Famed R&B singer/songwriter Frank Ocean has been busy in the studio recording his Def Jam debut, serving as a follow-up to his critically acclaimed mixtape, ‘nostalgia, ULTRA.’ In a recent interview with BBC 1xtra’s Zane Lowe, the Odd Future crooner revealed exclusive details about the current process of the project.
“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.”
Having worked with the likes of John Legend, Beyonce, Jay-Z, and Kanye West, it should be no doubt for fans to expect an all star-studded line-up for the album. However, Ocean has made it clear that super producer Kanye West will not be involved with the LP.
“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.”
Currently, there is no set release date for the as-of-yet untitled album. He is set to perform tonight at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles.
