The Return of Frank Ocean

The long-awaited return of Frank Ocean has finally come. Fans have been eagerly waiting for even a little something from Frank Ocean, especially since his last album was in 2016. His last appearance on stage was in 2017 performing at Coachella for his album “Blond”; since then, he has made no comments on any new stuff he is working on. He’s made a few appearances over the years at Met Gala but that’s really it.

Christopher Francis Breaux, born Christopher Edwin Breaux, was born on October 28, 1987. He was born in Long Beach, California, and his parents divorced when he was just 6 years old. He also had a younger brother named Ryan Breaux. Starting his career in 2006 he moved to Los Angeles after Hurricane Katrina so he could focus on his music career. He then changed his stage name to Frank Ocean, inspired by Frank Sinatra and Ocean’s 11. Frank Sinatra is one of Frank Ocean’s favorite artists and Ocean’s 11 is his favorite movie. He then joined the hip-hop collective “Odd Future” with fellow members “Tyler, The Creator” and “Earl Sweatshirt”. On February 16, 2011, he made his first mixtape called “Nostalgia Ultra.” It received good reviews for a mixtape, but it is currently not on Spotify or Apple Music. He is also featured on many of Tyler’s songs, such as “She,” “Window,” and “Where this flower blooms.”

Over the years, he would still perform with Odd Future, while slowly starting to go his own way. In 2012 he released his first studio album called “Channel Orange,” which is probably one of his notable albums. Finally, in 2014, he officially left Odd Future, stating that he left because “He could care less about the spotlight.”, he released his 2nd studio “Blond” It featured songs like “Pink + White,” “Seigfried,” “Nights,” “White Ferrari,” and many more. Blonde is the album where Frank Ocean really beings to shine, it sounds so electronic and different compared to his past songs, with his beat switch on “Nights” and the ending part on “White Ferrari.” Channel Orange and Blond are a little bit similar but have different meanings, which demonstrates Ocean’s continued growth as a songwriter. After his performance at Coachella in 2017, he mysteriously disappeared, making little appearances at festivals or shows. 

Fast forward to 2023, April 16. He returned to Coachella after six years, his last performance before this was in 2017. Of course, people were excited because he was gone for years, waiting for him to make a return. This was officially the return of Frank Ocean. Or so people thought. On the day of the performance, with crowds and crowds of people waiting for him, he showed up an hour late, only got to perform six songs, then had to cut it short because of “curfew.” This, naturally, was met with backlash; fans were not impressed with Ocean returning after so many years and having a mediocre comeback.

 I think it was a good performance and he was grieving over his dead brother who sadly passed away in a car crash in 2020. Disappointed fans attending Coachella were hoping that he would give an ACTUAL performance on week 2, but instead, they were met with further disappointment; Frank Ocean gave sad news that he would in fact not return for week two, with Blink-182 taking his spot in the headlines. Now this is where he started to get a little bit of backlash because people were expecting him

to show up after what happened after week 1 of Coachella. What got people excited was that he hinted at a potential new album but he said that the album “won’t come anytime soon.” Some people were worried that Blond was his last album but this gave them a sense of hope for a new album.

In conclusion, although Frank Ocean disappeared during his prime, he still is one of the most notable artists of our generation.