Frank Ocean Essay

1. Jawad Ghishan
English 214
Remix Essay Writing
FALL 2019
Image by Huffpost.com
Who is Frank Ocean
Monday mornings I would get ready to leave the house by 6:30 so that I could get to
school on time and park my car near those of my friends. The only problem with wanting to
leave that early is that I would always have to wait on my younger sister to finish getting ready. I
would be downstairs eating breakfast yelling at her saying “Jessica if you don’t hurry up you’re
going to have to take the bus to school! I will leave without you!” this threat normally did the job
and she would only make me wait in my car for a few minutes. But although we argued about
what time we would leave for school, we shared a bond with the type of music we listened to on
our way to school.
My sister introduced me to Frank Ocean’s music in high school, when she would take
over the cars auxiliary cord on the way to school and we would listen to his songs almost
everyday. She was very intrigued by his music, Frank Ocean's uplifting songs fusing soul, rap,
and r&b created the perfect positive energy needed to start the day on a good note. Driving

2. windy backroads, cruising with the windows down, using the heater on full blast toward our feet
to fight the cold air from the windows, and calm relaxing music that made you feel and think
about the lyrics you are listening too. How I started the day had a big impact on my attitude and
mood during the rest of the day, so when my sister showed me Frank Ocean songs and I started
listening to more of his music. I then realized how powerful Frank Ocean's impact is on society
and how he stands out in today's music industry.
SCHOLARLY ARTICLES 1 & 2
How Frank Ocean Quietly Ruled the Decade​ & ​Frank Ocean Interview
In the Wall Street Journal article “How Frank Ocean Quietly Ruled the Decade”
published by Neil Shah, it describes the way Frank Ocean surprised the music industry by “The
boundary-breaking singer-songwriter that avoids social media, weaves R&B with other kinds of
music and has become a sensation despite flouting music-industry conventions”.
A short documentary video “BBC sound of 2012” on Youtube is one of Frank Ocean’s
only video interviews he has ever done to this day. Ocean describes to BBC in the interview
some insight to personal questions about his life and career that paved the path to being a
musical icon.

3. SCHOLARLY RESOURCE 1 - Source for Writing Practice #7
Spotify Podcast. Cuchna, C.. (2018, May 15). Season 3, Episode 1: A Man of Art and Mystery
https://open.spotify.com/show/2b025hq3gJ17tQdxS3aV43?s
i=qGy0G0kuSMajXMWJ6F29dA
Christopher Edwin Breaux, a multidimensional individual and poetic genius also known
as Frank Ocean, he is a genre defining, award-winning artist who leaves the public questioning
and wanting more. Spotify podcast host Cole Chucna (2018) explains Frank Ocean as
“something of an anomaly in today’s world of 24-hour quantity over quality social over sharing.
Frank curates his ethos with an eye on forever. His pursuits are pure, his output intentional, his
art [is] a revivor of warmth, vulnerability, nostalgia, empathy, and the genuine feeling of
someone striving towards a more thoughtful and elegant existence” (Spotify 7:10-7:31).
Who is Frank Ocean? Complex Magazine.
https://www.complex.com/music/2011/03/who-is-frank-ocean/
He was born on October 28th, 1987 in Long Beach, California. In 1992, he moved to
New Orleans, Louisiana with his mother, Katonya. When Frank was 6 years-old, his Father left.
When he was interviewed by GQ magazine in 2012, he said, “​I haven’t seen him since, and for a
while, you know, we were not middle-class. We were poor, but my mom never accepted that. She
worked hard to become a residential contractor – got her masters with honors at the University
of New Orleans. I used to go to every class with her​” (Wallace, 2012, pp. 8)

4. SCHOLARLY RESOURCE 2
Wallace, A. (2012, November). Frank Ocean: On Channel Orange, Meeting Odd Future, and His
Tumblr Letter. ​GQ Magazine.
https://www.gq.com/story/frank-ocean-interview-gq-december-2012
During his teenage years, his interest in music began to flourish and he decided that he
wanted to make music his career. He acquired small jobs to pay for studio time. He found a small
studio in New Orleans and began to record his music there. When he was 18 years-old he 1
enrolled in the University of New Orleans. In August of 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New
Orleans and demolished the city. At the time, Frank was
presented with a challenge. What was his next move? He
wanted to continue making music, but the studio was
destroyed by flood waters. In the interview, he was asked,
“​You stayed in New Orleans after Katrina, then drove
cross-country with just $1,110 in your pocket. What made you
move to Los Angeles?​” (Wallace, 2012, pp. 10). Frank
explained how he had been putting demos together over time,
and he wanted to record them properly at a studio in LA. He said,
“I was only supposed to be there for six weeks. I don’t feel like I ever made a conscious decision
to stay six years. You just kind of roll”​ (Wallace, 2012, pp. 10).
By 2008, Frank had the opportunity to become a songwriter and received credits for artist
like Brandy, John Legend and Justin Bieber. By the end of 2009, Frank was signed to Def Jam
1

