frank ocean delivers the goods on new song “dhl”

Perfect event production may not be Frank Ocean’s forté just yet but he’s still a master songwriter with a gift for tugging at our heartstrings his emo musings and pushing our buttons with eye-raising bravado. He usually accomplishes this through singing but long-time Odd Future and Frank fans know that he’s no slouch on the mic as a rapper too. He reminds of us this fact on his Boys Noize-produced new song “DHL”

Continuing the flawless Frank Ocean rap verse streak we’ve heard on songs such as OF’s “Oldie,” Earl Sweatshirt’s “Sunday” and A$AP Rocky’s “Purity” over the years, Ocean’s first new song since 2018’s cover of “Moon River” is another palette for him to talk his shit — however abstractly. On the song, he makes reference to fellatio, jail, and non-descript packs coming via DHL. Depite the boasts of “boy toys” that “suck him like a Hoover” and “ride him like an Uber” and the flexin’ about rare watches, high fashion, and Paris trips there’s a palatable ennui to this song and slight melancholy in his tone that underlies the braggadocio. Maybe sex, drugs, and high fashion aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Maybe we’ll find out more of what’s going on in the heart and mind of one of music’s most mysterious men when he drops a new album. Whenever that is …