"Frank's Track" is a song by American musician

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

, which was added to his seventh studio album ''

The Life of Pablo ''The Life of Pablo'' is the seventh studio album by American rapper and producer Kanye West. It was released on February 14, 2016, through GOOD Music and distributed by Def Jam Recordings. Recording sessions took place from 2013 to 2016, in It ...

'' (2016) when updates were made to it on March 16, 2016.

Background

A track featuring

Frank Ocean Christopher Francis "Frank" Ocean (born Christopher Edwin Breaux; October 28, 1987), is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. His works are noted by music critics for featuring avant-garde styles and introspective, elliptical lyrics. Ocean ...

, the song originally served as the outro to "

Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; plural, : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been reco ...

". The outro was separated into its own track on March 16, 2016, during the process of updates. However, "Frank's Track" still follows "Wolves" seamlessly, still acting somewhat as an outro rather than an interlude. Within the same month that version of ''The Life of Pablo'' was released, before Ocean's vocals were transferred to the separate track from "Wolves", an alternative version of the song leaked online with him singing in the intro.

Composition

There are no actual vocals by West on the track at all, since Ocean solely sings throughout over production from West,

Cashmere Cat Magnus August Høiberg (born 29 November 1987), known professionally as Cashmere Cat, is a Norwegian DJ, record producer, songwriter and musician. He is best known for producing songs for artists including Kanye West, The Kid Laroi, Selena Gomez ...

and

Sinjin Hawke Alan Stanley Soucy Brinsmead, better known by the stage name Sinjin Hawke, is a Canadian-American electronic music producer and DJ. Career In late 2011, Sinjin Hawke released his first EP, "The Lights" on the Belgium-based Pelican Fly label and ...

, hence the title "Frank's Track". Despite the song being an update to ''The Life of Pablo'' when it was separated from the original featuring track, no updates were made to it post-release, unlike other songs that witnessed updates.

Critical reception

Christopher Hooton of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' described Ocean's vocals on the song as a "stunning contribution". Jake Indiana of ''

Highsnobiety Highsnobiety is a global fashion and lifestyle media brand founded in 2005 by David Fischer. It was bought by German e-commerce giant Zalando in 2022. Highsnobiety is headquartered in Berlin and has offices in Amsterdam, London, Milan, New York ...

'' gave a highly positive reception towards the track with the question: "What does it say about our cultural addiction to Frank Ocean that he can turn in a 30-second long studio demo and it becomes an essential part of someone else's album?"

Commercial performance

Upon the release of the featuring album, "Frank's Track" debuted at number 5 on the US ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

Bubbling Under R&B/Hip-Hop Singles The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

chart and never charted on it again. It also debuted at number 168 in the UK, making the song the lowest charting track from ''The Life of Pablo'' in the country.

Charts

References

{{authority control 2016 songs Frank Ocean songs Kanye West songs Song recordings produced by Cashmere Cat Song recordings produced by Kanye West Songs written by Frank Ocean Songs written by Kanye West