A few weeks ago I expressed my feelings on R&B music. It's rich and illustrious history, its ebbs and flows and its unfortunate demise. And then at the end of my whole shpeel I predicted that R. Kelly's "Write Me Back" would be R&B's great redemption song. That if the genre were to have a great Jesus-like resurrection than Mr. Twelve-Play himself, would be its defibrillator. Well...while R.'s latest was indeed everything I predicted to be, a rich lush trip through the R&B history books; a full retrospective of R&B spanning the last 50 years of the genre with tracks that lent an ear to everything from doo-wop to Jackie Wilson, James Brown's funky-soul to steppin' groove similar to TP-2. But unfortunately, it looks like relieving oneself on a 16 year old (allegedly) really does kill your street cred with today's youth. However, and maybe ironically, what the man who spent the last couple of years Trapped In The Closet couldn't do; very well may have been by the young man, who recently came out of one.
Frank Ocean's debut album "channel ORANGE" was released to iTunes at midnight on Tuesday July 10 (a week early from its initial release date and still the date for the physical version of July 17) following his very first television performance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Beyond a hauntingly beautiful performance so rich in its simplicity; and the second single from the album ("Bad Religion"), Frank, with some help from the Roots, may have introduced to the true face of the next generation of R&B.
Unlike R. Kelly's "Write Me Back" which speaks toward Don Cornelius' Soul Train, Ocean's Def Jam debut "channels" Terrance & Rocsi's 106 & Park; yet does so in a way that generates its own lane completely separate from the Chris Browns, Ushers and Ne-Yos that one might try to compare him to at first glance. "channel ORANGE" reminds the listener that it's not just a two-letter acronym, but that R&B actually has a meaning; that it actually stands for something. That being rhythm & BLUES!
It's D'Angelo's "Voodoo" without the misogynistic undertones. Maxwell's "BLACKsummer's Night" on a well laced joint. Each track flows and fits together perfectly. And yet, each song carries a personality strong enough to stand on its own merits without needing its predecessor or successor to validate its purpose.
While iTunes lists the album as "POP", "ORANGE" is Shrek-like in its layers. A mash-up of jazz, pop, soul, hip-hop and R&B in its youth, running through a city of flashing phosphorescent lights at 3 AM while freely rolling on the purest Molly imaginable. "channel ORANGE" is the bastard baby brother of Prince, A Tribe Called Quest and Tony Toni Tone. Conceived on a alcohol fueled night Mama and Daddy decided to celebrate the youngest of his elder brothers finally flying from the nest for college. Over the course of 18 tracks, a 24 year old, recently out bi-sexual young man, explores and explains the depths of love, loss, lust and longing with more honesty and realism than I, his professional peers or any of R&B's elder statesmen have been able to in years.
Frank's slowed, yet not screwed, vocal style keep the songs driven by drum and bass break beats and simplified repetitive synth pads different from the "easy-Mac" rendition of "club bangers" released by some of his Pop&B contemporary counter parts. Between the grounded vocal melodies, effortlessly blending in with the bright bouncing synths of songs like "Thinkin' Bout You" and "Pyramid" an aurally visual Jackson Pollack effect is created. I found myself closing my eyes midway through these tracks only to see a mosh pit of colors clashing and collaborating on a unifying canvas to create a clear, even if only momentarily, bit of beauty of a seemingly chaotic mess. The electronic jazz piano driven "Sweet Life" and "Crack Rock" hint at influence of early Musiq Soulchild, but with a sense of futilistic frustration that only exist in youth. "Super Rich Kids", which has one of the few features on the album and the only feature with one of Ocean's OFWGKTA cohorts (the elusive Earl Sweatshirt) may very well be the anthem for a generation growing up admiring the likes of the Kardashians, reality television superstars and Gossip Girl. An anti-storybook tale of the pains that come along with given all the material things a youth could want with out the intangibles that come from a complete family/parental structure.
