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Which Frank Ocean Album Is Better: ‘Channel Orange’ vs. ‘Blonde’

Earlier this month, Frank Ocean‘s first proper album Channel Orange turned 10, which naturally prompted writers to sing the praises of the highly acclaimed 2010s landmark. Except the critical love was curiously qualified in the same, specific way. For instance, Rolling Stone noted that Ocean’s second LP, 2016’s Blonde, has “arguably outshined Channel Orange in scope and impact.” Similarly, Stereogum also suggested that Blonde has “arguably eclipsed [Channel Orange] in terms of influence and prestige.”

For those keeping score, Channel Orange “arguably” is now down to Blonde in scope, impact, influence, and prestige. That’s four — count ’em four! — indicators of “greatness,” all leaning in the opposite direction away from Channel Orange. Actually, as far as critical consensus goes, “arguably” almost seems unnecessary at this point. Initially released to enthusiastic but somewhat reticent reviews — many critics, including yours truly, found it to be somewhere between a masterpiece and an incomplete mess — Blonde has indeed over time overshadowed (or “outshined” or “eclipsed”) its predecessor.

Consider that Pitchfork rated Blonde a 9.0 upon release – a stellar but slightly worse score than Channel Orange‘s 9.5 — only to rank it as the best album of the 2010s three years later. (Channel Orange came in at No. 10, a stellar but of course slightly worse placement.) Over at Rolling Stone, Blonde came out over Channel Orange on its Best Albums Of The Decade list, popping up at No. 12 vs. Channel Orange‘s (far too low) No. 37 ranking. But on the magazine’s 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list, compiled just one year later, Blonde rose all the way to No. 79 — only three albums from the 2010s (Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly, and Beyoncé’s Lemonade) did better, so perhaps Blonde is now considered that decade’s fourth best record. (Channel Orange meanwhile lagged behind at No. 148, ahead of John Prine’s self-titled debut and just below Jeff Buckley’s Grace.)

Two things appear to be true in terms of how Channel Orange is now perceived — first, it’s indisputably a classic album of its era and, second, it seems to be regarded as a bit worse than Blonde. But is this really about these Frank Ocean albums, or does it actually say more about the people who write about music for a living? I have a theory that there are actually two 2010s — early 2010s and late 2010s — and these adjacent micro-generations are defined musically in part by Channel Orange and Blonde.

I have a clear memory of when Channel Orange was released in the summer of 2012. Like almost anyone who cared about popular music at the time, I was primed for this record. I had enjoyed and reviewed 2011’s Nostalgia, Ultra, a mixtape (not technically an album) that showed Ocean to be a singer-songwriter with tremendous potential he was just coming to realize. Now all signs were pointing toward a major breakthrough.

Ocean appeared the night before the release on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, and performed a startling rendition of one of the album’s most emotional tracks, “Bad Religion.” The song touched on the themes of unrequited love and personal identity that Ocean discussed in a widely read Tumblr post from one week prior, in which he revealed in heartfelt and poetic language that he had fallen in love with a man in 2009. This letter would inform how Channel Orange was subsequently heard and written about. First and foremost, it made Frank Ocean an artist that people wanted to see succeed.

Also on Fallon, it was announced that Channel Orange was actually out right now, a week earlier than expected. As this was the early 2010s, during the lull before streaming took hold, the rush release was intended to briefly circumvent piracy. And it worked: Many of us really did purchase the album download immediately after Fallon. We wanted to hear Orange as soon as possible, and it instantly became one of the first “event” albums of the social media era. In 2012, it was still novel for “everyone” to experience an album for the first time simultaneously online, and the impromptu late-night listening party undoubtedly added to Channel Orange‘s sense of importance.

Looked at more broadly, Channel Orange came out in the waning days of Barack Obama’s first term, and it pointed toward a future in which America’s first Black commander-in-chief became the first Democrat to win two presidential elections with a majority of the vote since FDR. In Ocean, many people saw a different kind of transformational figure, a forward-thinking paradigm-shifter whose sudden rise seemed to indicate real social progress for queer Americans. (Even Obama, who entered the White House officially opposed to gay marriage, had only changed his public position two months before Channel Orange was released.) This made Channel Orange in its time more than just an excellent album; it was also a feel-good story, an optimistic bellwether portending positive change on the horizon, a quintessential Obama-era cultural signifier.

