Frank Ocean - Life and Album Analysis

Frank Ocean 

Franks Early Life:

Frank Ocean, real name Christopher Edwin Breaux, was born on October 28, 1987, in Long Beach, California.  His father was a singer and keyboardist while his mother was a local residential contractor.  Frank spent most of his adolescence growing up in the New Orleans area.  Which later comes back and inspires parts of his modern music.  Frank grew up close to his brother and grandfather as well, sadly his grandfather was taken into the drug world and left his life in Frank's adolescent years, this experience inspired Frank Ocean's popular song off Channel Orange “Crack Rock.”  His kid brother tragically passed in a car accident in 2020 which took a major toll on Frank's mental health and music career.  Many people speculated that after his most recent album”Blond” Frank will not be returning to music however his recent activeness on social media led superfans like myself to have hope for new music.  After attending John Eret High School Frank continued his academic career at the University of New Orleans however, after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005  destroying both his home and personal recording studio Frank had to make a change.  He transferred to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette until he later dropped out to focus on his music career.

Oceans Starting Music Career:

Moving to California and working multiple jobs to stay afloat, Ocean began his career in the music industry, ghostwriting songs for popular artists like Justin Bieber and Beyonce.  Enjoying the anonymity and revenue stream Frank stuck with this path for a little but slowly began carving out his own space in the music industry.  He wasn’t fulfilled, and he felt that he hadn't dropped out of college and had moved away from home just to ghostwrite. He adopted “Frank” from Frank Sinatra and “Ocean” from the popular movie Ocean's Eleven.  Christopher Breaux transformed into Frank Ocean.  

Working closely and signing with Def Jam Record Frank began to solidify himself as a standalone artist in the industry however he felt out of place at Def Jam and felt as if he was neglected.  To combat this he released Nostalgia Ultra for free on his own accord.  This mixtape became Frank's claim to fame and gained traction from major news sites like Rolling Stone Magazine.  With Nostalgia Ultra finding such success and Frank's relations with Def Jam stronger than ever he found himself helping out global superstars Kanye West and Jay-Z with two songs on the artist's collaboration album “Watch the Throne.”  Frank had helping vocals and production credits on the songs “No Church in the Wild” and “Made in America.”  

Anticipating another EP release, Frank and Def Jam record released one of Frank's most popular tracks to date, “Novacane” in 2011.  However, before this drop, Frank was seen in popular artist Tyler the Creator's music video for his hit single “She.”  Following this, his first live performance was with the upcoming music group Odd Future with popular artists like Tyler the Creator, Domo Genesis, and Earl Sweatshirt in Coachella Valley.  Frank stuck with this group for the East Coast tour following Coachella.  As the group slowly ran its course, Frank and other members soon dropped out, Frank separating in 2015.

Channel Orange Era:

Frank Ocean continued to ride his wave of success in 2012 when he released his new single Pyramids.  This single Stapled a new type of flare in Frank's discography.   With nostalgia ULTRA feels like more typical R&B tracks, Pyramids stamped Frank's legacy and signature flair forever.  With this 9-minute and 52-second song, Frank portrays a wide variety of emotions and tells a beautiful love story that is compared two times throughout the track. The beginning of the track takes place in Ancient Egypt and references Cleopatra as his lover and Samson the opposition who takes Cleopatra from Frank's arms.  Lines like “I found you laying' down with Samson and his full head of hair” solidify how Frank Ocean is portraying his love story and the tragedy that it is.  Starting at the 4:27 timestamp and continuing until 4:51, Frank implements an ethereal and psychedelic interlude.  This interlude is adored by many fans however the real reasoning for this is to represent the passage of time between Ancient Egypt, and the modern-day storyline.  The underlying themes of both parts of this song stay the same; however Frank portrays the story differently to better fit the 21st century. narrative.  Here we enter this world in a motel room, with context clues we can infer as the listener that it's located in Las Vegas, Nevada. “Then your six-inch heels, catch her

She's headed to the pyramid.  “She’s working at the pyramid tonight.”  With these lines, it is shown that Frank is involving himself with a sex worker, a woman who is wearing 6-inch heels, and lipstick, and is working at the “Pyramid.”  The pyramid is the Grand Luxor Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip.  As Frank's soothing vocals ensue we begin to get hit with a list of oxymorons.  “Top floor motel suite, twisting my cigars Floor model TV with the VCR.  Got rubies in my damn chain, Whip ain't got no gas tank, but it still got wood grain.  Got your girl working for me, hit the strip and my bills paid, that keeps my bills paid”  Lets run through this list together before we tie it back.  “Top-floor motel suite”  is an oxymoron because usually a top-floor suite in Las Vegas is very nice, however, it is tarnished by it being in a motel.  “Twist in my cigars”  Cigars are known to be more pricey and reserved for the upper classes who can afford to smoke them regularly. However, cheaper cigars that are made more poorly tend to have a twist at the end. This is because the tobacco inside isn't high enough quality and the process of capping a cigar regularly is too costly.  “Floor model TV with the VCR” shows once again the perfect contrast between the duality between luxury items in a cost effective way.

I could go one forever about the perfections of this song and how it ties into his life and experiences; however, that will have to wait for next time. I’m planning on continuing this Frank Ocean analysis at a later date, starting off with the masterclass album that is “Blond”. In that article, I will dive into each song individually, how it has made a impact on my life personally, and my key takeaways from the project.

Thank you for reading.