We asked poets and professors to deconstruct the work of the musicians in Frank Ocean’s zine Boys Don’t Cry

Text Anna Cafolla

After over a year’s wait, Frank Ocean dropped his visual album Endless, alongside Blond and the magazine Boys Don’t Cry. His musical output features everyone from Wolfgang Tillmans to Lil B, and in the magazine Kanye West and Tyler, the Creator wrote poems. Poetry seems like a logical step aside from songwriting as another form of storyelling. Now, the TLOP rapper and Frank’s Odd Future comrade are rising to join the ranks of Patti Smith, Erykah Badu and Tupac Shakur, musicians who have also written poetry. West offers a sensory set of verses with ‘The McDonald’s Man’, in what could possibly be an allegory for the consumption of celebrity culture – though who can really be sure what Yeezy is getting at. Tyler, the Creator has created a love letter to cars in ‘Tricolor’, with the automobile a recurring symbol in Ocean’s own work. The recording of Blond was, according to Ocean, inspired by a succession of cars. Ocean hasn’t been afraid to explore his voice in other literary mediums: he wrote a letter about homophobia in the wake of the horrific Orlando shooting, as well as a Tumblr ode to Prince. There's also been speculation that he’s writing a novel. For Boys Don’t Cry, the R&B singer has published the heartfelt poem ‘Boyfriend’, as he thoughtfully explores queerness in America, marriage equality and falling in love. There’s also a screenplay by the singer, titled Godspeed, that explores his teenage years and experiences. The pages of Boys Don’t Cry are populated by a variety of artistic mediums from Ocean’s creative circle; dystopian comic strips, illustrations of artists, an interview with Frank's relatives and screenshots of James Blake and A$AP Rocky's computer search history. So the literary contributions of Ye, Tyler and Frank to Boys Don’t Cry satisfy our notions of romance and penchants for salty chips, but would their work stand up beside poetry’s greats? We spoke to some experts to find out their thoughts.

‘THE MCDONALD’S MAN’ – KANYE WEST Professor Andrea Brady is a professor of poetry at Queen Mary University London. In examining Kanye’s ditty, Brady isn’t convinced. She says: “If this is a poem, there’s not much to it. Kanye’s ‘McDonalds Man’ seems to me to belong to the category of the nonsense poem – with a whiff of the dozens.” Nonsense verse is a style of poetry with a classically more humorous, whimsical in tone – something one would expect when the writer discusses the sinister nature of some fast food fries. Basically, they’re not meant to make much sense past the superficial meaning. “But unlike nonsense verse, there’s no joy in the way language sounds, no actual playfulness; and it’s so G-rated the kids will probably be taught to clap it in the playground,” continues Brady. “We all know that Kanye can be an exuberant critic of the consumerism for which he himself is the world’s greatest icon. This poem is typical in its ambivalence towards McDonald’s as a value, but compared to his lyrics – for example, on a track like ‘Monster’ – it’s flat, weak, and totally uninteresting. “Some of the most intense and interesting contemporary poetry being composed and performed right now is by hip-hop artists so it’s disappointing that in this moment when the crossover into poetry generates a lot of media hype, what we get is so inert,” says Brady. “Stripped of sound, it is feeble and in need of the protection that only a disgusting global brand can provide.” Danez Smith, a New York-based poet and actor, noted the subject of jealousy, and a very familiar rhyme scheme to what Ye has offered us before. He thinks the most interesting characters that emerge are ‘McRib’ and ‘Apple Pie’. “I might suggest a title change,” he observes. “I get that ‘McDonald’s Man’ makes for a nice sonic repetition, but we don’t actually get to know who that man is, we learn about the fries and how people feel about them. Or are the fries McDonald’s man? That’s deep.” James Massiah, a London-based spoken word artist and poet, recalls the criticism he’s read so far of Kanye’s submission, which says Kanye should put his energy into ‘real’ issues. “That begs the question: who is the arbiter of worth and value? As a nihilist, I’m well aware that inherent value doesn’t exist in anything, and so it’s ultimately up to each individual to determine whether it was worthwhile or not in accordance with their own interests. I for one appreciate joviality and flirtation with the absurd from time to time, particularly from artists like Kanye, who regularly tackle ‘heavier’ topics like race, class and sexuality in their work, but also often do so with a wink and a knowing nod to those with a similar sense of humour.” Therefore, Kanye could be making a statement that goes deeper than what’s going on superficially here. Massiah suggests it may be an exploration of being an outcast in the fashion industry despite his successful Yeezy collection, or a critique of capitalism and corporate America. “Then again, maybe it's just a passing ditty that sought to personify fast food and have a laugh at the expense of Kanye’s appetite for McD’s,” says Massiah. “What I know for certain is that if there ever is a Def Poetry Jam reboot, I would love to see a reading of this piece added to Kanye's canon.”

