Frank Ocean announces new album

Photo via frankocean.tumblr.com

Jake Christensen

The highly anticipated follow-up to Frank Ocean’s 2012 album “Channel Orange” is going to be released sometime soon. Recently, Ocean shared a photo on his website with the words, “I got two versions. I got twooo versions…” along with some hashtags that seem to indicate that the title of his third album is “Boys Don’t Cry” and will be out this July.

A rep for Ocean recently confirmed this to Billboard: A new album and his own publication are due in July. The magazine is titled Boys Don’t Cry, while the album title has yet to be revealed.

According to Pitchfork, there have been various reports from recording sessions that have hinted that Ocean is working with Hit-Boy (“Clique”, Drake, Nicki Minaj), Rodney Jenkins (Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Destiny’s Child), Happy Perez, Charlie Gambetta and Kevin Risto. The album could also include the track “Memrise,” which Ocean released a snippet of, as well as some of the lyrics on his Tumblr back in November 2014.

Ocean certainly has kept busy in the time since the release of “Channel Orange.” He performed at the 55th Grammy Awards in 2013 while also winning a Grammy for Best Urban Contemporary Album for “Channel Orange.” Ocean made appearances on Jay-Z’s “Magna Carta Holy Grail” as well as John Mayer’s “Paradise Valley.” In 2014, Converse dropped a song called “Hero,” which saw Ocean collaborating with Diplo and the Clash’s Mick Jones and Paul Simon. Soon after the release of “Hero,” Hit-Boy shared a sample of a Nas song featuring Ocean titled “No Such Thing As White Jesus.” 

The R&B singer was also involved in a feud with Chris Brown, a drawn-out lawsuit with Chipotle, and Ocean’s father is currently suing Russell Simmons after being portrayed as a deadbeat on Simmons’ site Global Grind.

Ocean has not released an album since 2012, when he put out major label debut “Channel Orange.” That album was the follow up to “Nostalgia, Ultra” — released as a mixtape in 2011. Fans will now eagerly await the release of Ocean’s third album this summer.