Genius | Song Lyrics & Knowledge

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Just asked at least one question on every song on Blonde. Answered a few too.

Also s/o @Zenith9 who answered a few of my questions!!

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Wanna get soaked?
Wanna film a tape on a speed boat?
We smell of Californication (Strike a pose) Frank Ocean – Skyline To

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Frank wants to film a sex tape. Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s sextape was stolen from their home in 1995. The tape was filmed on a boat during their honeymoon.

“Californication” is a song by the Red Hot Chili Peppers and a portmanteau on “California” and “fornication.” Given the lyrics throughout this song, it’s likely Frank had sex on a beach in California.

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871

7 years

Smelling of ‘californication’ could also be referring to the smell of marijuana, because California is one of the most prominent states to have decriminalized the drug. Marijuana has a very distinct smell and Frank has made numerous references to narcotics on the album.

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grimey

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7 years

‘strike a pose’ may be a reference to or borrowing of a phrase from cult grime MC Trim, which was remixed by Frank’s occasional collaborator, James Blake
original:

James Blake Remix:

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This is joy, this is summer
Keep alive, stay alive Frank Ocean – Skyline To

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While summer typically evokes connotations of happy times, the warmest season has a history of being America’s most deadly due to gun violence.

Frank spent most of his pre-fame years in New Orleans, Louisiana before moving to Los Angeles, California.

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1,277

3 years

He may also be referring to seasonal depression. Most of Frank’s upbeat work is placed in summer, but Blonde is placed in early August, September. The album has a reminiscent tone. Reminiscing about a past love. This would probably evoke strong emotions in addition to an already unstable mental health would cause you to struggle to “keep alive”

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You ain't a kid no more, we'll never be those kids again
It's not the same, ivory's illegal, don't you remember? Frank Ocean – Ivy

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Frank and the person he’s singing about have grown up and grew apart. While they’ll “never be those kids again,” Frank keeps that memory as a piece of their relationship.

Ivory, a hard, white material obtained from elephant tusks was banned in 1989 due to the rapidly decreasing elephant population, but before that, was used to make luxury drug accessories. Ivory is also slang for cocaine, Frank may be saying that their love affair involved some long nights on cocaine, and have become more aware of the legal repercussions of it as they grew older. He’s essentially saying that their love was a product of their reckless youth and was heightened by drugs, but now that they’ve grown up it will forever remain just a perfect memory.

Ivory also has an off-white color, which may be referring to a tainted innocence since white has a positive connotation of purity and cleanliness.

The use of the term, “ivory” is most likely an intentional use of wordplay that ties the song together. The ivy plant is an invasive species, while ivory is something precious. This could show the duality of the relationship and how it went from something precious to something toxic or invasive like ivy.

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Frank and the person he's singing about have grown up and grew apart. While they'll "never be those kids again," Frank keeps that memory as a piece of their relationship.

Ivory, a hard, white material obtained from elephant tusks was [banned in 1989](www.hsi.org/campaigns/dont_buy_wild/african_ivory_trade.html) due to the rapidly decreasing elephant population, but before that, was used to make luxury drug accessories. Ivory is also slang for cocaine, Frank may be saying that their love affair involved some long nights on cocaine, and have become more aware of the legal repercussions of it as they grew older. He's essentially saying that their love was a product of their reckless youth and was heightened by drugs, but now that they've grown up it will forever remain just a perfect memory.

http://images.genius.com/9175c64f8fbe14dedf96f53d0d0f42f0.491x630x1.jpg

Ivory also has an off-white color, which may be referring to a tainted innocence since white has a positive connotation of purity and cleanliness.

The use of the term, "ivory" is most likely an intentional use of wordplay that ties the song together. The ivy plant is an invasive species, while ivory is something precious. This could show the duality of the relationship and how it went from something precious to something toxic or invasive like ivy.

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7 months

This could also be referring to “Super Rich Kids” off channel ORANGE, where Frank and Earl sing about how kids with rich parents act reckless and do drugs. With “we’ll never be those kids again” Frank means that they’ll never be reckless kids doing drugs again.

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3 years

This line sounds so literal and personal that it feels like a stretch to make any metaphoric sense of it. It’s clearly a reference to a previous private conversation; nothing more. That makes sense considering the song is written to, or for someone specific, citing actual events and names — it’s not explicitly written as a poetic love song in the general sense.

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4 years

It might make more sense that he is talking about ivy (instead of ivory) in reference to marijuana. Medical marijuana was just recently legalized in some parts of California in 2018, where Syd, most likely referencing Syd Tha Kid from Odd Future, stayed at the time. Frank is saying that because they’ve grown out of their childish ways and no longer smoke together, the relationship dynamic has totally shifted.

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Esther Okai-Tetteh

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4 years

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If you could die and come back to life
Up for air from the swimming pool
You'd kneel down to the dry land
Kiss the earth that birthed you
Gave you tools just to stay alive
And make it out when the sun is ruined Frank Ocean – Pink + White

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Frank closes the second verse with an ode to his mother, describing the love between a mother and her child. She helped him through tough times (drowning in life’s complexities) and helped him get back on his feet (on dry land) with her advice and nurturing care (tools to stay alive). Women are often referred to as earths, hence “Mother Earth.”

