Frank Ocean's rise to stardom was loud, but the silence of his absence has been louder. Ocean was born Christopher Lonny Breaux on October 28th, 1987. As a teenager, he balanced multiple jobs to pay for studio time and began to record music. After he graduated from high school, he attended the University of New Orleans and majored in English while continuing to record music. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, which ruined Ocean’s home. On top of that, the recording studio where Ocean once recorded music was destroyed and robbed. He transferred to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he continued to study for a short period of time, but later dropped out to pursue a career in music in Los Angeles. In 2009, Ocean joined a Los Angeles-based Hip-Hop group that went by the name of Odd Future. 

Subsequently, in February 2011, Ocean released his first mixtape on Tumblr, titled Nostalgia, ULTRA. The mixtape did really well, and received supportive reviews from NPR, Rolling Stone, and the BBC. However, it included heavy samples from the Eagles, which led to a threat of a lawsuit from the Eagles. Consequently, the official release of Nostalgia, ULTRA, was unfortunately called off. In 2011, two tracks were released, “Novacane” and “Swim Good”.

The overall positive public opinion of Ocean’s previous work motivated him to begin recording his first studio album, Channel ORANGE. It was a massive hit, reaching No. 1 on the top albums chart within hours of being released. Ocean received a Grammy for “Best Urban Contemporary Album” at the 2013 Grammys, despite it being his first official album.

After the huge success of Channel ORANGE, Ocean took a four-year hiatus from the public eye. Following this hiatus, he made a comeback by dropping two albums back-to-back in August 2016: Endless and Blonde. Blonde was his last album before the unofficial end of his musical career. 

There are many theories about Ocean’s disappearance. Four years after the release of Blonde, Ocean lost his brother to a tragic car crash, and fans speculate that the loss of his brother took such a heavy toll on him, he stopped making music. Other fans argue that Ocean dislikes fame as an introvert, and has stepped out of the public eye for that reason. He chose to not submit Blonde for a Grammy, and does not attend award shows. Since 2016, Ocean has released ten singles and performed ten times.  In 2023, to many fans' surprise, he was headlining Coachella. Coachella is a very well-known music festival in Indio, California. It spans for two consecutive weekends in April, with the same lineup both weekends. Fans complained that Ocean was approximately an hour late, the energy was low, and he barely acknowledged the crowd. He did not perform the following weekend due to a leg injury, and hasn’t performed since. 

Many fans await his unpromised return to the music industry, but there’s only one question. Is Frank Ocean simply on another hiatus, or retired forever?