Pharrell has gotten fans excited that Frank Ocean has new music on the way after sharing some insight into the singer’s recording habits.
Speaking to Zane Lowe on his Apple Music show, Skateboard P offered a rare update on his “Sweet Life” collaborator, who hasn’t released an album since 2016’s Blonde.
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When asked about the elusive Ocean, Pharrell said: “You know he’s cooking. Frank stays in the kitchen. And it’s probably the reason why he doesn’t serve as much. He really enjoys the culinary process.”
Watch his comments at the 22:15 mark below.
Frank Ocean himself has recently teased that new material may be on the way.
In a rare social media post earlier this year, he uploaded a picture on his Instagram Stories of him playing the bass guitar in a studio.
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He also shared photos of him on a train in Japan with Julian Consuegra, founder of the clothing brand Stray Rats.
Producer Michael Uzowuru, who worked with Ocean on Blonde as well as the likes of SZA and Vince Staples, also suggested this past summer that the singer was working on new music.
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A New York Times profile of the producer said: “Uzowuru would go on to contribute to [Frank’s] acclaimed 2016 LP Blonde, and lend a hand to his visual album, Endless. In the following years, the two teamed up on the understated hit ‘Chanel’ and the plucky, anxious’ ‘In My Room.’
“More recently, they’ve been working on new music together in Miami.”
Frank himself praised Uzowuru, telling the publication: “Me and Michael’s careers exist post Hip Hop — that genre, that culture, informs both of us greatly. But his appetite has grown; his vocabulary, musically, has grown so much over the time that I’ve known him.”
He also credited the 32-year-old, along with Rick Rubin, of helping him overcome writer’s block: “Michael is a friend I talk to about where I’m at artistically very often.”
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Ocean last released music in 2020 and has offered only a few hints of new music since then, most notably during his polarizing performance at last year’s Coachella where he said: “I want to talk about why I’m here, because it’s not because of a new album. It’s because — not that there’s not a new album… but there’s not right now. Chill, chill, chill. No, it’s not right now.”
