Frank Ocean Flopped 

Frank the type of friend to make plans when he's in a good mood and then switch up when it's time for the plans

That awkward moment when you want to hang in the shadows but accidentally headline Coachella instead

“I’m just glad he showed his face” is insane to me. You spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars on a weekend to see your favorite artist headline this event and you accept this as his mysterious nature. Remember, Beyoncé also headlined Coachella only a few years ago, hired and meticulously worked with a supergroup of a marching band with singers, dancers and comedians, and produced a Netflix special about it the next year. But you’re just happy you got a version of Novacane with a different drum groove. Dope!

My girlfriend cried on the way back to our campsite… she paid for both our tickets so I can experience a live show he’s performing for the first time with her. It really breaks my heart. Dedicating my next paycheck to buy her whatever festival she wants to go to this summer. Anger, frustration, sadness, and disappointment.

Being a Frank Ocean fan is painful. He finessed not only Def Jam but also his own fans

As a Frank Ocean fan, I find it crazy that stans keep defending this performance. He was an hour late and not even singing most of his songs on stage, and just dipped within an hour. Feel bad for those who spent an outrageous amount of money just to see him and get finessed like that.

As a Frank Ocean fan, I couldn’t be more disappointed. He let us wait 7 years and then he pulled all this. Its crazy that he started the show an hour late and ended it early as well. Its crazy that he cancelled the live stream. Its crazy that he was lazy and unengaged and literally lip synced and danced to some songs WITHOUT EVEN HOLDING THE MIC. He didn’t care at all. And I’m starting to stop caring myself.

As a Björk fan i'm sad that she didn't allow to livestream her performance either but i can't be mad at her because apparently she put on an amazing concert, from the clips i've seen she sounded wonderful, her outfit was beautiful, and the drones in the sky was a great touch. Now, Frank Ocean couldn't even sing his songs? I get being more toned down but don't go on stage and make people lose their personal time like that, it lacks so much empathy. People gotta take a day off, travel, wait for hours, sometimes go through bad weather... it's the bare minimum to be grateful for your fans and give a great concert in return

Even though I’m not super familiar with Frank Ocean’s music, I feel really bad for all the fans. Waiting over 6 years for a performance and it ending up how it did is super frustrating.

Yeah…. this whole mysterious act Frank’s been putting on as of late of being radio silent for over seven years, only making posts on Instagram to promote his expensive jewelry brand Homer that average, everyday people cannot afford, selling expensive cock rings or the Blonded Radio interviews where he hardly says anything and most of the audio of the talking’s barely audible due to the loud background music is all just a sham. The merchandise people do purchase from him online not being shipped on time, people cancelling their orders, waiting on their refunds, and now this, this was the final straw for me. No matter what emotions Frank’s going through, dealing with his mental health, dealing with a personal family tragedy and whatnot (which I understand and sympathize with) is no excuse for how he screwed people who paid to see him over like that. That was messed up. It really shows he just doesn’t care about his fans and he’s taking advantage of their love for him with the small amount of appearances he makes for them, or at least that’s what it seems like. People are feeding into his ego way too much here and need to stop putting him on a pedestal.

I've never seen artist that clearly had such an incredible lead on the industry and current sounds and aesthetics, fumble their own hype this bad.

Saw Frank Ocean a few years ago headlining Parklife in Manchester and he was awful, he arrived 45 minutes late and couldn't get through his first song so he kept playing it. First time I ever left a headliner set, thought getting home was a better use of my time than watching him - I was a fan too!

He has gone through a lot but there was no reason for him to arrive almost 2 hrs late to the gig, you just don't pull that shit, if he wasn't ready he could've just said no, NO reason for him to cancel the livestream, that was just wrong and pretty careless, its actually mind-boggling to see a lot of his fans defending him, he aint ya friend and he aint Beyonce, y'all gotta stand up and think just for a sec. EDIT: he arrived 1hr 30 minutes late approximately and he went past curfew lols, yall saying why am I mentioning bey, she's the bigger artist yet she doesn't pull these pr stunts, its not that serious.

