Watch “Nikes,” Frank Ocean’s trippy new video.

Watch “Nikes,” Frank Ocean’s Trippy New Video

Watch “Nikes,” Frank Ocean’s Trippy New Video

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Slate's Culture Blog
Aug. 20 2016 5:04 PM

Watch “Nikes,” Frank Ocean’s Trippy New Video

frankocean
Frank Ocean in “Nikes.”

Frank Ocean

A day after Frank Ocean released his surprise video album Endless, and with his long-anticipated just-regular-sounds album still unreleased, Ocean has released a regular non-video-album music video, for “Nikes.”

The track is built around three vocal lines, all sung by Ocean: one slowed down, one sped up, and one simply Auto-Tuned into a warble. “Nikes” opens with a slowed-down version of the lyric “I’ve got two versions” Ocean used on his Tumblr when first announcing his upcoming album. Following a warning to gold-diggers (“Bitches want Nikes / They’re looking for a check / Tell ’em it ain’t likely,”) Ocean sails into stranger waters, including salutes to A$AP Yams, Pimp C, and Trayvon Martin.

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The video’s director, Tyrone Lebon, described the song to Fader as “a stream of Frank’s consciousness—rich with snippets of stories, emotions and ideas” and used those snippets to construct the video, which switches video stocks, aspect ratios, and even uses rotoscoping as it strings together (not-safe-for-work) images suggested by the song. Some of this is quite literal: paired images—women, statuettes, even Ocean himself in a split-screen—start showing up from the “two versions” line, and a photo of Trayvon Martin appears when he’s mentioned. But it’s not all straightforward: There’s also Frank Ocean setting himself on fire, a striking Kids-style party aftermath, and a lip-syncing chihuahua.

Ocean’s new album, formerly titled Boys Don’t Cry (the new title hasn’t been revealed) is scheduled to be released on Apple Music later this weekend. (Update: It’s out!)