Tyler the Creator's "Tricolor" poem for boys don't cry magazine pic.twitter.com/GFJuqobptH — frankocean (@boysdontcryco) August 22, 2016

‘TRICOLOR’ – TYLER, THE CREATOR Professor Robert Hampson, who’s expertise is in Modern Literature at Royal Holloway, was most intrigued by Tyler’s submission, with some tweaks that is. “For me the most interesting of the three is ‘Tricolor’. The opening line is flat, and I would advise a student to cut it and begin with ‘now its tire traction….’ “There is then a much more energetic start with the poem itself, taking traction through the alliterative ‘tire traction’.” Hampson describes the “the subtle attention” to the sound of words, with internal rhyme patterns and use of half-rhymes, where the words are similar, but don’t have identical sounds. Tyler’s use of alliteration, Hampson says, is held together by the sudden announcement of “fuck”. “There is then a nice turn with ‘i’m expecting this so it aint odd’. This initiates an exploration of various ‘o’ sounds: ‘two 5’s on the paint job, lactose, wide body, fat ghost / grannys watch over me when i act slow, rev till i plateau’, while the ‘two’ also initiates a sequence of numbers which concludes with ‘switch gears like i take breaths, wish i had 8 / left 6 got skipped, went to 7th from the 5th’.” “The slight surrealness of the bus pass turning into all of this fly car shit is fresh and also classic hip-hop mythology” – Danez Smith Despite the clever use of language and sound, Tyler’s poem needs tightening, as the overall message gets lost in confused analogies. “On a quick reading, the last four or five lines are much slacker, and the tight focus has gone,” says Hampson. “I don’t get anything from the references to chapters and bus passes, with which the poem starts and ends: for me, this is a frame that doesn’t work, but perhaps I am missing something.” Smith on the other hand praises the circularity of the buss pass imagery in ‘Tricolor’, as the themes of movement and transportation are consistent. “The slight surrealness of the bus pass turning into all of this fly car shit is fresh and also classic hip-hop mythology,” says Smith. “Shout out to Granny for getting two shout outs in the poem, it keeps the speaker grounded in something, as we get lost in all this car imagery we are anchored and bookended by the speaker’s past – his family, his bus riding days, the general sense of the come up. I fucks with Tyler’s decision to use the lowercase i, it’s one of the things i also like to do and i wonder if he, like me, picked that up from some of the great black poets before us that also adopted that style?” Massiah also agrees with the real Tyler, the Creator flow that’s emerging in ‘Tricolor’. “I read in his accent – you can see how the stress on words like ‘chapter/passes/traction/crashes’ make this fit for a potential performance on a beat. For some reason I can really hear Pusha T rapping this. It's aspirational, and charts a journey from commuting on public transport to hopefully driving a Ferrari, which fits with the stereotypical themes and content of typical rap verse. “I find it interesting how the flow switches throughout, and seeing the lyrics written down like this offers something of an insight into Tyler’s creative process. I guess Frank Ocean has expressed in more ways than one his love for cars, that may well be why this piece was selected.”

Frank Ocean wrote this poem called "Boyfriend" and its so beautiful bye pic.twitter.com/aYgJXuKNVQ — aniela arce (@anielaarce) August 22, 2016