What's Happening this Week: Where's Frank? Not Waldo

This past week, a strange video that was streaming live popped up and you will never guess who was the star of the recording. Frank. Ocean. THE Frank Ocean. Now, I’m sure everyone remembers when he released a photo of him holding what everyone thought would be his new album “Boys Don’t Cry” and he captioned it: “I got two versions. I got twooo versions…”. Then it was 2015 and that picture was all I needed to see. Frank was finally about to make my heart feel whole again in July. And then July approached and there was no album released. [Lol, Frank. Wyd?] The anticipation for what I knew what was going to be a time for me to appreciate his art was stripped away from me. 2016 came around, and yet another picture was released from Frank. It was a time card with several dates that had already surpassed. The last date read: July 2016, and I freaked out when I saw that. 2016 was already knee deep with some pretty amazing music from some of my favorite artists and now Frank was going to grace us with his talent after 4 years, again!

Once again, the month of July rolled around and before I knew it, it was the END of July. The following week, which was the first week of August, is when the mysterious live steam video appeared. It was a black and white recording of what looked to be an open warehouse with tables pieces of wood on a cutting board. All of a sudden a fuzzy-haired person appeared on screen, and who would’ve guessed, it was Frank. Various instrumental-like songs played throughout the duration of the streaming video and it made me as a viewer feel anxious with speculation that this might be the sound of what he has to offer to us. The designated released date was projected to be August 5th and to my surprise, the album never came.

Social media went ballistic and I couldn’t contain my feelings. What exactly was going on? Many tweeters began to express their frustration and I had a few outbursts myself. I stopped and reflected on my words and my retweets to come to a realization that: 1. I live on the east coast. Its midnight, August 5th here, but the west coast is 3 hours behind and 2. Some people really don’t deserve this man’s right now? No. I spoke with a friend, who just so happens to be an amazing writer, an inspiration of mine, and Frank Ocean enthusiast like myself, about how this generation is hungry for whatever will make the best review and the best tweets but fail to appreciate the actual time spent on the product. Art is something that expresses oneself through all forms whether it be music, dance, painting, etc. and it takes time to create. As an artist, you hope that individuals will be willing to understand but some just won’t. As an artist myself, I learned over the years that it is ok if some people don’t understand your craft, but do know that SOME will. As long as you know what your art means, self-validation is all you really need. So, does Frank owe any of y’all an album right now? Nope. But when he is ready to release it, I will be the first in line to marinate in the sound waves of his voice.

#social #week #socialmedia