Where in the World is Frank Ocean?

It was the summer of 2012. July to be exact. Huddled together in a top bunk bed at a beach house in Ocean Shitty, New Jersey, my two best friends and I read Frank Ocean's coming out letter aloud off his Tumblr page. It was a week before Channel Orange would come out, three weeks before we'd go to his concert, and a few months before he would perform at the Grammys. We were young, emotional, and really really into Frank Ocean. So was pretty much everyone.

I'd heard about Frank through Odd Future (this is all VERY highschool, I know), but his reach was obviously much greater than the rap collective he was linked to at the time. Channel Orange is one of a handful of albums that is good straight through. And good is a gross understatement.

What I didn't know when I was in the shore house top bunk bed in New Jersey was that Channel Orange would be the last thing I'd hear out of Frank for a while. He's since become a painfully mysterious enigma, only occasionally leading fans on with scarce ambiguous and unfulfilled previews of future projects. So what happened? Where did he go? Why is he doing this to us?

Nobody knows. I've compiled a list of some of the most exciting things he's done since then in an attempt to figure things out, and maybe provide some closure. (Spoiler alert: an album is not on the list below.)

Releases Wiseman on Tumblr (Dec. 23th 2012)

A few months after Channel Orange's release, Wiseman popped up on Ocean's Tumblr, a place that would become the main source for Ocean's rare and cryptic updates, which are sometimes just social commentary. Wiseman was originally set to be in Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained, but didn't make the cut. Tarantino said there was no room for the ballad, and he didn't feel like jeopardizing the song's quality by putting it somewhere it didn't belong. Ocean said the movie was "ill without it." And for the fans, who were not yet starved for material, Christmas came early with this after-thought bonus.

Appears on Jay-Z's Magna Carta Holy Grail (July 4 2013)

This one's a feature, but it kept everybody hanging on for a little. He smooths out the song with arguably one of his best lines ever: "I hope my black skin don't dirt this white tuxedo." And the Jay-Z to Frank connection makes sense. Ocean, who was formerly a ghost-writer, wrote Beyonce's chilling I Miss You, and appeared on her legendary surprise album with a duet later in 2013.

Puts Memrise on his Tumblr (Nov. 28 2014)

I like to think that this was some sort of birthday gift to me, as it came out on my 20th birthday, a day that was mainly filled with my own crying (cue Frank's There Will Be Tears) as I faced the death of my teenage years. This song felt like a consolation. As I’ve written before, I have a theory that any song under two minutes long is a notable song. The theory has yet to be wrong. Memrise is one of my favorite Frank songs, and he performs all its magic in under two minutes.

Covers Aaliyah ( Jan. 23 2015)

Frank released this on what would have been Aaliyah's 36th birthday. In his own angelic voice, he does what not many other artists can do, which is cover an Aaliyah song, and give it its full justice. His version, of what was originally an Isley Brothers song, is chilling and captivating.

Announces a New Album and Magazine (April 7 2015)

!!!!11!!!!!11!!!!!! Everybody on the Internet, along with almost any aware person on the world, freaks out after he says he’s putting out not only a new album by the end of the summer, but a magazine as well. Prayers are answered and lives are changed. For the time being. At this point no one yet knew of the seemingly endless empty days to come.

(Photo from Frank's Tumblr with Boys Don't Cry Magazine)

Rumored to be Recording with Rich The Kid ( Jan. 7 2016)

Take note at the dumb length of time between this update and the last one. This weird little rumor sparked by Rich The Kid’s (since deleted) tweets is exciting for a reason aside from just Frank being in the studio. Rich Kid is a rapper and music producer, most notable mainly for his work with Migos. This is exciting in regards to Frank because Rich Kid involvement could mean maybe some more rapping from Frank. His vocals are amazing, but it’s hard to forget his rapping, when there are songs like Blue Whale floating around the Internet. (People don’t forget, Frank.)

(Deleted Twitter pic of Rich the Kid facetiming with Frank Ocean captioned, " Me X Frank Ocean....smh.")

Appears on Kanye's Life of Pablo (Feb. 14 2016)

At this point the album is a notable seven months late, and the dire need and thirst for a full length anything from Frank is unbearable. The feature on Kanye’s new album is pretty much altogether overshadowed by Kanye’s fully embraced craziness at this point, or the Internet is completely over his shit, and no longer really reacting to anything he does if it’s not the album he promised…seven months ago. However Frank is definitely a well-noted character at Kanye’s fashion week show, as mysterious blurred pictures of him at the MSG showing start popping up across the Internet. The appearance is almost a cruel reminder that Frank does in fact still exist, but is in some ways ignoring our pleas for material.

(Frank pictured at a NYFW show. Courtesy of OUT Magazine)