In 2012 he was already talking about wanting to write a book. He just has other ventures he wants to do contactmusic.com/frank-ocean/news/is-frank-ocean-retiring-from-music-to-write-a-book_3423745

Last time we heard from mayday?

Bro it’s been more than 7 years now

he’s doing other s*** absolutely but clearly something is not happening right in terms of his artistic output

not saying he feels boxed in but blonde is that good and is universally regarded as that good that everything you make will be compared to something that is borderline insurmountable

i love those songs

wasn’t as big on the og versions of dear April and cayendo tho

Channel Orange had literally the exact amount of praise, though, and Frank was able to come back big with Blonde. Just because it’s been 7 years, doesn’t mean he is psyching himself out “how will I ever top Blonde,” or at least not to me. He’s just living life, man. Literally all of his interviews, at least to me, revolve around so much more than music. It’s just not where his head is atm. That Coachella concert said it all

He just did a show flipping the script on all his old material, doing heaps of remixes and changes, whatever new music he’s working on isn’t ready but it shows he’s still thinking

The album version of thinking bout you is so ass

There’s a difference

Ya I know

Can you imagine that 4 years between Chanel Orange and Blonde. It’s been ten years soon

F*** up

That wait was somehow more painful than this decade long wait between Blonde & this next one. 2012-2016 was so bad I think it’s cause Frank fed us so damn good in 2016, plus the singles he dropped in 2017; his output was a s*** ton then

blonde definitely is in a different echelon in terms of how it’s viewed compared to channel orange

channel orange is a classic blonde is a masterpiece at least in how they have been received and how they’ve impacted music

unfortunately based on what the people who worked with said that stuff is more likely to be earlier/scrapped versions of the songs rather than edits specially made for the show

I’m sure he’s working on music I’m sure he’s been making music since 2016 but clearly things haven’t yet come to a coherent project for him yet

my fav version

outro

it is insane

HIGHLY DISAGREE. CO was just as highly praised than Blonde & I think CO is better personally, but to each their own

the 2018/19/20 singles were the "album" or body of work that he was gradually releasing, he didn't get to release all of them but as he made clear in that little magazine thing that was his thing then, and he's since come back around to making an album

in the 3 years since then Rosalia said she spent a lot time working on music with Frank, Omar Apollo, Noah Goldstein etc. in New York, so he has been working, but he's not in debt to his past work or to public perception so he creates and does what he wants in his own time, be it music or jewellery or the DJ sets, which is the best place to be in

D'angelo post Voodoo gave us Black Messiah which I think is a few levels above Brown Sugar and edged out only slightly by Voodoo

I note the above because I do think there are some (slight) similarities in that space between Blonde/LP5 and Voodoo/BM in that there always seems to be some extraneous factor that's a major contributor to the reluctancy to return straight away. I don't think the creative well has dried up on any of them during the time (BM demos from 2005 for ex) and they probably go about making music as normal just that we don't hear any of it lol.

Since the time I made this thread 3 years ago (even further back to 2018/19) it always felt like we were on the cusp of getting to hear his latest full body of work until something else pops up then its like another 9 months of nothing