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Frank Ocean · S2 E1
Landing in LA
Arriving in Los Angeles with almost nothing, sleeping in his car outside the studio
Los Angeles, 2006. An eighteen-year-old from New Orleans parks outside a recording studio and realizes that tonight, just like last night, the back seat of his car is his bed.
"Novacane" (Frank Ocean, official music video, 2011). Coachella, numbness, and the haze of a city that swallows you whole. Frank wrote this about LA culture, and every frame feels like the disorientation of landing in a place that runs on ambition and anesthesia.
No Address, No Contacts
Frank arrives in Los Angeles with almost nothing. No apartment, no industry connections, no savings worth mentioning. What he has is a keyboard, a voice, and the conviction that he can write songs good enough for the radio. The city will spend the next three years testing whether he's right.
Sources
Wallace, Amy. "Frank Ocean: The All-American Boy." GQ, December 2012.
Weiss, Jeff. "Question in the Form of An Answer: Frank Ocean." Passion of the Weiss, April 2011.
Novacane, Frank Ocean (2011)
Novacane is Frank's most LA song: a story about meeting a girl at Coachella who numbs everything she touches. The production glides on a cool, detached beat that sounds like driving down Sunset at 2 AM with the windows down. Frank sings about losing feeling, about pleasure that doesn't register anymore. For a kid who just arrived in a city built on surfaces and stimulation, this is the soundtrack to realizing that LA will give you everything and nothing at the same time.
Sources
Pytlik, Mark. "Frank Ocean: nostalgia, ULTRA." Pitchfork, March 2011.
Fennessey, Sean. "The Yearning." Grantland, July 2012.
Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley
The stretch of studios between Hollywood Boulevard and the Valley where most of LA's pop and R&B hits were being written in the mid-2000s. Frank spent his first years here, bouncing between sessions and trying to get anyone with a publishing deal to listen to his demos.
“He arrived in Los Angeles the way most aspiring songwriters do: broke, unknown, and certain he belonged there. That certainty is harder to maintain than any amount of talent.”
— Amy Wallace, "Frank Ocean: The All-American Boy," GQ, December 2012
TAP TO REVEAL: What name was Frank using when he first showed up in LA?
Sweet Life, Frank Ocean (2012)
Years after sleeping in his car, Frank wrote this song about the breezy California comfort that people born into privilege take for granted. The production is lush, warm, and effortlessly pretty. Play it in an episode about Frank arriving in LA with nothing, and every sun-kissed chord becomes ironic. The sweet life was right there the whole time. He just couldn't afford it yet.
Sweet Life, Frank Ocean (2012)
"The sweet life, it's so sweet." Read the lyrics while you listen. Frank wrote Sweet Life about people who live inside a comfortable bubble, disconnected from the struggle happening right outside their door. He knew that struggle firsthand. The song isn't jealous, just observant, and that restraint is what makes it cut.
Landing in LA: The File
What was Frank Ocean's living situation during his first months in Los Angeles?
A producer finally lets him into a session, and the kid from New Orleans opens his mouth. Next: ghostwriting hits for Justin Bieber, Brandy, and Beyoncé before anyone knows his name.
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