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<p>“Frank Ocean appears courtesy of Frank Ocean,” reads the liner notes to Calvin Harris’s new single “Slide,” which in this unseasonably warm late February has kicked off the 2017 song-of-the-summer battle. Most artists only ever appear anywhere courtesy of their record label, but Ocean is a free agent and this song is another surprise move in his ongoing rewriting of pop stardom.</p>

<p>Last summer, the buzzy R&B singer broke years of unexplained silence with a duo of albums, <em>Endless </em>and <em>Blond(e)</em>, that defied conventions both musically and business-wise. The latter of the two releases—the one that was actually for sale and had distinguishable songs, in contrast to the<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/08/frank-oceans-endless-released-early-thoughts/496598/"> free-form streaming audiovisual project</a> <em>Endless</em>—arrived not via his record company, Def Jam, but <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/arts/music/frank-ocean-blonde-interview.html?_r=0">independently</a>. Through years of wrangling (and <a href="http://pitchfork.com/news/71866-listen-to-frank-oceans-new-beats-1-radio-show-right-now/">the help of Apple</a>, the new corporate patron of label-agnostic pop artists), he had freed himself of the kind of contract that once was considered both prize and necessity for new singers.</p>

<p>It seemed possible he’d then use this newfound liberty to burrow deeper into an anti-commercial, anti-pop mindset. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/12/albums-of-the-year-2016/510404/"><em>Blond(e) </em>is a masterpiece</a>, but a <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/08/frank-ocean-blond-blonde-review-endless-time/496985/">weird one</a>: mostly free of drums, recognizable song structures, and anything that could be a hit. It took him four years to make, had <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/08/blond-or-blonde-frank-ocean-spelling-album-def-jam-universal-exclusives/497204/">two competing spellings for its name</a>, and featured a tie-in print magazine. You can understand why its creator might not want to have to run all of his material past Universal Music Group’s A&R. And you might guess that future Ocean projects would become even more esoteric.</p>

<p>But today brings the mostly good news that Ocean has not entirely decided to withhold his talents—a voice that imparts both feeling and attitude, an adventuresome ear, a smart and funny lyrical sensibility—from the radio race. He’s paired up with Calvin Harris, the Scottish EDM star famous for unsubtle but irresistible Top 40 fare like “This Is What You Came For” (his 2016 summer smash, featuring Rihanna) and “We Found Love” (his 2011 summer smash, featuring, again, Rihanna). Rounding out the bill are two-thirds of Migos, the Atlanta rap group enjoying breakthrough national success in 2017 with <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/02/migos-culture-number-one-album/515916/">the tricky-fun album <em>Culture</em></a> and the No. 1 hit “Bad & Boujee.”</p>

<p>Harris’s knack for consolidating popular trends and nudging them ever-so-slightly forward is on display here, with the beat for “Slide” sucking in Bruno Mars’s recent revivalist funk and Justin Bieber’s airy tropical house for a blend that will only reveal its full potential when heard on the beach. One of Ocean’s latter-day signatures, a squeaky manipulated voice, opens the track with the couplet “I might empty my bank account / And buy that boy a wooden pipe.” I won’t pretend to know exactly what the wooden pipe is supposed to mean here. But the sentiment comes across, to these ears, as a boy hitting on a boy.</p>

<p>Which is not insignificant in 2017 pop, especially in light of <a href="http://hiphopdx.com/news/id.42294/title.migos-questions-support-for-ilovemakonnen-coming-out-as-gay">recent comments</a> by Migos: Asked about the rapper Makonnen who’d just come out as gay, they said it seemed “fucked up” and “wack” that he’d previously put on a tough, streetwise persona. The group later gave an apology that said they were fine with gays but that didn’t quite address the stereotypes they’d seemed to endorse. In any case, they are now on a track with Frank Ocean, who <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/07/the-love-letter-that-shook-hip-hop/259510/">shook hip-hop</a> with a 2012 admission of an affair with a man—and who has since scrambled all sorts of expectations about culture, machismo, and sex.</p>

<p>Migos themselves sound great, the stickiness of their distinctive flows suddenly plainer than ever over such a sturdy and sunny beat. Ocean’s verses seem to cryptically, wearily talk about the moment at the end of a night in the club when the lights come up and you see who you might take home; Migos’s lyrics are explicit boasts of wining and dining and heterosexual screwing around the world. The divides between Ocean, Migos, and Harris’s sensibilities couldn’t be clearer, but the song is a reminder of pop’s power to make very different elements slide together.</p>

