This July marked 10 years since Frank Ocean rocked the music landscape with Channel Orange, and its lasting impression can be quantified in a new way. The seminal album has now spent 100 total weeks on the Billboard 200, sitting at No. 157 on the chart revealed Monday (October 10). It joins Blonde, Ocean’s 2016 sophomore studio album, in achieving that benchmark. Blonde has charted for 298 total weeks.
Frank Ocean's 'Channel Orange' has now spent 100 total weeks on the #Billboard200 (No. 157 this week). It's his second album to reach the milestone, after 'Blonde' (298 weeks and counting).
— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) October 10, 2022
Ocean, famously enigmatic, seemed to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Channel Orange on July 10 by reviving Blonded Radio on Apple Music 1, which had been dormant since last Christmas. Rumors about Ocean’s highly anticipated next album have been swirling for years. He dropped “DHL,” his first single in two years, in October 2019, followed by “Dear April” and “Cayendo” in March 2020. Come September 2021, a Hits Daily Double report surfaced that Ocean was “shopping a new album” to different labels by “taking meetings and playing the music for execs.” Still, no album.
And then in late September, Ocean wiped his Instagram page. That’s usually a universal indicator to fans that an artist is gearing up to begin a new era — we’re just one year removed from the Adele 30 frenzy — but any true Ocean fan knows better than to expect a conventional rollout strategy. The one confirmed morsel of information about Ocean’s near future? He’s expected to headline Coachella in 2023.
