The ultimate finesse. A superstar freed. And the behind-the-scenes backlash that followed.
It's been just over three years since Frank Ocean took a break from med school to drop off two gems before fading back into his desired element of obscurity, but the impact of Frank Ocean's brief return is still felt today.
From Ocean solidifying his ranking as one of this generation's top artists, to him finessing a music industry that is built on doing just that to its artists, to him permanently changing the relationship between streaming services and creators, his second album has proven to be one of the most impactful projects of all-time.
The Finesse Known as Endless
On August 1st, 2016, a livestream went up on Ocean's website featuring essentially nothing. The world watched in Twitter shifts for over 100 hours as Frank Ocean displayed the ultimate HGTV streaming special of a staircase being put together, but after days of waiting a cover of Aaliyah's "At Your Best(You Are Love) rung out and set the stage for the return of Frank Ocean along with the finesse of Def Jam Records.
Due to the difficulty in streaming a 45-minute video album, the project has been widely cast aside by many and failed to generate even a quarter million in profit, despite being the first project released from Ocean since his Grammy-winning debut album Channel ORANGE. The highly anticipated return was ineligible to chart, and, thanks to no individual songs being able to be streamed or sold, no real data could even be gathered.
The low and mostly nonexistent numbers were exactly what Frank wanted, as Endless served as a clear financial middle finger and the last project necessary to complete his contract with Def Jam, setting the stage for his true follow-up album, Blonde.
However, before Blonde can be revisited, it's worth noting just how good the relatively forgotten Endless is. Tracks like "UNITY", "Rushes", "Rushes To", and "Wither" all deserve a place next to some of Ocean's top songs. Even the shorter tracks like, "Alabama" and "Comme Des Garçons", have proven timeless, despite featuring just one verse and chorus. Endless may be overlooked or, in many cases unknown, due to the project being labeled as nothing more than a contract loophole, but the gripping experimental video album serves as a testament to the brilliance of Frank Ocean, throwaway or not.
Blonde and Boys Don't Cry
Endless, Frank was free to be the independent artist he desired to be, and he wasted no time doing it. Just one day after the release of Endless came the first project released under Frank's label Boys Don't Cry, Blonde.
The project would go on to chart number one and sale more than ten times the amount of Endless, serving as a full almost arthritic-inducing extension of that aforementioned middle finger to Def Jam. Aside from the financial winnings, Blonde was widely-touted as an instant classic.
The darker sounding instrumentation and gloomy love subject matter of Blonde was a complete pivot from the pop elements that won Ocean a Grammy with Channel ORANGE. It's a concept that longtime friend Tyler the Creator summarizes perfectly in an Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe.
Blonde doesn't follow one specific arc; instead, the project addresses a realistic number of hard-hitting subjects of love. Frank touches on complex love concepts like losing youth on "Ivy", "Skyline To" and "Pink+White", the chaos and simplistic duality of being single on "Solo", the act of negatively losing yourself in love on "Self Control" and "Nights", the breakup process on "White Ferrari", "Close To You", "Seigfried", and the acceptance of the end on "Godspeed".
One of the best writers in all of music, Ocean displayed his ability throughout Blonde, delivering a barrage of touching lyrics. Somehow, the youthful references on "Ivy" makes me miss a youth I still very much have at just 19-years-old. The opening verse on "Godspeed" perfectly captures the feeling of moving on from a lover, as Frank pairs lines like "I will always love you" with "I let go of my claim on you". While Ocean is the main writer on the project, it is worth noting the musical geniuses that assisted in the process like Pharrell, Kanye West and Tyler the Creator.
The Impact of Blonde
The release of Blonde exclusively on Apple Music marked the beginning of the end of artists' distributing albums strictly through one platform. Thanks to Ocean publicly embarrassing Def Jam and costing them millions, major label heads stripped their artists of such opportunity.
Following the release of Blonde on Apple Music in $20 million deal, Universal Music Group, the central music division of subsidiaries like Def Jam, CEO made the announcement that "Universal is done with streaming exclusives on one platform and on a global basis". A$AP Rocky summarized the atmosphere surrounding artists post-Blonde in an interview with Angie Martinez.
Albeit short, the return of Frank Ocean in 2016 was one of the most impactful moments in recent music history. From a business standpoint, it displayed the power of an artist's independence, showed that the music industry isn't indestructible, and served as the end to albums being exclusive to certain platforms.
From a musical standpoint, Frank gave the world a championed classic in Blonde and an overlooked gem in Endless.