Is it possible that these short-term attributes have somehow dated Channel Orange in retrospect? There are aspects of Channel Orange that feel much older than just a decade, especially when you compare it to Blonde. The circumstances of each album’s release have a striking yin-yang quality — while Channel Orange came out at a time when it appeared as though recent progressive gains would be impossible to reverse, Blonde arrived (along with the even more radical Endless) at the end of the Obama era, as the dread-inducing murk of Trump’s America loomed. This has shaped how both albums sound in 2022.

When Pitchfork placed Blonde at the top of its best of the 2010s list, the music site effectively retconned it as a record that expressed how it felt to be alive in the cursed late 2010s better than any other work of art. “The year 2016 crystallized the political disaster right under the surface.” writer Doreen St. Felix noted. “People theorized that we needed anthems to get us through the dark night. Big choruses, hooks as wide as highway signs, regular percussion that could gird us from chaos. But our mood was languorous; jingoism was the problem in the first place. We wanted the blurred, the softened, the existential.”

Channel Orange had once also seemed “blurred,” “softened” and “existential.” Upon its release, the album felt insular, strange, and willfully anti-commercial. That was part of Orange‘s progressive appeal. But in the wake of Blonde‘s much more extreme fragmentation — in which drums and most other instrumentation were eschewed to intensify the spotlight on Ocean’s pained, introspective isolation — Orange suddenly seemed relatively buoyant and accessible, if also (perhaps) less “real.” Whereas the relatively hopeful period that Channel Orange evokes seems further away each day, the alienated interior soundscapes of Blonde feel as new as the morning sunrise, not just in terms of influence — which has been immense on pop music, which is more vibey than ever — but emotional relevance. If Channel Orange hits like a happy but distant memory, Blonde feels as present as your latest breath.

I’ve spent a lot of time listening to Channel Orange and Blonde lately, and it should be noted, before anything else, that pitting them against each other is foolish. They are, again, highly complementary albums that offer distinctly different (but equally masterful) experiences. While my feelings about Blonde were initially mixed, I now hear it as an album that feels wholly unique to Ocean’s sensibility. With Channel Orange, critics were quick to put Ocean in a continuum of icons that included shapeshifters like Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder, and Prince, all of whom managed to make wildly successful pop on their own intensely eccentric terms. But with Blonde, Ocean made the case for starting his own continuum, in which future musicians would follow a path charted by him and him alone in the 2010s and beyond.

This is why Blonde, I’m sure, now gets the edge over Channel Orange in the minds of music writers. It feels more important. But while I acknowledge the musical ingenuity and power of that record, my recent spins tell me my heart still resides with Channel Orange. I just think the songs are better, while also registering more fully as songs as opposed to vibe-y setpieces. (You can’t convince me Frank has yet topped “Pyramids,” unless you want to make a case for “Thinkin’ Bout You” or “Forrest Gump.”) As an album, it is more dynamic and well rounded — it has the stripped-down gut-punches (“Bad Religion,” “Pink Matter”) that point toward Blonde, but it also has the catchy bangers (“Super Rich Kids,” “Lost”) that Frank mostly left behind on his second album.

Above all, Blonde would not exist without Channel Orange. First, Frank Ocean assembled his original masterpiece. Then he disassembled it in order to create a pared-down second masterpiece. Together, they represent a singular journey through an uncertain and tumultuous era.

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Megan Thee Stallion And Big Sean Are Being Sued For Copyright Infringement

A Detroit rap duo is accusing Megan Thee Stallion of copyright infringement, claiming that a song from her 2020 debut Good News copies major elements of their own 2012, including its chorus, tempo, and tune. According to Complex, which acquired the court documents after rumors sprang up about the lawsuit on gossip blogs earlier this week, the lawsuit was filed by Duawn Payne and Harrell James, who go by Go Hard Major and H-Matic, and compares Megan’s track “Go Crazy” with their own song “Go Crazy.”

