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Please decondition yourself Frank Ocean – Not Just Money
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The mom is asking her son to reverse his thinking about money.

Mainstream society doesn’t place as much of a value on money as it deserves, to be conditioned means to have these ideologies implemented in you without you really realizing it, due to only being subjected to certain and limited circumstances. The Mother tells him to rid himself of this ideology.

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Wave 'em high, girl, to the sky Frank Ocean – Monks
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His African sweetie likes to ride without hands..he wants her to put her hands in the sky, suggesting she’s high off of the pleasure and possibly actually high.

This goes back to the start of the song, as he’s seen her from his shows, where he’s above her and the rest of the crowd.

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I'll rebel, I'll rebel
But this ain't natural Frank Ocean – Summer Remains
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Young people often struggle with their sexuality because we are conditioned to think that it isn’t right. Frank struggled with the feelings he had for his first love because before that he thought he was straight.

Basically, he’d fight it because he didn’t understand it at the time, but he’d become comfortable with it in the coming years.

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Show me her passport
She's on her own tour Frank Ocean – Monks
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Like Frank, she’s traveling the world, establishing that she has her own thing going on, giving her a complexity and an air of mystery that Frank is both attracted to and admirable of. It’s suggested that she’s running away from her home, or at least planning to, later in the song.

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0

4 years

“She’s on her own tour” could also suggest that she’s sleeping with a lot of guys, given that she’s likened to a groupie earlier in the song.

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76e5ab87e646484ae7d98e1b5688fc79

1,269

4 years

she isn’t the girl running from home, shes’s african, the girl running from home is indian which means she’s asain

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They mosh for enlightenment
Clean chakra, good karma, oh
One with the water Frank Ocean – Monks
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The “enlightenment” being referenced here is Enlightenment in Buddhism, which is here used as a metaphor for a music concert, where he is the idol and they worship him by dancing to his music. He compares raving and mosh pits to the idea of cleansing the chakras, making one feel enlightened, or above. This links into the title of the song (as the people referred to as Monks are often associated with Buddhism) and the reference to the Dalai Lama earlier in the verse.

Interestingly, The Sacral chakra, associated with sex, sensuality and focusing a lot on the needs and what we give up for a relationship is also the colour is also orange. Sound familiar?.

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My right hand to God
Left hand holding the jewels
And I'm swearing up and down Frank Ocean – Summer Remains
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He swears to the truth and nothing but the truth in his words especially in this particular song. Frank the refers to his “crown jewels”, in a classic merge of spirituality and sexuality, as Frank is known to do.

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102

4 years

“My right hand to God.”
- Frank’s devotion to Christianity
- It could also in reference to his religious upbringing.

“Left hand holding the jewels.”
- The temptations of the flesh/Frank’s deviant sexual nature (insofar as how contemporary culture perceives it.)
- “Jewels” is also an alternative term for genitals. (Frank’s balls… ;) …)

Frank attempts to convey the contradictory nature of his beliefs. Religiously, he is devoted to Christian theology.
However, he realizes that his carnal nature is incompatible with his “religion,” thereby, the bane of his existence is predicated upon the notion that these two ideologies are irreconcilable in principle.

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Janae
5 years

Frank is probably talking to God, also holding the rosary in his left in attempt to come to terms with the relationship he is in

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4easi7k9ftp

514

7 years

Left hand holding the jewels could also be a symbol for marriage. On the left hand is a ring (jewel)

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7 years

h'es also playing on words (jews)

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It ain't natural Frank Ocean – Summer Remains
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Summer is supposed to be warm, not cold and, before this love, a relationship was between a man and a woman for Frank, which explains why he struggled with this relationship to begin with.

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Too cold this side of June Frank Ocean – Summer Remains
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The side of June Frank is referring to is July and August (months of summer), which are usually hotter than the months before June. Of course, we know Frank found his first love during the summer.

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When we're under the palm trees
Thinking heaven must be
Somewhere under these palm trees
With all the hell we're raising
At least we had the palm trees
To save us from the ray beams
But not even the palm trees
Could save us from the flames
Summer remains, ooh
Oh, summer remains
Oh yeah, summer remains
Summer remains Frank Ocean – Summer Remains
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The palm trees symbolize the summer, which Frank is singing about this whole song, but they also are a symbol of protection for the couple, who obviously can’t be together outside it.

Under the protection/cover the trees provide, they’re in heaven, as the shade of the trees makes them feel safe to be with each other. But, eventually, they break up, because their relationship didn’t really exist in the outside world and, by the end of the summer, it was over.

The idea of finding heaven together is echoed in “It’s All Good” and “Golden Girl.”

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Naza O.
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1 year

Frank uses the term “Summer Remains” as a double entendre. He states that the palm trees couldn’t save them from the flames and additionally it seems that this story all takes place in the summer.

When he says “Summer remains”, he’s referring to the burned down remains of their love in the summer. He’s also stating that the summer remains as they left it with the unfortunate demise of their love.

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7 years

Frank could also making a more obvious allusion to weed when referring to the palm trees.

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When that jungle flower blooms
Better leave it in the ground
Don't try to cut it out Frank Ocean – Summer Remains
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The flower is a metaphor for their relationship.

When something amazing happens, cherish it. Leave it as it was. Trying to keep it will only destroy it. Eventually it will come to an end and trying to maintain it would only ruin it for those involved.

In Frank’s Open Letter he mentions that his first love didn’t admit his feelings for Frank until three years after Frank did.

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