I’ve always thought it was text to speech also, like he is driving and uses that function on his phone to send the message to the person he is talking about/ to.

black dick balls

“though even Texans not imbibing the substance might move and talk more slowly than people in other parts of the country” LMAO that’s foul 💀😂

frank forgot to speak? hey remember “Forgot to tell you
Gotta tell you how much I vibe with you
And we don’t gotta be solo” from Solo?

@cupsofsun thank you, would love to talk to you more.

I can’t be the only one hearing “Texas Pete”, right?

Texas speed may also be a double entendre, also meaning the slow speed limits of the many backroads of Texas

Frank maybe regrets how he didn’t speak one final time so he texts this person. But the relationship is still over.

thank you so much @cupofsun

Ok, I have been listening to this album on repeat nonstop and I have a few things to add/tie up from others commentary. My thanks in advance to all who write on this site, I am a long time fan, and this is my first post, please be gentle!

As a New Orleans resident (Frank Ocean references his hometown all over Blonde and Endless), I want to point out that as you drive from NOLA —> Texas, when you finally hit Texas, the speed limit DOES goes up, by 10 MPH. So you get that “Texas speed, YES!” feeling, because you can finally SPEED UP. Especially if you were high, it gives you a jolt to make it through the long drive.

Then Frank drops off his partner, and can’t speak (Frank is known to be very quiet, and also that “drop off/goodbye” moment is brutal if you and your lover live in different states, of mind or place). As he’s driving home, everything hits him that he wants to say, so he texts while he’s driving (he likely texts "I care for you still and I will, forever”), even though he knows it’s over for the other person. There is also a VERY slight possibility that Frank says “Text TO speech”, meaning he uses the his phone’s dictation function, but he flips it to rhyme more perfectly with “Texas Speed”. Just a thought.

There is also the underlying relationship that Frank is processing his way through on Blonde and Endless (which I believe to be his long-term male partner who wouldn’t “come out” as bisexual or openly admit his relationship with Frank around the time of the Channel Orange release).

Notice here how you can hear Frank say “PACE it takes it’s TOLL on me, eventually, yes.” As in, the PACE of life, the PACE of Texas driving, and yes, the pace/base soundalike is surely intentional, I just don’t think it’s the correct lyric (it’s a long and endless boring drive from NOLA to TX, where he is likely coming home to). It could also be back from Texas, and then he drops him off at “Central” which is a neighborhood here in NOLA. On his way back to New Orleans East (a bit of a drive) is where this song and the text to his lover both get written. Frank references living in the New Orleans East quite often (listen to “Alabama” off “Endless”).

As a music producer and audio engineer, here (hear, har har) is my argument for this whole verse:

A.) Say “P” and then “B” out loud to yourself. You will notice they rhyme but come out of your mouth differently, P with a hard “PAH” sound, and B with a low “Bee” sound. Pay attention to how your mouth moves. This can be heard on the recording as Frank hits the pop filter (the mesh screen in front of the microphone to stop clipping) with his P sound. In my experience, words that begin with "B” don’t do this often, so that would rule out “Base” and “Basic”. That leaves us with Pace (or patience I suppose, though I don’t hear it), and if you read this whole verse, PACE just makes so much more sense.

B.) I heard it as “Basic Texas toll on me” at first as well, but I then remembered that there are NO TOLLS between NOLA and any of the major cities in Texas. I double checked on google maps, and am correct. Then again, we gotta give Frank artistic license to drop yet another driving word into a brilliant verse, but I think it’s the pace that takes the toll on him, not an actual toll.

C.) This whole verse mixed with his Texas style/speed rapping (slow double-time over no beat/floating in the clouds) makes for a very meta-analytical verse. Note the other driving words that are present, starting with “Stick” (he’s driving a stick shift), “Slow Body” (driving a crappy car with a “Slow Body” only dreaming of a White Ferrari) and finally, the word play on “pace it takes it’s toll on me”, meaning he’s driving for too many hours, but also that the relationship and pain is taking it’s toll on him (it’s a long and endlessly boring drive, whichever way he is going).

Added up, this whole verse focuses on car words and uses auto metaphors all over, and looks like this with my emphasis added:

STICK by me
Close by me
You were fine
You were fine here
That’s just a SLOW BODY
You left when I forgot to speak
So I text the speech, LESSER SPEEDS
TEXAS SPEED, YES
PACE it takes it’s toll on me
‘Ventually, 'ventually, yes
Ah on me 'ventually, 'ventually, yes

If people want to hear any more commentary from someone who lives here on Frank’s verses, please give me some feedback. I spend a lot of time thinking about his lyrics and this city. Just to be clear, I am not FROM here originally, and will not attempt to give “real talk” on black culture in New Orleans. I’m simply a word-obsessed hip-hop freak who spends all day thinking about this stuff. Thanks for reading.

I think the line is actually “text and speed” perhaps referring to how Frank isn’t focusing on the fast paced life he lives

The Houston-style rap is slower which could allude to “Texas Speed”