5. Records as a solo artist. Unfortunately, Frank felt like it was not a celebratory accomplishment
because he already felt that he was not being prioritized as an artist. In an interview with
Complex Magazine he said,
“​outside of the contract and the paperwork, there was no relationship. I never walked through
the building. I never had the opportunity to build with them. All I knew was that I was an artist,
and I didn’t have a relationship with my label”​ (Baker, 2011, pp. 13).
SCHOLARLY RESOURCE 3
The Free Black Artist: Frank Ocean Through a Decolonial Lens
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14769948.2019.1554329?journalCode=yblt20
In the article, ​The Free Black Artist: Frank Ocean Through a Decolonial Lens​, author
Benjamin Lewellyn-Taylor focuses on the “degradation of Black artists in the music industry as
a form of neocolonialism wrought by largely white-owned parent companies” (Taylor, 2019, p.
52).​ ​Taylor examines the unexamined as he elaborates on the neocolonization in the GRAMMY
Awards. He argues that “​in the corporate hip hop monopoly, controlled by White executives,
Black cultural expressions are exploited, commodified, stolen, misunderstood, or ignored, but
they are never really valued​” (Taylor, 2019, p. 57). An example of this would be Def Jam’s
perception and treatment of Frank before his release of ​Nostalgia Ultra. ​Frank understood the
concept of neocolonialism in the music industry, which is what motivated him to create and
release the project independently. It denied his label the right to make profit off of him or his
work. Taylor (2019) uses neocolonialism as a term in his paper “​to signify the ways by which the
music industry exploits the labor of Black artists, producers, and other industry professionals
while subjugating them to second-class status that deprives Black communities of reaping the
primary benefits of their work​” (p. 54).

6. CULTURAL ARTIFACT 1
Why Frank Ocean’s Letter Still Matters
On July 10, 2012, Frank Ocean released his debut studio album Channel Orange. He
wrote the songs on the album within 2-3 weeks and perfected the production within 9 months.
However, 6 days before the big release, Ocean broke the internet with a text edit document
posted to his Tumblr page. It was a beautifully written two paragraph journal entry about his first
love. This post would soon become known as the “Open Letter” where Frank addresses his
sexuality and intimacy with another man.
Image by TheFader.com

7. A few sentences into the letter, Ocean (2012) writes:
“​4 summers ago I met somebody, I was 19 years old. He was too. We spent that summer, and the
summer after, together. Everyday almost. And on the days we were together, time would glide.
Most of the day I’d see him, and his smile. I’d hear his conversation and his silence... until it was
time to sleep. Sleep I would often share with him. By the time I realized I was in love, it was
malignant. It was hopeless, there was no escaping, no negotiation with the feeling. No choice. It
was my first love, it changed my life.”
During an interview with GQ, Frank was questioned about why he chose to come out the
way he did. He said that one of the journalists wrote a piece about the male pronouns on a few of
the songs after the listening party Def Jam hosted for Channel Orange. He said, “​Fuck it. Talk
about it. Don’t talk about it --- talk about this. No more mystery. Through with that​” (Wallace,
2012, pp. 22). Before posting the letter, Frank felt like he had the weight of the world on his
chest. After he posted the letter he said, “​it was like all the frequency just clicked to a change in
my head. All the receptors were now receiving a different signal, and I was happy. I hadn’t been
happy in so long​” (Wallace, 2012, pp. 23). Deciding to post this just days before the release of
his debut album was a parallel act of liberation and independence. Rather than having people
listen to his album and guess who it was about, Ocean took matters into his own hands and wrote
his own story. It was no coincidence that it the “Open Letter” was made public on the fourth of
July; Independence Day. Frank received love and support from his fans and colleagues in the
industry, but he made it very clear that he did not want to label his sexual orientation. The GQ
interviewer asked him, “So do you consider yourself bisexual?” At first, he answered
respectfully by saying, “​you can move to the next question.​” Then he became triggered with the
question being asked and said:
“​As a writer, as a creator, I’m giving you my experiences. But just take what I give you. You
ain’t got to pry beyond that. I’m giving you what I feel like you can feel. The other shit, you can’t
feel. You can’t feel. You can’t feel a box. You can’t feel a label. Don’t get caught up in that shit.

8. There’s so much something in life. Don’t get caught up in the nothing. That shit is nothing, you
know? It’s nothing. Vanish the fear.” (Wallace, 2012, pp. 25).
CONCLUSION
Writing this research paper on Frank Ocean has allowed me to dive deeper into the sea of
what I thought I knew about him, the music industry, and the world we live in. I feel as if I was
swimming underwater with my eyes open, blinded to what was truly happening and the impact he
was creating. I’ve been listening to him since the release of ​Nostalgia Ultra ​and every project that
has followed, but I was too young to understand the complexity of his work. After writing this
paper, it felt like I was just handed the goggles needed to see clearly through the sea of content he
has created. The limitations I encountered while writing this paper were scope and relevance.
Each song has the possibility to be broken down into a paper of their own. In conclusion, I believe
his music symbolizes a type of authenticity that creates a transcendent world of emotional and
spiritual depth that has the ability to impact listeners through his dense and carefully articulated
lyrics.