Frank Ocean made his debut as a host on the airwaves on Friday, February 24, with the broadcast of his Blonded Radio Show slot on Beats 1. And those lucky enough to have known anything about the surprise production got to tune in to witness a conversation with his first guest, Jay-Z.
The No Church In The Wild and Oceans collaborators linked back up, but this time it wasn't to display the brilliant chemistry their hooks and rhymes make for. They chatted between spins of Ocean's soulful selections, most notably touching on the state of commercial radio. It was a rare appearance for Jay, one which he didn't take for granted, providing a poignant assessment of the business.
"You take, like, these pop stations, they're reaching the 18-34, young white females. So, they're playing music based on their taste. And then they're taking those numbers and they're going to advertisement agencies and people are paying based on the audience that they have," Jay-Z said while expounding on his characterization of modern radio as an advertising model.
It was a fitting discussion in Frank Ocean's world, with his bold maneuvering to shake out of his Def Jam deal by dropping what many would call a decoy album, in Endless, one week before dropping Blonde as an independent artist. Blonde has since garnered the praise of some of music's biggest names, although Frank omitted himself from the nomination process altogether, knocking the prestigious award show as irrelevant to urban music.
"So these places are not even based on music. You know, their playlists are not even based on music," Jay-Z would add, explaining that based on such a formula, an artist as great as Bob Marley probably wouldn't get spins on a pop station today. "Which is crazy, you know, it's not even about the DJ discovering what music is best."
Source: youtube.com
