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Frank Ocean's Fans Are Totally Distraught Over His Fake Album Drop
Alright, this is getting a little tiresome. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
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It's been a whopping four years since Frank Ocean released channel ORANGE, his exalted debut album. The record ushered in a new era of R&B—a sound that took its cues from soul, hip-hop, mainstream pop, and some elements of electronic dance.
Of course, fans have been jonesing for the next album. And they rejoiced when, in 2015, Ocean hinted that he'd completed a record titled Boys Don't Cry, and that it would be released in July of that year, reports the L.A. Times. There was even a website: boysdontcry.co. But the album never materialized.
This past June, there was an update on the website: a picture of a library due-date card that was stamped with different dates. It was an overt, and cheeky, reference to the album's delay. The final date on the card was marked "Jul 2016" which led some fans to speculate that, finally, the record would drop in July.
As such, people were glued to their Twitter feeds yesterday, as the final day of July was coming to an end. And what's this?! There was an update on the website! Was it a stream of the new album? Or, at least, some previews of the new material?
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Nope. It was just a video of the inside of a warehouse space. On occasion you can see a man working at a bench. There's also some construction noise in the background. And that was it. People aren't even certain if the video is just a video, or a live stream, or even a freakin' endless loop.
Likewise, people got super pissed for being trolled on such a massive scale. They didn't pull any punches when it came to expressing their heartbreak:
#FrankOcean is this album don't drop soon everybody is gonna cry
— kat (@katodizzle) August 1, 2016
I'm done with this #FrankOcean BS -
— Don Woo (@Donferrisc) August 1, 2016
Why is #frankocean doing this to meeeeeeeeeeee pic.twitter.com/G6RDezzY1m
— niggasaurus rex (@problematiqmami) August 1, 2016
#FrankOcean is still live streaming an empty warehouse filled with tools. pic.twitter.com/wS2EUY4rvD
— Kelly Sterling (@MakinItWayne87) August 1, 2016
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All of us waiting for something to happen with that #FrankOcean live stream pic.twitter.com/M3EIbNFUTx
— Perry Ritter (@pritter1492) August 1, 2016
Me waiting on #frankocean to give us a link .. pic.twitter.com/Frm1LkR0NQ
— Jeff (@hostalmalure) August 1, 2016
#frankocean probably watching our tweets like pic.twitter.com/j7bHplk3eQ
— FLOATING OUT NOW.✨♒️ (@whoismaybel) August 1, 2016
And you know what? There's been a NEW date added to that aforementioned library card. "Nov 13 2016" is now seen on the image. Does this mean that the album will drop on November 13? Or maybe we'll get another gif image of an empty warehouse space? Or maybe Ocean is just overdue in returning Wuthering Heights to his local library? Right now it's anybody's guess. Anyway, here's a video to remind us of why we'd grown to love him in the first place (and why we're, maybe, open to forgiving him):
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