(UPDATED 8/18 10:23 p.m. ET)
As of late Thursday night, Frank Ocean's video stream has started broadcasting for the first time in two weeks.
In the video, he is building a staircase, and the music in the background is different than in the video's previous incarnation. Because the music contains what appears to be Ocean's vocals, many are speculating that it is actually the long-awaited album.
Read the original story below.
Just after the clock struck midnight on August 1 and fans of Frank Ocean had officially given up hope that his new album Boys Don't Cry would finally surface, something exciting seemed to happen. In the early hours of Monday morning, Frank added an Apple Music video livestream to his website, getting a ton of people excited that, after all this, the album was finally happening. They waited, and waited, and waited.
As it turns out, the "livestream" may not be a livestream at all; it looks to be a looped video of an empty room. Frank Ocean fan account FrankOceanDaily points out an Instagram post from director Francisco Soriano. "Video art project I directed is up and running," he wrote, adding "boysdontcry.co #endless."
Frank Ocean tomorrow as he sees millions still on his livestream. pic.twitter.com/0ckG2oKjkg
Naturally, this came as quite a shock and frustration to many fans who had been watching said loop for quite some time.
When you've been looking at frank ocean livestream for the longest and nothing has happened pic.twitter.com/IPffv3Swri
when you hear a shuffle on frank ocean's livestream pic.twitter.com/avqvEy6T9F
me watching this livestream of a motionless room knowing nothing is gonna happen cause frank ocean is a liar https://t.co/AG2FSqDPlT
Frank Ocean got ppl losing sleep and watching a live stream of an empty room, the desperation is really real. pic.twitter.com/E5iYLJnkE5
Will Frank Ocean's album ever actually come out? As many point out, the last date on the library card image is actually Nov. 13, 2016. It's looking like we might have to wait until then to find out more. Hang in there, Frank fans.
After hours of inactivity, the live stream changed to a shadowy person cutting wood with a table saw. It also included some background music which could possibly be new sounds from Frank. There's still no indication of what's going on or why it's happening, but perhaps there might be something on the way after all. You can check it out here.
In the latest shot, a large boom box appears.
Interestingly, this same boom box is a Tom Sachs piece that was recently on display in the Brooklyn Museum playing Frank Ocean music. Sachs revealed the video was "shot in the past year" and that he lent the boombox installation to Ocean. He also "[advised] him on some carpentry issues," which is perhaps why we started to watch wood being sawed in the visual.
Virgil Abloh expressed his excitement about the live stream, promising that Frank can "change the world."
In a tweet from early March, one Twitter user claimed that a friend was helping Frank Ocean learn how to build a staircase for a music video, and that he had violated a NDA talking about it. This is very interesting considering the carpentry that's currently going on in the live stream.
This picture of Frank Ocean was also found in the website's source code.
