Frank Ocean seems to relish being hip-hop’s biggest enigma. The reclusive singer proved it again this week when he announced a new project that once again pushes the envelope. Ocean’s Homer company is offering up the 48-page booklet Mutations, which is described as a “retrospective of artwork from October 19 to December 22, 2022” featuring photos taken by Ocean.
The most intriguing part? The $75 book is described as being “offset printed on tissue-weight paper.” The cover image is of a shirtless man in yellow pants and a matching baseball cap in front of a series of blurry photos of another man wearing sunglasses.
The book announce is the first new project form Ocean since his controversial headlining set at this summer’s Coachella Festival, during which he took the stage an hour later than scheduled, did not offer up any merchandise and performed in a small space in front of a giant screen that rendered the singer hard to spot.
Following the confusing set, Ocean’s reps issued a statement revealing that he’d suffered a serious injury earlier in the week that led to a radically reworked production that did not invovle the full-sized ice skating rink he’d originally envisioned on stage.
“After suffering an injury to his leg on festival grounds in the week leading up to weekend 1, Frank Ocean was unable to perform the intended show but was still intent on performing, and in 72 hours, the show was reworked out of necessity,” it read. “On doctor’s advice, Frank is not able to perform weekend 2 due to two fractures and a sprain in his left leg.”
Ocean was replaced by the reunited Blink-182 on the second weekend. Ocean has not released a new full-length album since 2016’s Blonde; his most recent music came in the form of the singles “Cayendo” and “Dear April, which came out in March 2020.
