By now, we all know Frank Ocean best as the Odd Future member who's peeled off and had arguably the most successful solo career of the whole crew. A ton of that is thanks to his solo material, with Channel Orange especially garnering a ton of positive reception, but Ocean's also made his mark on the R&B game as a guest vocalist and writer. High-profile collabs with Kanye and Jay Z have obviously done wonders for his notoriety, but behind the scenes, Ocean's written some big hits for star singers.
With his new album scheduled to arrive in July, take a look back at some of Ocean's little-known writing credits. When you're finished, be sure to check out the similar breakdown we did for Ty Dolla $ign a few weeks ago.
Beyoncé - "I Miss You"
Songwriters: Christopher Breaux, Beyoncé Knowles, Shea Taylor.
Moody and slightly '80s-influenced, "I Miss You" almost sounds like it could've been included on Channel Orange had Ocean sung it himself. Before the song dropped, Ocean tweeted the above image and wrote the following:
“This is the room i’m working in this day. not to brag but man, this is surreal. Like..she’s singing my songs. if time were to stop right now, the past couple weeks would be near the top of the highlight reel for my short time on earth.”
As this occurred very soon after Nostalgia, Ultra dropped, it's easy to see why Ocean was so starstruck at that early stage in his career.
The Internet - "She DGAF"
Songwriters: Sydney Bennett, Christopher Breaux, Matthew Martin.
For the most part, the artists Ocean ghostwrites for aren't part of Odd Future, but he did end up giving this one to The Internet without being included as a guest on the actual track. It's a samba-style, laid-back track that also has him doing some production, and although it doesn't really seem like the type of track he'd put out himself, you can still sense his fingerprints on it.
Brandy - "Scared Of Beautiful"
Songwriters: Christopher Breaux, Warryn Campbell, Breyon Prescott.
Included on Brandy's underrated album Two Eleven, this track is another Ocean entry into the "classic ballads" canon. The pair had previously worked together on Brandy's 2008 songs "1st & Love" and "Locket (Locked in Love)," and seem to have forged a pretty dope artistic partnership. "Scared Of Beautiful" was originally conceived as a duet between Brandy and him, but unfortunately they couldn't find the time to get in the studio together. Thankfully, a solo demo version by Ocean surfaced, and it might even be better than the original.
John Legend - "Quickly" feat. Brandy
Songwriters: Christopher Breaux, Rich King, Waynne Nugent, Kevin Risto, John Stephens, Dapo Torimiro.
Most likely arising out of Ocean's friendship with Brandy, "Quickly" was a huge get for Ocean in 2008. John Legend's one of this generation's best-loved R&B singers, so nabbing a writing (and production) credit on one of his songs is basically a rite of passage for ghostwriters.
Justin Bieber - "Bigger"
Songwriters: Justin Bieber, Christopher Breaux, Waynne Nugent, Kevin Risto, Dapo Torimiro.
Written alongside many of the same names that worked on the Legend track, "Bigger" is definitely the most out-of-character writing job we've ever seen Ocean take on, but hey, it was 2009 and dude had to pay the bills. This one's a new jack swing-styled track in which it's hard to hear Ocean's personal touch, but it's still an impeccably-written melody, which seems to be all that Ocean's capable of making.