The lawsuit also names Big Sean, a featured artist on “Go Crazy,” as well as 1501 Certified Entertainment, 300 Entertainment, and Universal Music Publishing. Oddly enough, though, Complex notes that 2 Chainz, who also features on the song, is not named. Here’s the original “Go Crazy,” which you can compare to Megan Thee Stallion’s “Go Crazy” below:

Go Hard Major and H-Matic say they performed their song at multiple nightclubs in Detroit, Big Sean’s hometown, that he would have frequented. They also claim they’ve sold “thousands” of physical copies of the track on CD, creating plenty of opportunities for Sean to access the track. They’re seeking unspecified damages for copyright infringement and say they’ve sent cease and desist letters to both Megan and Sean.

Megan Thee Stallion is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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Shawn Mendes Cancels The Rest Of His ‘Wonder’ Tour: ‘I Was Not At All Ready’

Shawn MendesWonder tour has unfortunately come to an early close. Following an announcement earlier this month in which he shared that he would be postponing several tour dates over the course of the weeks to follow, Mendes has taken to social media to announce that the remainder of the tour is cancelled.

“As you guys know, I had to postpone the past few weeks of shows, since I wasn’t totally prepared for the toll that being back on the road would take me,” Mendes said in Twitter and Instagram posts. “I started this tour excited to finally get back to playing live after a long break due to the pandemic, but the reality is, I was not at all ready for how difficult touring would be after this time away. After speaking more with my team and working with an incredible group of mental health professionals, it has become more clear that I need to take the time I’ve never taken personally, to ground myself and come back stronger.”

Shawn assured fans that he will tour in the future when he feels he is in a better place. He also noted that he will continue to make new music.

This fall, Mendes is set to appear in an upcoming live-action adaption of Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, in which he plays the titular character.

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Kodak Black Says His Recent Drug Arrest Is An Attempt At ‘Character Assassination’

Earlier this month, Kodak Black once again found himself in legal trouble when he was arrested on drug charges in Florida. Police officers pulled him over for a possible illegal window tint, and when they approached his car, they smelled a strong scent of marijuana, which led to a vehicle search. They discovered 31 oxycodone pills and $74,960 in cash. Kodak was then charged with possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and trafficking oxycodone. Days after he was released from jail after posting $75,000 in bond, Kodak took to Twitter to share his thoughts on the arrest, which he called an attempt at “character assassination.”

“This Sh*t bogus Af,” Kodak began in one tweet. “I feel like This a character assassination issue [cause there’s] no way I should be getting harassed bout my tag being expired, that’s no reason to even search my car in the first place and going to jail about having my medication in the car is insane.” In a second post, he continued, “Ima Sue these people for every dollar I gotta spend bout this sh*t !”

Kodak went further with his thoughts about the arrest in future tweets. “I’m being racially profiled and as a black man in America,” he wrote. “I deserve my freedom especially with everything I do for my community I should be getting love , respect and support from the authorities ! To move freely , not getting arrested for expired tag and dark windows.” In a final message, Kodak accepted some blame in the matter, but still labeled the situation as an attack on him.

“This a self inflicted wound that coulda been prevented !” he added. “My people posta made sure my tags stay up and my tints Just right but @ da same time I should have a pass to drive with tints due to my status AT LEAST !!! I show all this love round here just to get slapped in the face [sad face emoji].”

You can view the tweets from Kodak above.

Kodak Black is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

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St. Vincent And ‘Stranger Things’ Actor Brett Gelman Do An Impromptu Stevie Wonder Cover On ‘Colbert’

St. Vincent is in the middle of a fun side gig right now: From July 25 to 28, she is filling in for a vacationing Jon Batiste and joining the Stay Human house band on The Late Show. By design, Annie Clark’s temporary job is to mostly stay in the background and build/complement the show’s atmosphere, but she found her way to the forefront on last night’s episode via an impromptu moment with one of the show’s guests.

On the program yesterday was Brett Gelman, the beloved actor and comedian who has gained increased notoriety in recent years thanks to playing Murray Bauman on Stranger Things. After Stephen Colbert played a Stranger Things clip and introduced Gelman, Gelman emerged from backstage as St. Vincent and Stay Human played him on by performing Stevie Wonder’s timeless 1972 favorite “Superstition.” As Gelman shook Colbert’s hand and acknowledged the crowd, he got so into the Wonder cover that he grabbed a microphone and complemented Clark’s singing with some scatting.

