When Frank Ocean released his debut album channel ORANGE, Psy’s “Gangnam Style” was an internet sensation, CERN had just discovered the Higgs boson, Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney would soon be a meme, iTunes Ping was still a thing, and an Ice Age movie was debuting at the box office. Needless to say, things have changed. (Fine, not everythinghas changed.) Throughout this four-year span, fans have relentlessly pursued any and every possible detail about a follow-up to channel ORANGE. And Frank Ocean has burrowed into hiding in the aftermath of his breakthrough, prompting web search parties and making every emergence—like his very low-key appearance at Kanye’s Yeezy Season 3 event—a unicorn sighting. With the album now around the corner, let’s trace our steps through this mystery. This is a full Boys Don’t Cry timeline.
December 15, 2012: In an interview with the Guardian, Frank Ocean toyed with the idea of never even making another album: “I focus on both sonics and story, but music sometimes, just music itself, can turn into more of a maths problem...But storytelling’s a different thing. Like I said, it's the more interesting part about making music for me, or making albums and songs and stuff. So much so that I might not make another album. I might just write a novel next. I don't know!” Several skeptics have since posited the theory that he was right here.
February 20, 2013: Ocean sat down for an interview with Zane Lowe (then of BBC Radio 1) and shared some insights into the status of his next project. “I’m 10, 11 songs into this next thing,” he said. “It's another cohesive thing, bordering on a concept record again.” He also mentioned that he’d worked with Pharrell and would soon be working with Danger Mouse.
April 25, 2013: At the Time 100 Gala, Ocean told MTV News that he already had a sonic moodboard for the forthcoming album: “When I was making the first [album] there were a group of artists that I listened to, just for inspiration and to absorb the energies. It was a lot of Stevie Wonder, and this time it's a lot of Beach Boys and Beatles and whatnot, so we'll see how it trickles into the music and the final product. I can't say much other than that.”
June 25, 2013: At a concert in Munich, Germany, Ocean provides the first taste of new music since channel ORANGE, sharing a handful of previously unreleased songs.
October 15, 2013: In a since-deletedTumblr post, Ocean responded to an inquiry about when to expect new music with a simple “When summer comes round again.” Two summers have passed since, and nearly a third. Luckily (for Frank), Tumblr is not a binding contract.
March 25, 2014: Video director and collaborator Nabil (who directed the clips for “Novacane,” “Swim Good,” and “Pyramids”) shared a picture of Ocean working on the album with a caption that read, “Frank in the lab.. Making sophomore album game .”
April 9, 2014: Ocean hinted that the album was almost done, suggesting that he’d skip Outkast to finish it: “I’m opening up for OutKast this summer at Pemberton so I might skip on Coachella to stay in the groove and finish this bitch. I feel like they’re finna wild out tho.”
June 25, 2014: While prepping the album, Ocean fired his management team and his publicist. Though details about the record were still scarce, Nabil described its sound with vague superlatives: “Everyone should be excited about this new album—that shit is fire,” he told Buzzfeed. “He’s making a great record. It blows the sophomore-album myth out of the water.”
September 16, 2014: Ocean signed with Three Six Zero management and reportedly spent some time in-studio with Hit-Boy and Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins. He also worked with longtime collaborators Happy Perez, Charlie Gambetta, and Kevin Ristro.
November 28, 2014: As is his wont, Ocean took to his Tumblr to share a snippet of new song called “Memrise” (along with its lyrics). The track sounded like the rough mix of a demo.
December 29, 2014: Seemingly out of the blue, Lil B posted a photo with Ocean on Instagram with the caption “RARE photo of LIL B x FRANK OCEAN IN THE STUDIO TOGETHER!! NEW MUSIC COMING SOON! Collect this! - Lil B.” (Nabil later confirmed that Ocean interviewed the Based God for a print magazine accompanying the upcoming album.)
April 6, 2015: After years of speculation, Ocean officially announces a new album with an accompanying publication, both believed to be called Boys Don’t Cry, with a pegged July release. The caption on the since-deleted Tumblr post simply read “I got two versions.”
January 7, 2016: The reclusive Ocean has reportedly emerged from hiding to work with rapper Rich the Kid, according to The Fader. Reps confirm the two hit the studio together. Speculation began swirling when Rich the Kid tweeted and then deleted screenshots of a FaceTime call with Ocean. Whether the collaboration will end up on Ocean’s album is unclear.
February 28, 2016: Ocean teases new music at a VIP listening party in New York (presumably from the album), and snippets surface online across multiple platforms but they are soon taken down.
March 29, 2016: In an interview with Pitchfork, channel ORANGE producer Malay spoke about when the follow-up might arrive: “I always tell people: When he’s ready, the world is gonna get it. It could be tomorrow… well not tomorrow but maybe a month.” He also shared some insight into the album’s process: “Frank's exploring different vibes completely on this album. I wouldn’t say it's vocally looser but just his mentality; it doesn’t seem as meticulous at certain times.”
July 2, 2016: After nearly a year, Frank Ocean’s rarely-updated website, boysdontcry.co, provided what seemed to be a new release date. In a post called “Late,” a due-date slip for a library book read a string of dates with the last one being July 2016. July has been a speculated release date for the album every year since channel ORANGE came out.
August 1, 2016: A month later, the Boys Don’t Cry website added a mysterious new, Apple Music-hosted video live stream with workbenches and a boombox. Hours later, the even bigger news came: Over four years after the release of channel ORANGE, Ocean’s Boys Don’t Cry is reportedly dropping Friday as an Apple Music exclusive. It will be accompanied by the previously announced print publication, which will be available in Apple stores. The wait is over (maybe).