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content: "\n\n \n<figure class=\"lead-image\">\n\n    \n        \n        \n        \n
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  \               alt=\"Image \"\n                title=\"Frank Ocean&#39;s Surprising
  Slide Back to Pop\"\n            >\n        \n        \n    \n\n\n    \n    \n\n</figure>\n\n<p>“Frank
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  new single “Slide,” which in this unseasonably warm late February has kicked off
  the 2017 song-of-the-summer battle. Most artists only ever appear anywhere courtesy
  of their record label, but Ocean is a free agent and this song is another surprise
  move in his ongoing rewriting of pop stardom.</p>\n\n<div class=\"oembed\" data-oembed-name=\"open.spotify.com\"
  data-oembed-src=\"https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/6gpcs5eMhJwax4mIfKDYQk\n\">\n<div
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  width=\"650\"></iframe></div>\n</div>\n\n<p>Last summer, the buzzy R&B singer broke
  years of unexplained silence with a duo of albums, <em>Endless </em>and <em>Blond(e)</em>,
  that defied conventions both musically and business-wise. The latter of the two
  releases—the one that was actually for sale and had distinguishable songs, in contrast
  to the<a href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/08/frank-oceans-endless-released-early-thoughts/496598/\">
  free-form streaming audiovisual project</a> <em>Endless</em>—arrived not via his
  record company, Def Jam, but <a href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/arts/music/frank-ocean-blonde-interview.html?_r=0\">independently</a>.
  Through years of wrangling (and <a href=\"http://pitchfork.com/news/71866-listen-to-frank-oceans-new-beats-1-radio-show-right-now/\">the
  help of Apple</a>, the new corporate patron of label-agnostic pop artists), he had
  freed himself of the kind of contract that once was considered both prize and necessity
  for new singers.</p>\n\n<aside class=\"callout-placeholder\" data-source=\"curated\"></aside>\n\n<p>It
  seemed possible he’d then use this newfound liberty to burrow deeper into an anti-commercial,
  anti-pop mindset. <a href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/12/albums-of-the-year-2016/510404/\"><em>Blond(e)
  </em>is a masterpiece</a>, but a <a href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/08/frank-ocean-blond-blonde-review-endless-time/496985/\">weird
  one</a>: mostly free of drums, recognizable song structures, and anything that could
  be a hit. It took him four years to make, had <a href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/08/blond-or-blonde-frank-ocean-spelling-album-def-jam-universal-exclusives/497204/\">two
  competing spellings for its name</a>, and featured a tie-in print magazine. You
  can understand why its creator might not want to have to run all of his material
  past Universal Music Group’s A&R. And you might guess that future Ocean projects
  would become even more esoteric.</p>\n\n<p>But today brings the mostly good news
  that Ocean has not entirely decided to withhold his talents—a voice that imparts
  both feeling and attitude, an adventuresome ear, a smart and funny lyrical sensibility—from
  the radio race. He’s paired up with Calvin Harris, the Scottish EDM star famous
  for unsubtle but irresistible Top 40 fare like “This Is What You Came For” (his
  2016 summer smash, featuring Rihanna) and “We Found Love” (his 2011 summer smash,
  featuring, again, Rihanna). Rounding out the bill are two-thirds of Migos, the Atlanta
  rap group enjoying breakthrough national success in 2017 with <a href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/02/migos-culture-number-one-album/515916/\">the
  tricky-fun album <em>Culture</em></a> and the No. 1 hit “Bad & Boujee.”</p>\n\n<p>Harris’s
  knack for consolidating popular trends and nudging them ever-so-slightly forward
  is on display here, with the beat for “Slide” sucking in Bruno Mars’s recent revivalist
  funk and Justin Bieber’s airy tropical house for a blend that will only reveal its
  full potential when heard on the beach. One of Ocean’s latter-day signatures, a
  squeaky manipulated voice, opens the track with the couplet “I might empty my bank
  account / And buy that boy a wooden pipe.” I won’t pretend to know exactly what
  the wooden pipe is supposed to mean here. But the sentiment comes across, to these
  ears, as a boy hitting on a boy.</p>\n\n<p>Which is not insignificant in 2017 pop,
  especially in light of <a href=\"http://hiphopdx.com/news/id.42294/title.migos-questions-support-for-ilovemakonnen-coming-out-as-gay\">recent
  comments</a> by Migos: Asked about the rapper Makonnen who’d just come out as gay,
  they said it seemed “fucked up” and “wack” that he’d previously put on a tough,
  streetwise persona. The group later gave an apology that said they were fine with
  gays but that didn’t quite address the stereotypes they’d seemed to endorse. In
  any case, they are now on a track with Frank Ocean, who <a href=\"https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/07/the-love-letter-that-shook-hip-hop/259510/\">shook
  hip-hop</a> with a 2012 admission of an affair with a man—and who has since scrambled
  all sorts of expectations about culture, machismo, and sex.</p>\n\n<p>Migos themselves
  sound great, the stickiness of their distinctive flows suddenly plainer than ever
  over such a sturdy and sunny beat. Ocean’s verses seem to cryptically, wearily talk
  about the moment at the end of a night in the club when the lights come up and you
  see who you might take home; Migos’s lyrics are explicit boasts of wining and dining
  and heterosexual screwing around the world. The divides between Ocean, Migos, and
  Harris’s sensibilities couldn’t be clearer, but the song is a reminder of pop’s
  power to make very different elements slide together.</p>\n"
author: Spencer Kornhaber
title_type:
published: 2017-02-24 18:10:00.000000000 Z
summary: His team-up with Calvin Harris and Migos on "Slide" scrambles some expectations,
  but mostly just sounds like summer.
links:
- https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/02/frank-ocean-calvin-harris-migos-slide-review-song-of-summer/517707/
title: Frank Ocean's Surprising Slide Back to Pop
carlessian_info:
  news_filer_version: 2
  newspaper: US general30
  macro_region: USA
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categories:
- Culture
url: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/02/frank-ocean-calvin-harris-migos-slide-review-song-of-summer/517707/

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