Frank ocean

Having been shrouded in mystery up to and long after its final release earlier in the year, Frank Ocean’s Blonde has been a frustratingly incomplete picture as far as its creation until now. Having previously only had a list of 40+ ‘contributors’ to the record published in the Boys Don’t Cry magazine that came with physical copies of the album when it was first released, the recent physical sales of the album have finally included liner notes which have provided some clarity as to what and where some of those artists, including names like Kanye West, Yung Lean, David Bowie, The Beatles, Beyonce and others, helped create one of the albums of the year.

A user on Reddit snapped a photo of his CD and transcribed the credits in full as well. The songwriting credits had been released by the ASCAP earlier in the year but there were a number of omissions and errors it seems if these most recent credits indicate correctly.

Among the revelations are the aforementioned Beyonce chipped in background vocals for Pink + White. Amber Coffman of The Dirty Projectors is listed as providing additional vocals on lead single Nikes, Kanye is credited as a writer on White Ferrari and James Blake’s name is conspicuously absent, which contradicts previous credits listing him as a writer, though his name is attached to Solo, Solo (Reprise) and Godspeed for production, arrangement and keyboards. Yung Lean was in fact a featured vocalist on Godspeed and not Self Control as previously suggested as well.

Producer Jon Brion‘s name is also plastered all over the record, a man you may recognise from his production duties on a little known record called Late Registration back in 2005 among so many other amazing film soundtracks and records.

At least there finally appears to be some undisputed clarity here, but with Ocean nothing is ever certain (except that he’s a deity). Check out the full credits below:

Image: Chart Attack

Music news has been set ablaze overnight with the sudden reveal that Frank Ocean is coming out of his cave to perform at several international music festivals across 2017.

So far, the Blonde artist has been confirmed to perform at Hangout in Alabama (May 19 – 21), Sasquatch! in Washington (May 26-28), NorthSide in Denmark (June 9) and Lovebox in the UK (July 14-15), with more to be announced, including a rumoured headline appearance at new festival Panorama, organised by Coachella promoters Goldenvoice.

It’s extremely unlikely that Frank Ocean will visit Australia during his comeback shows. The one and only time he’s ever performed in Australia was in 2013, when he performed one of five shows – including a headline slot at Splendour in the Grass – before cancelling the remainder of the tour. He was eventually replaced by pre-Pure Heroine, pre-Grammy winning Lorde at Splendour. His remaining sideshow dates were never rescheduled.

But before we all start booking flights to the lands of Trump and Brexit (#fuckyou2016), don’t get too excited. Frank Ocean, the world’s most beloved recluse, is no stranger to cancelling shows and entire tours. As well as the aforementioned Australian cancellation, he cancelled festival and tour dates in Canada after Splendour. Just last year he pulled out of FYF Fest at the eleventh hour (and was replaced by Kanye West). Back in 2012 he finished a Norway concert early and then cancelled an entire European tour, including opening slots for Coldplay and several festival appearances. All the way back in 2011, before even releasing Channel Orange, he cancelled a New York show after performing a soundcheck at the venue.

Honestly? It would be more surprising if he actually did show up.

Frank Ocean – ‘Nikes’ from DoBeDo Productions on Vimeo.

Image: Rolling Stone

Frank Ocean has delivered his first interview since releasing Endless and Blond/e earlier this year. Speaking with the New York Times, the interview provides a little insight into the four year gap between albums, why he chose to not submit his music for the Grammy Awards, and the difference between being a famous person and having famous music.

The interview appears to have taken place on a drive in Ocean’s Tesla Model X, one of two cars he keeps at the hotel at which he currently lives in California.

He speaks about how he felt increasingly isolated and alienated after the release of Channel Orange, which ultimately led to living a fiercely private life away from the public eye. “Within my circle, there was a lot of places I thought I could turn that I felt like I couldn’t turn to anymore.”

He chose to move to London with almost no possessions or friends. During his time there, he lived in an apartment stripped of its furnishings, an environment he similarly created in many record studios, including the famous Abbey Road. Why did he flee to the UK? “If your house is on fire, you need to get out of the house.”

Although he has chosen to not submit his music for the 2017 Grammy Awards, he speaks about how performing at the Grammys in 2013 felt like a rite of passage. “Me saying yes to those [Grammy and VMAs participation] had a lot to do with how those things made me feel before I was actually in the business. And just wanting to be rubbing shoulders with those people and being seen at those places. I still was reluctant and sort of skeptical of those things because I questioned whether or not I was prepared.”

Later in the interview he talks more about his decision to not enter his albums for Grammy consideration, although the Grammys actually reached out to his team. “It just doesn’t seem to be representing very well for people who come from where I come from, and hold down what I hold down,” he says. Frankly this is a fairly confusing explanation, considering that, should he feels black artists are underrepresented, wouldn’t it make more sense then, to be the black artist who has a chance of winning?

“I think the infrastructure of the awarding system and the nomination system and screening system is dated,” he continued.

Wanting to hide, he even says that he’s jealous of Daft Punk for being able to wear helmets in public, although he’s “gotten used to being Frank Ocean.”