I mean, I think of all the artists who are tirelessly touring right now, like Kendrick, Lizzo, Taylor Swift, or the Foo Fighters, who bend over backwards almost every single night to give their fans a good experience. Touring as much as they do is so exhausting, but they put their best foot forward because they knew their fans are setting aside a lot of time and money to hear their music, and are the reason they’re successful as musicians. But Frank can’t put on one (1) single good performance for his adoring fans? After six years of silence? It’s just inexcusable to me. I feel for him that he lost his brother and I can’t imagine how devastating that is. But at least be honest with your fans about your intentions. If you don’t want to perform for them, then say that.

I remember connecting with strangers around me while waiting for Frank to start. Taking about our favorite songs and the memories tied to them. I spoke with people from different states and countries, many of whom had made the trip just for Frank. Even after waiting an hour, most of us were still excited to see him perform. At the end of his set, after the “they’re telling me it’s curfew, bye,” a lot of us just stood there in disbelief. You could feel the disappointment and shock of the crowd as we exited the festival grounds. I still love his music and but honestly can’t say I’m a fan of the man himself anymore. I just hope he’s able to flip the switch next week and deliver a memorable performance for his fans, if he even performs at all

I have a friend who went to Coachella for frank ocean and spent the entire day standing at the stage he was set to perform at. I'm talking 10 hours of standing at the stage to see him. If I was him I'd be unbelievably pissed. But he got to high five kali uchis so maybe worth it tbh.

dude claims to have broken an ankle, but had no problem jumping around and shit. despite being given an opportunity to apologize, frank and his pr team resorted to an excuse; spitting in the face of those who waited an hour late, those who practiced the ice rink dances, those who set up the performance months in advance, and those who played alongside him.

I feel bad for anyone who went to Coachella specifically to see him and that's what they got just sad to be honest

you just need to look at Rosalia's performance - an act that wasn't even headlining - to see what shouldve been expexted. Her commitment, stage presence and just general hour set piece was insane. We need more like it

Frank is my favorite artist of all time.

Y'all gon learn to stop idolizing these celebrities and artists lol

I haven't listened to either of Frank's albums more than once out of fear that I'll become a fan and get sucked into the abusive relationship.

I'm far from his #1 fan but I saw him at Wayhome festival and it was one of the most amazing performances I've ever seen. The singing was fantastic and intimate and the light show was something I had never seen before or since, it looked like a magical storm being projected over our heads and was such a vibe to go with the music. Don't know why it was so difficult for him to recreate that.

Saw Danny brown at pitchfork like a year or so ago. Opened the set by saying he forgot most of his songs, brought out zeelopers to do “battery” which they had to restart 3 times, Danny did a tight 5 of standup on his air fryer, did a cartwheel, and then ended the set 15 minutes early. It was fucking sick.

I was there and can confirm the audience was definitely more engaged with the dancing security guard than anything Frank did, or lack thereof.

not to mention there were supposed to be ice skaters performing with him which he pulled the plug on hours before the set with no warning, so coachella had to deconstruct the stage for his set and melt the ice rink, as well as the ice skaters spending weeks to prepare for a performance just to be told hours before that frank doesn't want to do that anymore.

Frank Ocean is the new Lauryn Hill, except Hill had a bigger and more impactful run before she lost her momentum and artistic mojo. The reality is that being an ARTIST is NOT easy especially when there are expectations. People who aren't famous have almost no expectations, there's a freedom. It seems to me that Frank Ocean had some art to make and it had an impact but he had no real plan for dealing with success, fame, expectations YET the money being offered is still enough to be around enough to disappoint. I hope he either backs away entirely or rekindles the fire.

UPDATE: he also cancelled this weekend's show, the guy is an excellent musician but awfully disrespectful with his fans, he doesn't deserve any support from them

Going into this I knew either Jai Paul or Frank Ocean would ghost everyone or totally disappoint and I'm shocked to say that Jai not only showed up but gave a heartfelt performance while Frank made a cameo at his own show

I saw Big Boi perform at Kennesaw State in August 2013 and his leg was in a cast. He performed the entire show on a plush throne with his foot on an ottoman. He killed it.

