Frank Ocean Teases He’s Back in the Studio
Frank Ocean shared a sneak peek of himself in the studio Monday (July 29), and that hopefully means one thing: new music (soon).
In a photo shared on his Instagram Story, Ocean is playing the guitar in a black Vivienne Westwood hoodie and cargo shorts. This isn’t the only recent hint that new Frank Ocean music could be on the horizon. Earlier this month, his frequent collaborator Michael Uzowuru told The New York Times that the two have been working together in Miami.
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Added Ocean to the NYT: “Me and Michael’s careers exist post hip-hop — that genre, that culture, informs both of us greatly, but his appetite has grown; his vocabulary, musically, has grown so much over the time that I’ve known him.” Uzowuru, who met Ocean back in the Odd Future days, worked on both of the enigmatic star’s 2016 albums, Endless and Blonde, as well as his 2019 singles “Chanel” and “In My Room.”
He’s also someone Ocean has ocassionally turned to in times of need, such as when he has writer’s block. “Michael is a friend I talk to about where I’m at artistically very often,” he also told NYT, adding that he called him when he was trying to figure out his Blonde standout track “Nights.” “I had all these ways of describing what the album was missing. Ultimately, I had to write it, I had to do it. But it did start in conversation with [Michael].”
Ocean headlined the first weekend of Coachella last year, but dropped out of the second weekend due to an ankle injury at on-site rehearsals the week before the festival, which led to production changes following doctors’ advice. His Coachella performance marked his first live U.S. performance in six years. And it’s been eight years since the 36-year-old artist last released an album, Blonde, which reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
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