Following the success of his breakout mixtape nostalgia, ULTRA, Frank Ocean has been busy in the studio recording his Def Jam debut. Speaking with BBC 1xtra’s Zane Lowe, the Odd Future crooner says that the album is already written and that he’s focused on the production aspect of the LP.
“The record’s written, we’re just trying to tie up all the production. Get everything sonically pleasing to me, the director of this film,” he said. “It’s been cool working on it. I take my time, for better or for worse. I’m excited to share and perform them. When I started writing this record, that’s one of the things I said. I was like, this record, I want to be able to perform well, to transition to stage well.”
He also spoke on whether or not he would have Kanye West involved with the production side of the album. Instead of campaigning to have one of his beats on the LP, he decided he’d rather go it alone and stick with a producer named Malay.
“I’ll be candid about that. I told [Kanye], as much as I want to work with you – I’m not going to say he wants to work with me so bad – but I’m a big fan. He’s a big influence on my music. I told him, ‘As much as I want to work with you, I kind of want to do this without you. I kind of want to do it on my own.’
“I worked with one producer, who I don’t know, I just found some random synergy with, a producer named Malay,” he continued. “We worked for the first couple of days and did some crazy feeling songs.”
