Here Are The Songwriting Credits For Frank Ocean’s Blonde
Featuring Tyler, the Creator, The Beatles, and Gang of Four.
When Frank Ocean's Blonde dropped, its accompanying zine Boys Don't Cry listed every contributor on the physical version of artist's third album (The FADER did its own roundup of the artists on Endless, the visual album Ocean released just prior to Blonde). However, there's been no announcement of which guest on Blonde did what exactly, until today: Pitchfork has spotted that royalty organization ASCAP has listed writing songwriting credits for a dozen of the tracks on Blonde.
Blonde logs frequent appearances from Om'Mas Keith, who co-produced Ocean's debut album Channel Orange, and samples a few tracks from both The Beatles and Gang Of Four. Elliott Smith, Pharrell, Tyler, the Creator, Rostam Batmanglij, and Jamie xx all make appearances as well.
A rep for Frank Ocean was not immediately available for comment.
Check out all the names so far below. The FADER will update this post as more names are revealed.
1. "Nikes"
Frank Ocean
Om'Mas Keith
Carl Palmer
Harry Palmer
Jeff Palmer
"Nikes" contains a sample of the 1968 track "The Champ," which was written by the Palmers as The Palmer Brothers.
2. "Ivy"
Frank Ocean
Rostam Batmanglij
Om’Mas Keith
Jamie xx
3. "Pink + White"
Frank Ocean
Om’Mas Keith
Tyler, the Creator
Pharrell Williams
Ocean and Tyler, the Creator previously collaborated on "She," which appeared on Tyler's 2011 album Goblin.
4. "Be Yourself"
Frank Ocean
Om’Mas Keith
5. "Solo"
Frank Ocean
Mikey Alfred
Dave Allen
Hugo Burnham
Sage Elsesser
Om’Mas Keith
Jon King
88-Keys
Todd Rundgren
Rho Spearman
"Solo" samples "Flamingo" by Todd Rundgren. Allen, Burnham, and King used to be in Gang of Four, but if a song was sampled, it has not been posted yet.
6. "Skyline To"
Frank Ocean
Om’Mas Keith
Kendrick Lamar
Tyler, the Creator
7. "Self Control"
(No listed songwriters)
8. "Good Guy"
(No listed songwriters)
9. "Nights"
Frank Ocean
Om’Mas Keith
Buddy Ross
Michael Uzowuru
Vegyn
10. "Solo" (Reprise)
Andre 3000
11. Pretty Sweet
Frank Ocean
Om’Mas Keith
12. "Facebook Story"
(No listed songwriters, though according to Pitchfork, SebastiAn contributed vocals and Buddy Ross handled keyboards).
13. "Close To You"
(No listed songwriters)
14. “White Ferrari”
Frank Ocean
James Blake
Om’Mas Keith
John Lennon
Paul McCartney
The Beatles's "Here, There And Everywhere" is sampled in this track.
15. “Seigfried”
Frank Ocean
George Harrison
Om’Mas Keith
John Lennon
Paul McCartney
Elliott Smith
Ringo Starr
Aspects of "Flying" by The Beatles and Elliott Smith's "A Fond Farewell" appear here.
16. “Godspeed”
Frank Ocean
Kim Burrell
Om'Mas Keith
Elliott Smith
17. “Futura Free”
Frank Ocean
Mikey Alfred
Dave Allen
Hugo Burnham
Sage Elsesser
Andy Gill
Om’Mas Keith
Jon King
Gang of Four’s “Love Like Anthrax” is sampled in "Futura Free."
Read our interview with Tricky Stewart, the man who signed Frank Ocean to Def Jam.