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Frank Ocean resurfaces to launch Beats 1 radio show, pretty cool Friday

Frank Ocean resurfaces to launch Beats 1 radio show, pretty cool Friday

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Also he’s featured on a new Calvin Harris single. Nice!

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Frank Ocean In Concert -  New York, NY
Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images

Frank Ocean, the famous, handsome, and very talented recluse, has popped his head out to say “hello this is my radio show!” I’m paraphrasing. This afternoon he launched a Beats 1 radio show on Apple Music called, according to a hashtag, Blonded Radio.

So far he’s played tracks from OutKast’s Stankonia and OutKast’s Speakerboxxx / The Love Below, so it’s a pretty good radio show if you’re into what OutKast was doing between 2000 and 2003. He’s also played some Prince tunes, which were only just added to Apple Music’s library. And here’s a fun transition: OutKast and Erykah Badu’s “Humble Mumble” into Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On.”

thank you, frank

The track queue is just as full of surprises as Mr. Ocean himself, who apparently didn’t tell anyone he was going to launch this nice radio show. Within minutes, blog posts from prominent music blogs The Fader and Pitchfork were tweeted with headlines like “Surprise! Frank Ocean has a new Beats 1 radio show and it's on RIGHT NOW.” We’re all on the same page: surprised.

Another nice surprise from Frank today: he’s featured on a new Calvin Harris song called “Slide,” which also features Migos, the rap trio of the moment. You can listen to it now on any streaming service. It’s lovely, and speaking as someone blogging from the East Coast, perfect for this unseasonably warm Friday in February. I have plans to eat dinner outside with some friends I like a lot and this song will be nice to listen to on the way there.

Beats 1 provided some fun album artwork for the song, featuring one of the lyrics that Frank Ocean sings. I would buy this as a poster probably. Not just because I really like the song or because I think the lyric is nice but also to commemorate this Friday afternoon spent with Frank Ocean, who doesn’t spend that much time with us but when he does it’s pretty good.