Frank Ocean and Michael Uzowuru working in the studio again
After years without a new album, Frank Ocean announced that he has returned to the studio with Michael Uzowuru.
The production guru was known for working with Ocean to fine-tune his last two albums, Endless and Blonde, back in 2016. He has since been affiliated with the rap collective Odd Future, which includes artists like Steve Lacy and Tyler the Creator.
When talking about the direction of their latest album, Ocean said that he was looking to go beyond hip-hop altogether, telling The New York Times, “Me and Michael’s careers exist post hip-hop — that genre, that culture, informs both of us greatly, but his appetite has grown; his vocabulary, musically, has grown so much over the time that I’ve known him.”
Ozowuru also expressed the joy in being able to work off of Ocean’s talents as a lyricist and musician, saying, “I couldn’t love him or care about him more. I’m very grateful for him as a person outside of the work, so it doesn’t matter if we work. I don’t need to work with him, because it’s so much bigger. He’s separate from everyone else. He’s family.”
Since working with Ocean, Ozowuru has become a go-to producer for many hip-hop artists. Since working on Blonde, he has worked on SZA’s SOS, as well as entire projects for artists like Vince Staples and Kevin Abstract. He also reunited with Ocean for the release of the singles ‘Dear April’ and ‘Cayendo’ in 2020.
Of course, Ozowuru’s production isn’t strictly limited to hip-hop, either. During his time behind the board, he has been known for working with artists like Rosalia on her album Motomami and had contributed to Troye Sivan’s crossover album, Bloom.
Outside of those few singles in 2020, Ocean has been radio silent when it comes to his solo material. Since then, he has been working behind the scenes as a songwriter, including credits on ‘Royalty’ from Nas’s album, The Lost Tapes 2, as well as Virginia Beach’ off of Drake’s 2023 album, For All the Dogs.
While Ocean had not been working on any new music over the past few years, he had occasionally appeared on tracks by other artists. Since his last album, he has appeared on ‘Frank’s Track’ on Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo and sung on the song ‘911/ Being Lonely’ of Tyler the Creator’s 2017 album Flower Boy.