Vincent has plenty of love for Wonder, as she previously cited his work as a primary influence behind her 2021 album Daddy’s Home, saying in a 2020 interview, “[The album marks] a tectonic shift. I felt I had gone as far as I could possibly go with angularity. I was interested in going back to the music I’ve listened to more than any other — Stevie Wonder records from the early ’70s, Sly And The Family Stone. I studied at the feet of those masters.”

Watch the Gelman interview segment above.

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A ‘The Rehearsal’ Guest Revealed How He Crashed His Scion TC At 100 MPH, And It’s Not Great

WARNING: Spoilers for The Rehearsal below.

During the second episode of Nathan Fielder‘s new HBO show, The Rehearsal, viewers are introduced to Robbin Stone and his eclectic penchant for seeing supposedly divine number combinations and constantly referencing the time he totaled his Scion tC at 100 mph. While the show was filming an elaborate simulation in Oregon for a woman named Angela, who wanted to experience what it would be like to have a child, Robbin emerged as a potential suitor and was invited to participate in the experiment with Angela.

However, despite Robbin sharing Angela’s Christian beliefs, the situation went south when Fielder rode back to Robbin’s apartment to pick up some belongings for an overnight stay. At the apartment, Fielder watched as Robbin smoked pot, oddly had three mattresses in his room, and confessed to frequently having pre-marital sex without protection. Robbin also got in a fight with his roommate over his number obsession. As they got ready to leave, Robbin planned to drive despite being high. When Fielder questioned that decision, he noticed that Robbin’s car didn’t have a license plate. It was not the best look, and Robbin ended up bailing on Angela after the robot baby (you read that right) cried too much during the night.

While Robbin instantly became a meme bonanza on Twitter, it’s clear he didn’t come off great during his short time on The Rehearsal. So, in an attempt to tell his side of the story, he agreed to an interview where he couldn’t resist telling the story about his infamous Scion tC crash. Turns out the details are pretty bad. According to Robbin, he had gotten high and drunk at work and fled the scene after being fired because he had a warrant out for his arrest. However, once he got on the highway, another car wanted to race him, so naturally, Robbin accepted the challenge. Via Vice:

“So I started to race him, weaving between lanes and all that because there were a lot of cars on the road, it was a pretty prime time of day” he said. “I end up losing control at 100, going back and forth trying to correct as I’m fishtailing, then just completely lose it and smack into the sidewalk.”

Although he was under the influence of alcohol and marijuana and was also street racing at the time of the crash, he believes the true culprit was the faulty mechanics of the car itself.

“In retrospect, I had gotten a new Scion tC and I was trying to sell the one that I’d crashed,” he said. “But I had an alternator problem with the other one and didn’t get it fixed. And I completely forgot that my front right tie rod was bad, which controls steering.”

On top of revealing that his Scion tC crash was way worse than how it was portrayed on The Rehearsal, Robbin didn’t appreciate how the show “really, like, changed my personality.” One of his biggest complaints? He wasn’t portrayed talking about Jesus enough, which was his whole thing during the entire episode.

“I know I talked a lot more about Jesus than what they showed,” Robbin said. “Like mine and Angela’s conversation at the MacGyver Park, we were bouncing off each other, really sharing a lot of similarities with Christ.”

The Rehearsal airs Fridays at 11 PM EST on HBO.

(Via Vice)

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Usher Will Executive-Produce ‘Storyville,’ A TV Series Set In The Jazz Age Of New Orleans

Usher is taking to television: The Grammy Award-winning vocalist has signed on as an executive producer for an upcoming television series called Storyville, as reported by Variety.

The series, set in New Orleans, will tell the story of five brothel madams seeking to gain control over the city’s Red Light District. It is a music-centered series which will be focused on the beginning of the Jazz Age in New Orleans.

Storyville is an epic tale sparked by the origins of the sound that inspired my career — a story that touches the nerve of social and cultural relevance today,” Usher said in a statement.

At the time of reporting, the series is currently in development by Starlings Television and is targeted for global sale to various networks. Starlings TV President/EP Chris Philip and CEO Karine Martin are also set to co-executive produce the show, alongside Usher, as well as creators and showrunners Bill Macdonald and Walt Becker, and Marcus Morton.

“Usher’s massive global appeal, musical and acting genius will propel this unique and compelling original series into must-see viewing worldwide,” Philip said in a statement. “His invaluable creative and musical contributions to Storyville fulfill our vision of contrasting the gritty, sometimes brutal sides of New Orleans life with it giving birth to a beautiful, diverse and defining new artform.”