“Omg guys Frank Ocean’s performance was actually great cuz it was an ode to his brother and it was a reflection on himself as an artist, you just wanted to dance to some Frank Ocean songs and didn’t want to EXPERIENCE the GRIEF and SADNESS” Jesus Christ that GQ article. Sorry if you went to Coachella to have fun I guess.

its such a weird descision to imply that this is a tribute to your brother, set to perform on the main stage as a headliner, know that performances from frank are rare, and then give whatever this is. it feels more like a lack of care than being illusive. the ice rink he had planned wouldve been amazing to see but he removed it 2 hours before he was going on which will put the ice skaters income in jeopardy and forces the stage hands to waste their efforts and time. like its insane how he would fuck with other people that are helping him to come off as mysterious and he even failed at that, literally flop behaviour!

Whole thing just gives the impression that his fans aren’t really important to him. Whether it be stress, timing or a shitty situation, you owe your fans something tangible for getting you where you are, give them something to chew on cause funny enough, your shows aren’t all about you.

you would think the best way he could honor his brother and their coachella memories and to grieve would be to go on that stage and absolutely fucking murder it and be the best coachella performance ever but it is what it is, everybody grieves different

I’ve seen clips of Frank performances that while very quirky, were magical. The fans were feeling it. This on the other hand felt like a turning point in the worst way. Who would even bother booking him at this point? Getting tickets for any Frank performance is basically a punchline going forward. Like you said, no one’s place in the industry is guaranteed.

I was at this show last night and it was beyond disappointing. Everything was off. From the second they started setting the stage up, and then when it became an hour late and then the dancers just started pacing the stage. It was bizarre. Being a Coachella headliner is such an honour and it just didn’t seem like something that he genuinely wanted to do. I’d be very surprised if he comes back next weekend. On a lighter note the skaters/dancers just walking around in circles because they couldn’t skate was hilarious lol

As an outsider to Frank and his music, I was super interested to witness a moment in music history with his return. What we got was indeed something to behold.

You could say "artists don't their fans anything". And normally I would agree, like if you feel like you can't produce an album at the moment shouldn't have to, or if you dont think you can handle a tour, don't agree to one. But in this situation, your fans paid big money to see you perform. At this point yes, you absolutely have an obligation to give them a quality performance. Agreeing to do the show is a commitment you made, to the fans and the fans upheld their end of the deal.

I hope he’s okay… this is super disappointing, but it’ll be really terrible if next year he has OD’ed or something and we’re looking back wondering how we missed the signs. Depression can take so many weird forms. It’s an incredibly selfish illness.

Frank Ocean has got to have released the least amount of work for the most amount of praise for any living artist today

So many people aren't grasping just how terrible it was live last night. We all just came dancing from Chris lake and fisher to silence, not even just being like an hour late... It was silent for minutes between each song, and all but one or two sounded really good when he was singing. The 15min rave thing was kinda fun but he just disappeared with a green baby and like okay bye? When we decided to leave after more silence and random bass sounds he started dropping hits so I got excited and turned around to him just bobbling around. Traveled pretty far, kinda lame but the rest of the fest is way more fun than you'd think

i got a front row view of the set. we were all expecting new music, was talking to ten separate people around me hoping he would play something new, and what we got was not good. when he got off stage everyone was pissed. good quote from a random guy in the crowd, “if this were the 80’s, we’d all be rioting right about now.”

This is why I'm always hesitant to buy tickets to concert or music festivals, you never know what you're gonna get.

wasn't there myself but based on what people are saying and clips i saw i think this goes far beyond Frank being Frank, there's no excuse to be over an hour late to your first performance in years and then not even put your full energy into what you did perform

We went to Coachella almost specifically for Franks set. We camped 8 hours in the sun, nearly had heat strokes, and just about pissed ourselves. We did this because we identify so heavily with his music and what it meant to us growing up. I can say that in 12 years of seeing and performing live music almost on the nightly, I have never been so disappointed with any set ever. We feel completely spat on and betrayed.

