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Blame Game: The New York Times Directly Delayed Frank Ocean’s Album

The hype surrounding Frank Ocean‘s new album, which we now know to have come as two separate releases – the visual album Endless and the audio, official Channel Orange follow up, Blonde / Blond, reached fever pitch a couple weeks back after the New York Times announced that it would be released that Friday, August 5.

It didn’t come out then, which honestly didn’t come as a big surprise to most. Many fans had long since given up hope that word or rumours of a follow-up would actually amount to anything, so when the visual album, the video for Nikes, pop-up shops and the full album itself all rolled out across three days last weekend, it suddenly felt like ten Christmases all rolled into one.

Along with the news that Blonde will be an Apple Music exclusive for two weeks, The Verge now report that the album was actually supposed to come out on August 5, but that it was allegedly held back as a direct result of the New York Times‘ spilling the beans. The publication had cited its source as a “person with knowledge of the release plans,” and the news went viral, with countless publications (ourselves included) getting their hopes up once more.

The Verge have alleged that, “a report from The New York Times detailing the release caused Ocean and his team to push the project back after they lost the element of surprise, according to a source close to the situation.” While this is not a completely verified claim, it’s possible and indeed likely.

Read more: Breaking down Blond: The contributors, guests, poets & more

Read more: Yes, more physical copies of Frank Ocean’s zine are coming