INTERVIEW: Frank Ocean (@frank_ocean) Says He Was Influenced By Jay-Z & Kanye West For Album Release?

Upon the release of his latest album, channel ORANGE, Frank Ocean recently spoke about his decision to drop the digital version of the album first. The singer, who was featured on Jay-Z and Kanye West's album, says that was inspired by their Watch the Throne album release strategy. 

“I kinda wanted to mirror what Jay and Kanye did with Watch the Throne," Ocean shared with BBC Radio 1. "Preventing the leak by staggering the digital and physical dates. My thing was, I wanted all the promotional elements to be– I don’t know if the word is ‘retroactive,’ but kind of follow the album with the videos and the tour and do everything after. And kind of just let the music speak for itself for a second and not be in a situation where the record leaked. It was always my plan to drop it ahead of physical.”

In terms of content, Ocean shared that he was inspired by his view of what music will sound like from him in the future. He explained that he wanted to try new song structures, making music like he never had before. 

“I wanted to do things that I hadn’t done before structurally with songs and I wanted to go different places sonically that I hadn’t gone before. … I tried to make something that was true to what I heard in my head, true to what I thought the future should be for me music-wise.”

Physical copies of his album will not be available until later this month, on July 17.