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Trevor Noah Is Outraged That The Choco Taco Is Being Discontinued While The Popsicle Still Exists: ‘They’re Just Dildos That Give You Brain Freeze’

When all the news is doom and gloom — heat waves and climate change and the death of democracy as we know it — it’s normal to hope for just one tiny positive bit of news. But if you were looking to Klondike to be the bearer of a happy headline, you’re shit out of luck. On Tuesday, the ice cream company announced that after 39 years, it’s killing off the Choco Taco… and Trevor Noah is not ok.

On Tuesday, The Daily Show host shared the sad news with his audience, who loudly booed him. But Noah assured pissed off fans of the frozen treat that he was equally outraged. “The Choco Taco is the perfect American fusion of cultures,” Noah opined. “It’s Mexican… and sugar.”

Even more ridiculous to Noah was how the Choco Taco could be ruthlessly ripped from our hungry little hands when something as bland as the Popsicle has just been sitting in freezers everywhere for more than a century. “How are you going to get rid of the Choco Taco before getting rid of the Popsicle?,” Noah demanded to know. “Nobody likes those. They’re just dildos that give you brain freeze. Come on!”

For their part, a representative for Klondike told CNN that the decision to kill off the taco-shaped-for-no-good-reason ice cream treat wasn’t an easy one for the company either. “Over the past two years, we have experienced an unprecedented spike in demand across our portfolio and have had to make very tough decisions to ensure availability of our full portfolio nationwide,” the rep told CNN Business. “We know this may be very disappointing,” they added, in the understatement of the year.

You can watch Noah’s eulogy for the ice cream confection above, beginning around the 1:15 mark.

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‘RRR’ Is Breaking Records On Netflix After Blowing Minds In Theaters

RRR is the most exhilarating action movie of the year and deserves to be seen on the biggest screen possible (RRR in IMAX when?). But if you missed the global box office sensation about two Indian bros, Bheem (played by N.T. Rama Rao Jr.) and Raju (Ram Charan), who fight back against British colonialists in the 1920s, while it was in theaters, you can watch it on Netflix. Which apparently a lot of people are doing.

“RAMPAGE CONTINUES!!,” the film’s official Twitter account tweeted on Wednesday, along with a graphic announcing that RRR is the “only non-English film ever to trend globally for 10 consecutive weeks on Netflix.” It’s currently ninth among non-English language films on Netflix’s top 10; no other title has spent more than three weeks there.

“No way,” director S.S. Rajamouli told Deadline about whether he’s surprised by RRR‘s success. “Simple logic says if we didn’t expect the success of RRR, we wouldn’t have spent so much on the project. It was simple math. We expected the success because of the kind of star power it had and coming after a long, long, long time — at least in India — and also the kind of emotional storyline that we had.”

Please enjoy (or re-enjoy for the ninth time) the dance scene.

(Via Deadline)

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Harry Styles Sent Lizzo Flowers After ‘About Damn Time’ Took Over His No. 1 Spot On The Hot 100 Chart

A couple weeks ago on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” parked itself at No. 2, right behind Harry Styles’ “As It Was” at No. 1. The week after, that stayed the same when “As It Was” remained on top for a tenth total week. On this week’s chart, though, “About Damn Time” finally soared high enough to overtake the top spot from Styles’ hit, demoting it to the silver-medal spot.

If Styles is feeling bitter about all this, he’s not showing it, as he graciously accepted his defeat by sending Lizzo a colorful arrangement of flowers. Lizzo showed them off in a TikTok video, in which she holds them and says, “Thanks for the flowers, Harry,” before smelling them and flashing a smile. She wrote in the post caption, “Yall harry got me flowers congratulating me on about damn time going #1 [crying emojis].”

@lizzo

Yall harry got me flowers congratulating me on about damn time going #1 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

♬ I Love You Bitch – Lizzo

Lizzo and Styles have some history together: In 2020, they hosted a joint concert on Super Bowl weekend. In April, Lizzo popped up as a surprise guest at Styles’ Coachella set. Lizzo also showed her love for Styles’ new album Harry’s House in June, declaring, “He put the whole Harrussy into that album. I love his new album.”

Lizzo is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.