The Storyteller Behind The Weeknd’s Defining Aesthetic
La Mar Taylor in his hometown of Toronto/Courtesy of COMPLEX
How La Mar Taylor became Billboard Canada’s first 40 Under 40 Visionary
La Mar Taylor is the quiet force behind one of the most influential musical worlds of the past decade and now Billboard Canada names him its inaugural 40 Under 40 Visionary. As the co founder of XO Records and the long standing creative partner of The Weeknd he helped build a global empire that reshaped how music looks, feels and communicates. At the same time he has been nurturing the next wave of Canadian talent through HXOUSE the creative incubator he launched to give young artists the kind of access and community he never had.
Everything began in a city that often felt too small for big dreams and in a friendship built inside the corridors of Toronto, where Taylor and Abel Tesfaye first realised that their ambition did not match the limits around them. Their breakthrough collaboration on House of Balloons marked the start of a new generation of R&B and a new era of music storytelling. It was raw and cinematic with the confidence of two young artists who believed their perspective deserved to exist on the world stage and who shaped a sound and visual identity that would influence the entire decade.
As the years unfolded Taylor became the architect behind XO’s identity transforming from photographer to creative director to co founder of a label that now moves across music film, fashion and live performance with the precision of a cultural empire. His work on The Weeknd’s After Hours Til Dawn Tour pushed stadium production into a different dimension turning every night into an immersive narrative that felt closer to futurist theatre than a traditional concert. During the sixth sold out show at Toronto’s Rogers Centre surrounded by family and childhood friends under the glow of the CN Tower he felt the weight and wonder of everything he had built sharpen into one moment. He spoke about the pride of seeing kids from Scarborough fill a fifty thousand seat stadium six nights in a row proving to the city that possibility is not something handed down from above but something constructed from within.
Courtesy of XO Records
Beyond the lights and the record breaking momentum Taylor channelled his vision into something larger than XO with the creation of HXOUSE in Toronto. It became the kind of space he wished had existed when he and Abel were coming up an ecosystem for young artists who often have talent but no access. HXOUSE gives designers, filmmakers, photographers and technologists a physical and emotional home to grow in a city that once offered promise without infrastructure. Taylor often reflects on how there was no real creative community in Toronto during his formative years and HXOUSE is his answer to that absence. It is his way of keeping the door open so others can rise faster, stand taller and push further than he ever could at the beginning.
HXOUSE founders La Mar Taylor and Ahmed Ismail in conversation at Microsoft. Photo: Notoriouslense
Being honoured as Billboard Canada’s first 40 Under 40 Visionary marks a milestone but Taylor treats it more as a midpoint than a peak. The Weeknd continues expanding into film and fashion, XO keeps evolving its world, building HXOUSE keeps shaping the future of Canadian creativity and Taylor remains in the centre of all of it with the same hunger he carried at seventeen. His legacy is not only the visuals that shaped a global superstar or the tours that redefined live performance. It lives in the creative ecosystem he builds, in the belief he plants in the next generation and in the reminder that extraordinary culture often starts with the people who never waited for permission.