On Frank Ocean's Killer Verse

At Fader, Morgan Parker, Danez Smith, Brit Bennett, and Darnell Moore discuss Frank Ocean's writerly merit. "Frank Ocean the artist is in the footsteps of Glenn Ligon, Lorna Simpson, and Noah Purifoy" Parker explains. "As a poet, his lineage includes Fred Moten, Terrance Hayes, and Jericho Brown." More:

Chilean novelist, poet, and essayist Roberto Bolaño once said of his writing that all he hoped for were “lines capable of grasping me by the hair and lifting me up when I’m at the end of my strength. Odes to the human and the divine.” Listening to Frank Ocean can often feel like that: songs and sentiments that are so awe-inspiring in their vulnerability they serve as odes to the ephemeral and the spiritual.

But Ocean’s gift for narrative extends beyond songwriting. As first evidenced in his open Tumblr letter from 2012, the singer has a penchant for the literary. In a review of Ocean’s recent releases, Endless and Blond, the New York Times mentioned how he had, in the fours years since Channel Orange’s debut, fashioned himself as “a screenplay writer” and “an essayist,” noting how his Tumblr posts in the wake of the Orlando shooting and Prince’s passing were “devastatingly felt.” Packaged within Ocean’s own zine, suitably titled Boys Don’t Cry, was a personal essay and a screenplay written by the singer. At one point, there was speculation that he was working on a novel.

All of which has us wondering: what does it really mean when we call Frank Ocean a “writer”? Here, four authors — Morgan Parker (Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night; There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé ), Darnell Moore (No Ashes in the Fire), Danez Smith ([insert] boy; Black Movie), and Brit Bennett (The Mothers) — consider Ocean’s literary aesthetic.

Get to it—at Fader.