I saw Frank Ocean perform in Sweden a couple of years back. It is still the best live performance i have seen to this date. It saddens me to know that other fans were robbed of that chance, hopefully he'll release some sort of statement explaining his lackluster performance this weekend.

Imagine peaking in the middle of a 4000 dollar coachLa trip and you have to sit through a set that a local band could put on without all of the fuss that it took from Frank. I'd be absolutely lost 😂😭

he shouldn’t have preformed if he wasn’t ready

I feel like artists feel like that if there’s such a demand for their music, they can virtually get away with anything including treating their fans like trash , like it’s all part of the “yeah he turns up late, lies about release dates, but he’s a tortured soul and a genius so gotta let it slide”

I don’t give a damn if he’s “elusive”. Thousands of people who love him paid their hard earned money and traveled across the world to see him perform live. I love the man’s music, but I’m deeply disappointed in his narcissistic ass behavior. At the end of Futura Free, he sings, “I should be paying y’all.” Without the people that support your art, you’re nothing.

Not saying mental health is for sure the reason, but people with poor mental health frequently exhibit similar behavior. People get depressed, people procrastinate, over promise/under deliver, become lazy. It’s not an excuse for his actions because people spent money to support you but it does make sense.

2010's: frank ocean good, Tyler the creator sucks 2020's frank ocean sucks, Tyler the creator good Oh how the tables turned.

Doing a "studio session" as a headliner on Coachella where you could only see the artist through the screen, barely sing the entire songs, doing a mix of your songs in the middle of the gig for a security guard to dance, starting your set 1 hour late and finishing it just saying it past the curfew, yeah i see totally normal why he didn´t want this live

Frank ocean is not your saviour

Was a big fan of the music. Sat there for a hour waiting for him to take the stage on Sunday. After an hour, I firmly decided that he wasn't worth waiting a moment longer and I left the festival. Heard him on the way out and heard we didn't miss anything worth staying for. That said, I've been to 4 Coachellas and this was the best I've been too (Frank aside). What Frank failed to deliver, I got in spades from the performance from Labrinth. That dude was AMAZING!!!! What a talent and what a performance. Brought tears to my eyes and gave me goosebumps.

Frank is my favorite artist of all time. Knew that he wasn’t going to drop an album but still went to go see him with friends. Left because of the delay and went to sleep for the night. He should not do this if he doesn’t want to and if he is not ready and I feel bad for the people who worked on the ice rink because they put weeks to make it a reality and at the end all that work was for nothing. Week two has gotta be better because if not Franks fans will turn their backs and not care anymore.

Some of his fans are like, "But..but his brother passed away. Let him grief". Then don't accept the deal to perform and stay at home. Tf!

ive never listened to an album but ive listened to songs of his and I personally don't understand why he's so highly rated but i respect the fans that if you're paying money to see any performance it should be of a quality that is good and not lazy (i dont know the ticket prices for coachella but i can guess they're very expensive). I think taking 6 years off is a brave thing to do and one of my favourite singers Paolo Nutini took 7 off and came back with an amazing album and tour of performances.

Frank Ocean living up to his AKA Hotdog Water

So grateful to be a Weeknd fan because he wouldn’t ever do this shit at all.

Me: I love Frank Ocean 🥰 Frank: I hate you.