Sidenote: I haven't seen a crew use each other's projects to set up the next man this well since Wu-Tang. Odd Future begot Tyler, who begot Frank who (be)got me ready for this Earl Sweatshirt record whenever it drops
John Mayer's understated guitar riffs on "White", become far more breathtaking as a minimalistic transition between tracks, than any savant-like jazz guitar shredder lick he could've laid down, if he really wanted to. And even Andre 3000 shows up on one of the albums standouts "Pink Matter" laying down a verse that makes you secretly deep down HATE 3 stacks (no poetic prose here, his verse is just so damn good that you become pissed that he's still out here pushing razors instead of making music). Dre's verse is like a lyrical spirit guide. He forces you to voluntarily follow him to the edge of a cliff (you think you're in his lyrical shadow by choice, when realistically you're tugging on his cape, like a little kid begging to be taken with him...and he knows it) and just when you start to get into the depth of his word play, he seems to abruptly cut off his verse mid-bar. As if, now that he's gotten you to the ledge, he immaculately varnished wings and flew off said precipice leaving your feet planted firmly in the ground, watching him disappear into the horizon leaving you with no means to follow, regardless of how much you internally beg him to come back and help you get to where he's going. (ok I lied about the flowery prose; but seriously his verse is SICK!)
"Monks" sounds the most similar to the beautifully crafted Grand Theft Audio that was his mixtape "Nostalgia, ultra". Ocean's version of a dance party anthem comes with a vocal melody that feels like it was pulled off a lost demo for Ryan Leslie's "Transition" album. While at the same time the production matches that of N.E.R.D. "Fly or Die" era Pharrell; all the while carrying a lyrical weight all Frank's own; one filled with an arrogance and brashness based in a deep rooted sense of insecurity.
The 9+ minute opus, "Pyramid", somehow evenly plays out the duality of man's fantasy without seeming trite. In the first half he details the desire for a Cleopatra; invoking the oft-used analogy of a man's mate being his queen, while not actually spelling this out, and in fact hinting that he very well may want one that can control his "empire" for him. While on the back end of the very same track, he seamlessly twists and turns his romantic conquest and political equal into the epitome of his personal sexual goddess (read: hot ass stripper) in a track that I can guarantee will be played in the Champagne Room of EVERY strip club in America.
(courtesy of frankocean.net)
But, possibly the biggest and stand-out tracks on the album are "Forest Gump" and the aforementioned "Bad Religion". Songs whose "controversial" nature would've easily overshadowed the greatness of this piece of art, prior to Ocean's impassioned and heart-felt letter announcing his truth to the World, and perhaps more importantly the hip-hop (read: black) community now have the ability to become spring boards, for conversation, understanding and hopefully not just tolerance but true and honest acceptance of the LGBT community. Especially given Ocean's debut on Fallon on Tuesday night. We were able to watch this young man go through the full gambit of emotions as he paced slightly around the stage, as if he fully understood and felt the weight of the moment he was in. Refusing to hide behind a stationary mic stand (which would've been easy to do with a ballad like "Bad Religion"); we watch has he fidgeted with his arms and hands, treating his mic the way Digger Phelps treats a felt-tipped highlighter. We saw in his face a full gambit of emotion from nervous, to frightened, to reassured, to triumphant, to relieved as he crooned the words "I could never make him love me" to a National televised audience. Just as the song put his emotions toward not being on the requited side of unrequited love; Frank put himself on display to be judged not just as an artist, but as a man and role model; and in doing so exhibited a bravery seen by only the rarest of humans. He allows these two songs to delve deeper than the sex of its characters and into their truths. His ability to describe the feeling of being the scratched and scuffed side of Two-Face's double-headed coin that is "love" speaks beyond sexual orientation, race or age and instead to the genuine pain of being the only character in a fairy tale romance. His lyrical content, in "Bad Religion" especially, speaks beyond sex(uality) into the deeper notions of want. The want, to be loved. The want, to be desired. The want, to be seen as both an emotional God and physical whore. Simultaneously. Without fear or judgement for choosing to embrace either. He's allowing us to gain a first hand experience into a life and lifestyle we all know, yet refuse to acknowledge as real; and for this he should be commended.
I don't know what this means for his career. We could be seeing his "Songs In the Key of Life" or we could've just been given "The Miseducation of Frank Ocean"; only he, God, and maybe Tyler the Creator, know the answer. But I do know one thing. "channel ORANGE" is easily the album of 2012, but more importantly, it may possibly be the album of a generation.
Peace Up! Peace Out!
