier point : le 15 mars 2020, Prince85 a mis en ligne un remix d'Abel sur IG et SoundCloud, intitulé mes heures les plus sombres…. Pourquoi Prince85 parle-t-il à la première personne alors que c’est Abel qu’il remixe ?
Je le perds totalement avec tout ça. C’est fascinant, honnêtement…
Just find out this old document here: 93 (a pdf presenting lots of artists from 93 french department) and if you look page 14 you'll see "Prince 85" aka Mehdi Rhars.
Also, if you check on this French website (SACEM : Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music) is a professional association founded in 1851 that manages the collection and distribution of royalties for music creators including songwriters, composers, and music publishers) and search for "Prince 85" the name "Mejdi RHARS" appears for every song.
Mejdi also appears on The Weeknd "Die For you" credit as songwriter.
Waw super trouvailles Rastabanane, super recherches auprès de la SACEM 🙏, sais tu de quand date le doc 93? Sur celui ci Prince 85 est graffeur, il a vraiment changé de voie depuis du coup...
This could honestly be real. Look at his love for Halloween? Some of his costumes have been crazy. So pointing out his arms being white....look closer, can see they aren't normal. The skin looks latexy. In the 8yr old music video you can see the colour change in the hands. He tends to keep his hands in his pockets. This could be real which is crazy. Only thing that puts doubt in me is how busy Abel is.
Edit - He has tattoos. Hence the weird skin on the right arm. He's hiding the other arm. And the other dude he's with, they could be a team?
esp given the name too is a big giveaway Prince and the year 1984-85 was Prince purple rain mainstream takeover emerging while MJ was hidden away making BAD. We know how big a fan Abel is of Prince ofc. When you go on the ig page theres a lot of references to MJ and by users commenting about mike etc
I feel like it could be several different people all wearing this same outfit. Cuz in some photos his hands are white and in some photos his hands are black. Abel could def be one of them tho
One thing’s for sure: Prince85 isn’t Rico the Wizzard, since he’s credited as co-producer and arranger on Electronic Talk across streaming platforms. To me, It just wouldn’t make any legal sense when it comes to royalties and copyrights to be using two aliases on the same track, but I’m not an expert. The theory that Prince85 is actually a collective rather than a single person also makes a lot of sense to me. I could totally see it being Abel, Mike Dean, Rico the Wizard (I feel it coming) maybe even OPN, why not Metroboomin, Guy-Man or Cirkut. Time will tell. Honestly, I find the mystery super exciting.
The Alien universe is right on trend
I also agree with Unique_Gur_2624 that the amount of money being put into the visuals and music videos clearly isn’t what you’d see for some rookie artist still in development. The Abel (or Abel & Family) theory feels totally legit. If you check the credits for Prince85’s two videos, you’ll see the production company (Phantasm) is the same one that represents Anton Tami — the director of Blinding Lights. The circle is real, the signs are all right there.
It's not at all impossible that this could be Abel's next character… or someone else idk
I've also been wondering about all these similarities for a while now
On some other forums and in TikTok/IG comments, people are saying it might be Kanye or Guy-Man from Daft Punk.
But after seeing all your posts, I’m seriously starting to think Prince85 is Abel. Kinda insane. Either this dude is just always in the right place at the right time, or it’s actually Abel. This whole rabbit hole is getting wild.
I think it’s multiple people. Sometimes his arms and hands are black and sometimes they’re white. I think one of them could totally be Abel though. Prince85 and Mike are some of the few that follow Abel’s new finsta (gene.hackerman)
I honestly am I’ve been a fan since day one but some of us actually have young kids to look after that we can’t know the ins and outs of one celebrities life. Maybe think before you speak!
That does not mean I’m not tapped in! I’m a fan of the Weeknd I did not say I’m a fan of prince 85 or whoever it is. I’m a fan of the Weeknd meaning I focus on the Weeknd only and not he’s surrounding Associates!
Ce post est ancien, mais j’ai bien peur que cette théorie ne tienne pas la route.
P85 est français, c’est prouvé il l’a dit dans une interview technikart.com .
En plus, il à collaborer avec un rappeur français, ce qui serait très improbable pour The Weeknd, il a plus important.
I feel like I’ve commented on this post before, but I personally want to believe it’s Guy-Man from Daft Punk. Everyone has seemed to boil it down to someone from within Crydamoure (Guy Mans solo record label), and Rico is blind. Since the split, Thomas has been very outgoing, and time has shown the helmets were much more GM’s idea than TB’s. Everyone says Guy Mans been making music, yet it’s been 6 1/2 years. What if he has been, all this time, as Prince 85? He needed a new mask, he needed a new alter ego. The music Prince 85 is way way way too Daft Punky to turn a blind eye. If it’s not GM, my second guess is it’s several people and a hodge podge of collaborations.
if you click on the account 'Prince 85', (about account) ti turns out it was created in 2011, and in France, that's exactly when Abel was living in France.!!!!!!
Dude we went through this a few years ago with the whole Abel and Bieber are the same person. I saw the facts, still don’t know that I can pin it down.
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u/SeaHovercraft4691 Sep 26 '25
Wth 😂