Don’t panic, but it seems as if Frank Ocean may be reverting back to his old, old ways.
Just a few weeks ago, critics were praising Frank Ocean for stepping out of his legendary shell to provide fans with more material over the last nine months than he has in his entire career. On the slate of releases: Blonde, Endless, “Slide,” and several songs debuted on his Beats 1 show Blonded Radio, we believed for a moment that he was officially back for good this time.
Ocean also seemed to be opening up on the performance end too with a slew of major festival performances scheduled throughout this summer. Then, at the beginning of May, he canceled his headlining appearance at Sasquatch:
Update: @lcdsoundsystem headlines #Sasquatch2017 Day 1 replacing Frank Ocean who had to cancel due to production issues beyond his control pic.twitter.com/rfvybSfYTP
— Sasquatch! Festival (@Sasquatch) May 5, 2017
This week, he also canceled his second headlining appearance, this one previously scheduled for Hangout:
.@wearephoenix will now headline Friday night of Hangout Fest replacing Frank Ocean. Stay tuned later today for schedule. pic.twitter.com/S6wzRJZxHz
— Hangout Music Fest (@Hangoutfest) May 10, 2017
In both instances, the reasonings behind the cancellation was due to “production delays beyond his control,” which could mean a number of things.
In the past, we’ve received more explicit and detailed statements when Ocean canceled or postponed performances. A scheduled New York performance in 2011 was dropped after Ocean got sick and couldn’t shake the illness that affected his voice. In 2012, he canceled a number of European dates in an effort to rearrange his schedule, which he described as a “tough decision.” When he canceled his Australian tour in 2013, it was de to a tear in a vocal chord. Now, this is all speculation of course and the underlying reasoning is still unknown.
So what exactly could this “production delay” be? Some have guessed it could mean opening his schedule for a solo tour, while others believe it may be an opportunity for him to work on new music. The first prediction seems like a long shot, and if it’s the latter, that would make sense if he was in fact churning out more music these days. But at the cost of dropping multiple major appearances and a shit load of cash? Doesn’t add up to be honest!
Let’s face it, going ghost is nothing new to Ocean, who’s notorious for disappearing after scheduling something major. Revisit the canceled performances above and go back two years to the infamous Boys Don’t Cry project.
Sasquatch and Hangout were a mere two of the festivals Ocean was slated to appear this summer. If he cancels his next performance at Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona Spain in late May, then the answer is yes: we should start to worry about his remaining schedule which includes Northside(Denmark), Parklife (UK), Panorama (NYC), and Way Out West (Sweden).
This is not to criticize Ocean, but from a loyal fan’s point of view, canceling performances is not a good way to build trust. Let’s face it, artists don’t owe us much, but at very least, their word.
