The Allusiveness of Brent Faiyaz and Frank Ocean

Artists doing “disappearing acts” are nothing new in the music industry. My mind immediately goes back to 2010 which saw the release of Sade’s sixth studio album, Soldier of Love. The album was met with both critical and commercial success. However, what could not be ignored in the hype surrounding the album was the amount of time passed between releases for the band. After the release and global tour for their previous album, Lovers Rock, it would be eight years before the band would regroup to release (two years later in 2010), Solider of Love. During this hiatus, there was only one documented public appearance by Sade herself, for which she was honored by Queen Elizabeth for her contribution to the music industry. While the bands comeback spoke for itself through the music, monolithic and alluring as always, the commercial aspect proved that even after all these years in silence – Sade could still seize the attention of the masses.

Fast-forward to February 2021 and we are blessed with a new release from Brent Faiyaz, sarcastically titled DO NOT LISTEN. The three track EP appeared out of thin air and was serviced to fans via the Dropbox platform. The EP also arrives on the heels of Gravity, his recently acclaimed major-label single with Tyler, The Creator and Steve Lacy. In what would be a complete 180, the drop was met with no associated post on Instagram, just a link in his bio that simply stated DO NOT LISTEN. Taking it a step further, track two (“Paper Soldier” featuring Joony) of the EP ends with Faiyaz sharing a voicemail snippet that essentially calls out his modus operadi of not responding to direct messages and only showing glimpses of his life on the ‘gram smoking weed, drinking, and eating. The lines that end the track are those that directly speak to his legion of fans as it relates to his lack of releases:

I'ma need you to drop more songs 'cause "Dead Man Walking" was not satis-I was not satisfied with it because I had already heard it before
And I'm gonna need you to drop a whole album this new year
2021, I expect more from you
This is ridiculous, it is very ridiculous
So, you need to res— Message deleted.

The abrupt “move to trash” handling of the message could be interpreted as Brent’s response to such fans and messages. He has come to embody “Where’s Waldo” in that he does not seem to care whether you can find him or not. One to constantly switch up his Instagram aesthetic and mass-delete posts, it appears that Faiyaz is standing his ground and finding artistic expression in not being so readily available.

Considering how Brent is positioning his brand, it is hard not to draw parallels to fellow musician Frank Ocean. As we know, Frank Ocean exploded into the public consciousness after the release of the 2012 Channel Orange. A critically acclaimed mixtape that seemingly came out of nowhere, Frank propelled into stardom and was pegged as the biggest new R&B artist. However, at the peak of success something strange happened; Frank disappeared. So much so that fans created missing person posters that were shared online and the only thing to hold fans over was the occasional leak and archived Soundcloud track under a previous alias Lonny Breaux. It was not until 2016 that Frank would post his infamous livestream confirming a visual album, Endless, set to be released on Apple music with his true second album, Blonde, following two days later.

It is refreshing to see artists take back their creative power and create a sense of mystery around themselves. With the help of technology, we are just one message away from contacting practically anyone on the planet. The balance to remain plugged in and engaged while also having something for yourself can be difficult with label and marketing machines needing to squeeze all they can out of an artist. Maybe one day we will be able to accept and return to the respect we previously held for musicians, as is the case of Sade and other major artists before the technology boom. In the 90’s, nobody knew what Janet Jackson was doing, Aaliyah was not sharing what she made for breakfast, and Toni Braxton was not flaunting all her Tiffany’s china for millions of fans to see. It shouldn’t be groundbreaking to say that a “disappearing act” is warranted time for an artist to take off as well-deserved shade from the limelight.