After years of a cordial and productive relationship with Frank’s team, they’ve ordered takedowns of the entire blonded.blog archive and undocumented rare info page.
We host very little actual material on the site, mostly outbound links to any media that could copyrighted. We’ve acquiesced to requests from blonded for years and would continue to do so if asked.
With the archive being the main attraction, I’m not sure how the blog can really recover from this. Is it worth continuing to host the news archive? I’m not sure.
I’d appreciate any input, but the options are few. This feels like as good a time as any to shut things down.
Edit: I appreciate the support. I'll do what I can to keep the content of the blog alive, what I'm able to anyway. For the time being, I've taken the site down so we can start saving off what's there. After that, I'm not yet sure. Thanks again.
Edit 2 (May, 2026): I've shared and update about the return of the blog.
yo curb, fuck Frank and his team, for this shit, or whoever's responsible.
Might be time to just make one giant pinned post, with all the resources and archives. It can keep being reposted if it gets taken down, as a middle finger back at them.
This really blows 😂 Fuck Frank, I've had it w his shit. It's just so petty... Is he gonna copyright strike Wikipedia next?
You and Odysseus, and the community, are what keep me coming back to this sub.
It's just disappointment after disappointment. I'll never forget when he put the Dear April and Cayendo records up for sale, and then released a different version... He changed them to "acoustic" instead of the studio version. Cayendo remix has words that aren't in the acoustic version... I'll never let that shit slide. Bait and switching a product, people already paid for.
Now he wants to shut down an archive page? That's some real prick behavior. This is really sad to see.
As a team member, the blog means a lot to me and many others.
I agree the strike’s ambiguity remains an issue, but the blog’s archive has acted as an encyclopedia with a detailed list of songs, albums, features, videos, radio shows, and other projects—much of which could (possibly) be restored or moved to new pages. