Monday, November 14, 2011

Frank Ocean Talks New Album; Says No to Kanye West Collabo


After cancelling his NYC show due to illness, Frank Ocean trekked abroad for his first UK show where he performed new songs from his untitled sophomore effort. Ocean stopped by BBC 1xtra after his praised performance on Fri (Nov. 11) to talk about his upcoming album and why he's passing on a Kanye West collaboration.

"The record is written, we're just trying to tie up all the production. Get everything sonically pleasing to me," Ocean told BBC's Zane Lowe of his album. "When I started writing this record that was one of the things I said. I wanted to be able to perform well, for it to transition to stage well... It feels good, they work out well."

While he appreciates his moments with Kanye West and Jay-Z, saying working with The Throne [on "Watch the Throne"] was "one of the shining moments" in his career, don't expect to hear 'Ye on Frank Ocean's upcoming album. "I said, 'As much as I want to work with you... I kind of want to do this without you. I kind of want this to be done without you. I kind of want to do it on my own.'"

"I wanted it to be an expansion, sonically I wanted to be the next, whatever the next tier for me is, be that," Frank explained of approach to the album. "Just open up, challenging song structures, challenging a lot of the things I made on the last project."

Don't expect Ocean to adhere to one sound, nor claim to be an artist of one genre. "When I say the whole 'I'm not an R&B artist' thing, people often think I'm taking a shot at the genre of R&B," Ocean said, "which to me I'll say, 'Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, Aretha Franklin, D'Angelo who is awesome, I mean what is Prince? What are all of them?'"

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