Hi! My name is Yousef Srour and I'm the author of the new book about Frank Ocean's Blonde for Bloomsbury's 33 1/3 Series.

The book comes out today, October 15, and it explores how Frank Ocean made the masterpiece that is Blonde. I examine the cultural impact of the record, Ocean's seven-year chess game with Def Jam, his various influences, and its role as a seminal work of the 2010s Afrofuturist revival.

Combining archival interviews with personal anecdotes, the book aims to elucidate why Blonde is the single most important album of the streaming era, through its rollout, release, and legacy.

I'm a Bay Area-born freelance writer and critic. My work has appeared in the LA Review of Books, Pitchfork, Stereogum, the Vallejo Sun, Variety and more.

Link: Frank Ocean's Blonde by Yousef Srour

I have recently acquired the remix to in my room, and tbh, it doesn’t really click for me. People who like it, what were your feelings when first hearing it? Does it get better?