The Weeknd's "Can't Feel My Face" video is an explicit homage to Michael Jackson. But director Mitch Moore also thinks it's more than a little inspired by a video he worked on for the band Majical Cloudz, even though that clip never saw the light of day.
"About a year ago, I directed a video for Majical Cloudz," Moore wrote on Instagram. "Because of creative differences, it never came out. But the production was large, and many feedback emails were sent out... somebody at the helm of a certain mega popular video must have seen one or more of these unreleased edits."
Moore posted a clip on Instagram comparing frames from his project with frames from "Can't Feel My Face." Watch that above, and revisit the Weeknd's video below. Listen to Majical Cloudz' FADER mix.
Update: Majical Cloudz responded to Moore's allegations on Tuesday afternoon and said that they were without merit.
for the record I didn't accuse The Weeknd of stealing our video lol, this is laughable. Our original video idea was very generic
— ㎡ΛJ¡¢∀⌠ ₡Ł✪υδΖ (@majicalcloudz) August 25, 2015
The person who made that foolish claim was a video director we briefly worked on something with before going our separate ways
— ㎡ΛJ¡¢∀⌠ ₡Ł✪υδΖ (@majicalcloudz) August 25, 2015
for the record I wouldn't even care at all if there was any resemblance, but there isn't and our idea was unoriginal anyway
— ㎡ΛJ¡¢∀⌠ ₡Ł✪υδΖ (@majicalcloudz) August 25, 2015
A video director we didn't particularly enjoy working with for a brief period in 2013 doesn't speak for the band! haha
— ㎡ΛJ¡¢∀⌠ ₡Ł✪υδΖ (@majicalcloudz) August 25, 2015
omg there's a scandalous article about this up on pitchfork, and I haven't even seen the Weeknd's video... shaking my head
— ㎡ΛJ¡¢∀⌠ ₡Ł✪υδΖ (@majicalcloudz) August 25, 2015
For Any Concerned Journalists: I have made no accusations to anyone whatsoever, the director of an aborted project is dragging me into this
— ㎡ΛJ¡¢∀⌠ ₡Ł✪υδΖ (@majicalcloudz) August 25, 2015
