Where is Frank?

After Frank Ocean, born Christopher Francis Breaux in 1987, released his debut album, channel: ORANGE, in 2012, many people who weren’t attached to the R&B singer at first grew to love his unique sound and music.

Ocean was born in Long Beach, but his family relocated to New Orleans, where he spent his childhood. Frank started making music when he lived there, working odd jobs to get money for studio time. He started attending the University of New Orleans in 2005. However, when Hurricane Katrina hit, his college facility and recording studio was damaged. He moved to Los Angeles, initially for six weeks, to continue making music, but he stayed longer to build connections and continue developing his career. After the move, he started writing songs for Beyonce, Justin Bieber, John Legend, and more, but he did not want to write songs for other people forever. In 2009, he joined the infamous hip hop group Odd Future (full name Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All), lead by Tyler the Creator. He also signed a contract with Def Jam during this time.

In 2011, Ocean released Nostalgia: Ultra, his first mixtape, via his Tumblr account for free download after Def Jam refused to release the EP. This mixtape led to collaborations with Jay-Z and Kanye West on their critically acclaimed collaboration album, titled Watch the Throne. He also appeared on Tyler the Creator’s first studio album, Goblin. This was around the time when Odd Future started getting big.

In 2012, Ocean released the single, Thinkin Bout You, which was the lead single for his album, channel: ORANGE. The single was certified platinum, selling more than 1 million units. He released the anticipated album three months later.

The album was critically acclaimed by many, and it was recognized as one of the best albums of the year. He received six Grammy nominations, the prize for Best Urban Contemporary Album, and opened many people’s eyes to this emerging new star.

A year after Channel Orange was released, Ocean announced that he was working on his second studio album. In April 2014, a year after he announced that he started getting in the studio, he said that he was almost done with his album. In April 2015, he announced that his album would be released in July, as well as a publication, both titled Boys Don’t Cry.

July came and went, and no signs of Frank Ocean were evident; no one heard anything.

It got to the point where Frank Ocean fans thought that the album was never going to release. The internet was in shambles.

The anticipation for this album was more than enough. Even people like Adele have expressed their impatience with the album, who sat down with Jimmy Fallon in November, saying that she was “just f*cking waiting for Frank f*cking Ocean to come out with his album. It’s taking so f*cking long.”

2015 came and went. Still no Frank.

However, on February 28, many music blogs and magazines suspected that Ocean had a super-exclusive VIP listening party in New York, where several snippets of the party were posted on to SoundCloud and Instagram. These clips were up for only a short time before they were removed, leading many to believe that they were, in fact, true Frank Ocean clips.

Ocean was also recently featured on Kanye West’s Tidal (and PirateBay) exclusive album, The Life of Pablo.

We can’t tell if the album is going to release tomorrow or if it’s just never going to release, but our fingers stay crossed as Ocean, hopefully, gets closer and closer to the official release of Boys Don’t Cry.