Frank Ocean fans may have to continue their Endless wait. After a Billboard report that Ocean’s pre-Blonde 2016 album would be coming to streaming services, the singer wrote in an Instagram comment that the report, which was picked up by multiple other outlets, is “fake news.”
Ocean originally released Endless on August 19, 2016—the day before the release of Blonde—as a 45-minute video exclusively available to Apple Music subscribers. The album was never distributed to other streaming services such as Spotify and Tidal, or to retailers like the iTunes store, nor was it made available in an audio-only version or separated into individual songs on Apple Music. Endless was Ocean’s final release on Def Jam, before the release of Blonde on his own Boys Don’t Cry label the following day, and subsequent reports have speculated that the album was intended to finish out his Def Jam contract before going independent. The two parties had a contentious relationship, characterized as like a “bad marriage” in an Associated Press report about the split. In November 2017, Ocean sold copies of Endless on CD, vinyl, and VHS through his website, but did not make digital versions available.
Billboard reported based on multiple anonymous sources that Endless was initially slated for wide streaming release on January 25, but had been delayed and would be available “soon.” Representatives for Ocean and Def Jam declined to comment on their story. Ocean left the “fake news” comment from his official blonded Instagram account, on a post about the streaming news from a fan account called frankoceanblonded. His comment received many replies from fans, such as “nooo,” “FUCK,” and “quit playin with us !!! NOURISH US KING.”
In other Frank news, the singer recently settled two opposing lawsuits with onetime collaborator Om’Mas Keith. Ocean alleged in court that Keith was receiving unearned royalties based on fraudulent writing credits for songs on both Blonde and Endless, prompting Keith to countersue alleging that the writing credits were valid. The terms of their settlement were not made public.