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100

3 months

Frank continues to discuss Katrina, this time adding an ode to his mother as the current annotation reads.
He is also singing to the victims of Katrina – if they could come to life, catch their breath from the “swimming pool” (the floodwaters of Katrina).
“You’d kneel down to the dry land, kiss the earth that birthed you” continues frank’s verse to Katrina victims. The victims he is speaking to would kneel and pray on dry, unflooded land.
Many Katrina victims were born and raised in the area, due mostly to Louisiana and its neighbouring gulf states being the poorest region in America at the time of the hurricane. Therefore, if they survived or came back to life, they would kiss the Louisiana land that both birthed them and killed them.
The next line, “gave you tools just to stay alive” nods to the lack of resources and financial capital owned by many African American Katrina victims. Finally, frank sings “And make it out when the sun is ruined”. Katrina came with a cloud cover, ruining the sun. If the victims could have evacuated earlier, maybe they would have survived.

Frank continues to discuss Katrina, this time adding an ode to his mother as the current annotation reads. 
He is also singing to the victims of Katrina - if they could come to life, catch their breath from the "swimming pool" (the floodwaters of Katrina). 
"You'd kneel down to the dry land, kiss the earth that birthed you" continues frank's verse to Katrina victims. The victims he is speaking to would kneel and pray on dry, unflooded land. 
Many Katrina victims were born and raised in the area, due mostly to Louisiana and its neighbouring gulf states being the poorest region in America at the time of the hurricane. Therefore, if they survived or came back to life, they would kiss the Louisiana land that both birthed them and killed them. 
The next line, "gave you tools just to stay alive" nods to the lack of resources and financial capital owned by many African American Katrina victims. Finally, frank sings "And make it out when the sun is ruined". Katrina came with a cloud cover, ruining the sun. If the victims could have evacuated earlier, maybe they would have survived.

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Keira

2 years

This verse is about his brother that drowned and sadly passed away. He’s saying if he survived, his bro would kiss the ground, as he would be grateful to be alive.

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Matt

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7 years

He’s just going very big picture here, which he often does in his songs. The idea is that if you drowned but somehow came back to life, you’ve feel nothing but gratitude for life and appreciate it for what it really is, and appreciate the earth for what it really is. He’s saying that the earth gave birth to us, gave us tools to stay alive, and then evolve. The earth will die one day because the sun will go out but the earth gave us the tools to escape itself when that happens, hence “make it out when the sun is ruined”.

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7 years

“Make it out when the sun is ruined” is a reference to the death of stars. When stars die (ruined), they explode into a supernova, when this happens, earth will undoubtedly be consumed and destroyed. “Make it out” could refer to human souls and where they go after earth.

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302

7 years

Someone has any idea about the “And make it out when the sun is ruined”? Especially the use of “ruined”.

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Luis

7 years

@master360 it isn’t his mom on the next track but in fact his friends mom, Rosie Watson, giving advice. It was confirmed by Ocean’s brother:

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1,500

7 years

This writing is just so beautiful and deep…I think the whole song is about his mother and the way She taught him to live in this complex world. Also, his mother is actually on the next “track”.

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Remember life, remember how it was
Climb trees, Michael Jackson, all ends here Frank Ocean – Pink + White

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Frank alludes to his childhood being the best of time of his life. As life gets harder, “it all ends” in adulthood.

In the 2003 ITV documentary Living with Michael Jackson, Jackson shows journalist Martin Bashir his favorite tree to climb and tells the reporter he climbs it often. He calls the tree his “Giving Tree” and explains to Bashir he wrote songs such as “Heal The World,” “Will You Be There,” “Black or White,” and “Childhood” in the tree.

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Isrial Clark

1 year

Michael Jackson also has a song titled, “Remember The Time”.

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107

2 years

So this is the first I am seeing the Beyoncé is the back up singer in the track. That is honestly amazing. Not only does the piano and Ocean’s lyrics make the song but the balanced melody she brings brings everything together. I know the lyric is so far spoken about Michael Jackson literally climbing a tree but can also be reference to his song Remember the Time.

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171

3 years

BEYONCE IS IN THE BACK??

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That's a pretty fuckin' fast year flew by
That's a pretty long third gear in this car
Glidin' on the 5 Frank Ocean – Skyline To

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Frank juxtaposes a “fast year” with a “long third gear"—he’s been with this person for a year and although the year went by quickly, the days seem to last forever.

Cars with a manual transmission allow you to stay in a gear for a long period of time (usually third gear) before you have to shift to the next gear. When this happens it feels like you’re just gliding on the road.

“The five” is the Interstate 5, a major highway running north-south through Los Angeles and the rest of California.

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Moon

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2 years

Frank is referring to the gearing ratio of this car’s specific transmission. Smaller gear ratios are referred to as short, they accelerate faster but top out much quicker. Larger ratio, or longer gears, dont have the same acceleration, but can be useful over a larger range of speeds.

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Michonne

7 years

When Frank refers to a “long third gear” he is talking about the gear ratio which allows the car to stay in third gear for a long time before redlining.

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7 years

“Pretty long third gear in this car”–this is Frank Ocean’s third project, the longest time between releases in his career. The line seems to be a sly reference to that.

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Stanley

7 years

3rd gear is also usually the middle gear in the car, which is a comparison to his mid life right now. From childhood, teenager, and adult, adulthood is the longest to Frank.

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