“[People] literally would yell out of an Uber, ‘Frank, where the album?'”

For at least a full year of the time between albums, Ocean had writer’s block, which ended after reconnecting with an old friend.

Interestingly, he notes that he wrote Channel Orange in just two weeks, and put a lot more thought into Blonde, including having 50 versions of White Ferrari, and considering the many voices and perspectives heard throughout the album, so exemplified by stylising the various voices with pitch shifted tones.

The perfectionism doesn’t stop here, though. Ocean said that during the recording of Blonde, he would carry all music, and all backups, in a backpack. Thank god he didn’t get robbed, right? “I’d rather the plane goes down in flames and the drives go down with me than somebody put out a weird posthumous release.”

He then speaks to the Times about his troubled relationship with Def Jam, about how Blonde was a one-off deal with Apple Music, and that in the time between his records, he changed management, publicist, lawyer, and almost all other professionals in his team.

“It started to weigh on me that I was responsible for the moves that had made me successful, but I wasn’t reaping the lion’s share of the profits, and that was problematic for me.”

So where has he been in the months since its release? Everywhere, it seems, possibly including Australia. “China, Japan, Oceania, France, just around. Casual,” he says.

Other than travelling, he’s also been busy keeping track of numbers. He comes across a little more clinical than some might expect from the reclusive, artistic genius who has written one of the most emotionally powerful records of the year. “I know exactly what the numbers are. I need to know,” he says, speaking about record sales. “I need to know how many records I’ve sold, how many album equivalents from streaming, which territories are playing my music more than others, because it helps me in conversations about where we’re gonna be playing shows, or where I might open a retail location, like a pop-up store or something.”

From this, we can not only draw that he’s pretty meticulous when it comes to number-crunching, but that he is in fact planning to perform live at some point. Australia, listen up – you better stream the hell outta this album so that he comes here and performs.

He admittedly comes across a little snide in some aspects of the interview, but when you’re that talented, I suppose you’re allowed. Toward the end he talks about how he’s considering doing a visual arts degree. His mother reportedly said to him, “Oh, you don’t have time to do that,” to which he replied, “Mom, I’m rich!” referencing the “luxury of choice” afforded to the wealthy and successful.

Finally, he’s working on new music. Whether or not this new music will come out in four years or sooner is anyone’s guess, but there’s more Frank ocean music in the world, and that’s good enough news for us.

Read the full interview here.

Image: New York Times

Frank Ocean’s new albums Endless and Blond/e are officially ineligible for the 2017 Grammy Awards. This is because the albums have missed the submission deadline for nominee consideration, although they were released more than a month before the September 30 cutoff.

Although a fairly significant move overall, considering how highly regarded the Grammy Awards are for musicians, we have no doubt that he has his reasons and we’re totally fine with whatever those reasons are. Already a two-time Grammy winner for his incredible 2012 record Channel ORANGE, perhaps he just didn’t feel the need to put Blond/e up there on parade. He hasn’t done a single interview or any media since, or for a long time before, the release (except for a possible Zane Lowe interview which reportedly happened in Tokyo, and has yet to surface), and by and large he seems to have continued to lay low since it came out in August.

Yes, the Grammys are revered, but they’re hardly the be all and end all of what makes music good or remembered or acclaimed. Considering recent antics including the broken relationship with his record label, his obvious lack of regard for album and tour cycles, and his total absence from the public eye, he clearly doesn’t give too much of a fuck about these things. So why should we?

Besides, if Frank was nominated this year then there’d be too much competition between he and Chance the Rapper, the obvious standout contender, what with his literal game-changing campaign to make mixtapes and free releases eligible for nominations, not to mention his kind of strange, yet endearing advertisements asking the Grammys for consideration.

Last week we also found a version of Frank’s opening single Nikes pitched down to approximately his organic voice – check that out right here and watch the stunning video below.

Image: Boys Don’t Cry

Frank Ocean‘s new album Blonde is now available for streaming on Spotify. Apple Music held it as an exclusive since its release on August 20, but it has now been shared around for users of other streaming services to enjoy.

Although the period of exclusivity is over, interestingly enough it is not on Tidal yet. This is really interesting, and may have something to do with Ocean’s beef with Def Jam. Tidal owner Jay Z was Def Jam’s president in the early 2000s, before leaving to found Roc Nation, also under the Universal Music umbrella. Although Jay’s wife Beyonce features on the record, it looks like Tidal subscribers will have to stick to Spotify or Apple for a bit longer.

Blonde has also caused a remarkable stir in terms of the relationship between record labels, artists and streaming services. It was reported (but still not entirely confirmed or denied) that Ocean left his label Def Jam in the one day between the release of visual album Endless, and Blonde. It has also since been reported that Universal Music Group are no longer offering exclusive streaming rights to any services, with Blonde’s Apple exclusivity being their very last. Which is fair enough from the user’s perspective.

The album immediately went platinum, debuting at no. 1 on the Billboard charts, with 12 tracks charting on the Billboard debuting on the Hot R&B Songs chart, and five on the Hot 100.

Stream this tremendous album below: