The New York Times profiled producer Michael Uzowuru recently and in the article, they talked about his relationship with Frank Ocean. Uzowuru, who has been affiliated with the Odd Future crew since around 2009, worked on Frank’s last two albums, Endless and Blonde, and more recently they’ve been in Miami making new music together.
“Me and Michael’s careers exist post hip-hop — that genre, that culture, informs both of us greatly, but his appetite has grown; his vocabulary, musically, has grown so much over the time that I’ve known him,” Ocean told NYT over the phone.
Along with Rick Rubin, Uzowuru is someone the singer turns to when he has writer’s block. “Michael is a friend I talk to about where I’m at artistically very often.” Ocean also mentioned how it was his friend who he called when he was trying to figure out Blonde standout “Nights,” revealing, “I had all these ways of describing what the album was missing. Ultimately, I had to write it, I had to do it. But it did start in conversation with [Michael].”
The duo are much more than collaborators, though, and are closer to family. “I couldn’t love him or care about him more,” Uzowuru told NYT. “I’m very grateful for him as a person outside of the work, so it doesn’t matter if we work. I don’t need to work with him, because it’s so much bigger. He’s separate from everyone else. He’s family.”
Frank Ocean hasn’t released an album since dropping both Endless and Blonde in 2016. The last time we heard from him was when he gave us the two loosies “Dear April” and “Cayendo” in 2020.