You know who didn’t disappoint? The goddamn Blink-182 show!

i was there, throughout the whole weekend i heard people coming from australia, sweden, chile, all across the USA, all coming for frank. me and my friends only wanted to go for him. everyone was so excited. it just made me sad at the end that everyone came all this way for him to be an hour late then cut it short. we all came to be together and he was not present. he was there physically but he only lifted the screen just a bit so no one could really see him, but we all came there to him specifically!! at the end when he cut the show people were crying, people were sad, a fight broke out, emotions were high. (the fight was probably unrelated but i dont think this helped). the run from self control/nikes/nights had so much energy even though he wasn't singing throughout the entire time. el se agüité

I saw his FYF set in 2017 and he sang most of the songs to Brad Pitt who was also on stage, when he missed one note in a song he played the entire song again and didn’t miss the note and 25,000 ppl where enraptured the entire set, so maybe they were expecting something like that

the most parasocial and entitled fan base meets the most egotistical and inconsiderate genius

I saw Frank at Lovebox Festival in London back in 2017 and it remains one of the best live experiences I’ve ever seen. Wouldn’t even call myself a Stan of his necessarily, it was just a really well orchestrated and choreographed concert with interesting interpretations of his songs. A lot of (it seemed like Odd Future fans) booed the show at different points because he wasn’t playing enough Channel Orange. I haven’t seen much of the Coachella clips but as a fan of Frank Ocean, you should know that the likelihood is that you probably aren’t coming to see a set list of bangers. Like I said, idk if that’s the problem here for people or not, that’s just my experience.

He did the same thing at Lovebox 2017 in London. I wasn't too bothered because I was new to his music, but his fans were booing when he left. At the time I thought the fans were a bit cruel, but its sad to see its still happening

"The guy is a shitty person and wasted so many people's time and money, but it's your fault because that's just who he is" Couldn't imagine actually being a fan of that dude

I wanted to go to Coachella SO BAD this year to see Frank and I was bummed all this past weekend about not being able to make it happen. After watching those TikTok/IG streams of it last night, I’m soooo glad I saved the $2k and stayed home lmao

imagine booing drake because you wanted twerking security guards

Going from seeing Los Bitchos, Porter Robinson, Loren, Bjork, Knocked Loose (best set of the night by far), and DRP, just to get absolutely cucked by Frank Ocean; was absolutely devastating. Every artist seen that weekend, and especially that final day, put everything into their sets, and this was just an immense amount of bullshit. I've never seen Ocean before, so I was stoked... Shoulda just went back to camp, washed up, and got some damn sleep. He absolutely mocked his fans, the festival, and his fellow performers.

Frank disabled the live stream for one reason only, so theres less evidence of his shitty set

I am a huge frank fan. His music means so much to me and wanted to see him so badly..... I walked out. Dumpster fire. The songs he did play were short and wierd remixes. Just play the damn songs. Last night helped me move on at least.

Ahh....good old frank.....he never fails to disappoint.

Didn’t even mention the ice rink and the workers who spent days setting it up and performers who choreographed for it for Frank to then have the workers remove it last min

I read the concept for his performance called for an ice rink with skaters to dance on stage. He had the whole thing scrapped with little to no notice, hence the 1.5 hrs late delay. It’s actually pretty insulting towards the skaters too, they’re artists!

as a long time frank ocean enjoyer this is like the most frank ocean thing ever

Seems like he hit the stage for the same reason many artists do when they haven't released music in years and don't plan on doing so. He ran out of money and needed to replenish his bank account. I'm sure Frank got paid a lot to do this appearance and good for him, you know? But I hope fans will learn from this and not get hyped up the next time it happens. He's this generation's Lauryn Hill. Two great albums, electrifying when he actually does perform, but too erratic and disinterested to show up most of the time.

Fantano recorded this in 05 and it's been uploading through dial up this whole time.

He did the exact same thing back in 2017 at Parklife festival in Manchester, UK. Came on 45 mins late, had to restart Solo like 4 times and then dipped 30 mins early.

Frank ocean is our modern age Lauryn Hill

6:35 yea frank hangs in the shadows, except HE DECIDED TO HEADLINE COACHELLA. that is not hanging in the shadows behaviour

Quick reminder that the time that has now passed since the last frank ocean album is the same amount of time that it toook for the beatles to drop their entire musical catalogue and break up.

I have no idea who this nigga is. However, if Radiohead pulled this at Coachella and I was there, I’d cry.

The thing is, what he did wasn’t even the plan. They had a big show ready to go. There was an ice rink that no one used all weekend that was built just for his set. He threw it into chaos just because

yeah i was at the set. there was def dead air in between songs and there was some moments where he looked upset. after his speech tho it felt to me like he is maybe doing it to mourn his brother but yeah idk what people expected. then they cut it short cause of curfew after he performed a cover of at your best by aaliyah. other than that i feel like the crowd was getting down when he would play his songs. the DJ set was good but it def could’ve been shorter. it just sucks cause we all waited and they weren’t giving water out so it was just a hot mess

Saw a take saying that while Frank could have done a lot more, it is also partly the fan's fault for expecting something that wasn't weird. The guy is the king of edging with his fanbase. Barely releases any music, but the music is almost always good, but bitterly disappoints to a very devoted fanbase who ironically stay connected in the hope that their fandom will be served when deep down they know it never will be.

having been there and waited at that stage since kali uchis started the most frustrating thing was the flashes of brilliance and actual live performances while most of the set was lipsyncd

Judging by how his leaks have been talking about the death of his brother, it's clear Frank is in a depressive state and honestly I just hope he seeks help, loss of family is never easy. Doesn't excuse the fact that the show was a disappointment on his accord.

Watching it through an Instagram, live stream from some sweaty college student in barricade, was pretty depressing, considering how lackluster it ended up being

I never noticed those synths in the background of White Ferrari until his performance

I came over to my parents place to have dinner with them last night, and the first thing we talked about is frank at coachella. The fact that even my parents who have almost no investment in frank are upset about how lacklustre that performance was is just pure disappointment to me.

Well I gotta say I didn't expect Anthony to do a full cover of Sweet Caroline in the middle of this video, but I appreciate it anyway

frank’s in his lauryn hill era lul

I was there and besides the set getting cut short(which is still unclear if the delay was due to changes he requested or just slow setup) and him just playing pressing olay on a few song I absolutely loved the performance and set of the whole thing. The dj interlude was pretty cool and a good time, the movie felt like we were watching a live documentary as it was being shot which was awesome, and overall i loved it. I camped at my spot all day for it and don’t regret anything.

I remember seeing Nick Cave in Primavera Barcelona last year. He lost his son a few weeks prior and gave a stellar touching performance. I know Frank is dealing with a loss but you still have a duty to your fans when they’re paying to see you.

thank god I didn't spend $600+ dollars to see a dj set

what a lot of people are forgetting is that he was scheduled to play for 2020 then covid hit. he then was contractually obligated to play in 2022 since he was paid already. He backed out of that and was able to work something out where he could postpone it to 2023. This wasn't a recent deal he's been obligated to play for 3 years now and I bet if it was up to him he would have backed out of this performance too.

Some Frank stans are acting like he didn’t voluntarily choose to be a headliner. Like if he wants to have an elusive image go for it but why are you dragging your own fans (the people that made him rich btw) into that. By all means finesse Def Jam, finesse the people trying to screw you over but your own fans? That kind of disrespect is so odd to me

*Frank reminds me of Abel (The Weeknd) before Abel grew to be mainstream. While Frank is even more "mysterious/elusive" than Abel currently is, Frank reminds me of Abel back in 2011 when NO ONE knew who Abel was, what Abel looked like, etc. And even now, Abel isn't like most artists in the sense of being accessible. He has an album, may promote it (but probably not), then he goes back to his life and disappears. However it's clear Abel's still very passionate about sharing his art with us and when he does, it's always clear to see & feel the passion that Abel still has for music. It's part of what's made him SO SUCCESSFUL as an artist. My only question is, why did Frank go if he's not into it anymore? Riri is clearly done with music (for the most part, at least for now) and so as a result, she doesn't sing or drop music much anymore. Before anyone brings up the Superbowl she just did, let's be real, she did that for a free Fenty Makeup commercial 😂 Anyway, if Frank is unhappy with or doesn't connect to music in the same way, I just hope he's enjoying his life and we'll still be here if he decides to come back* ❤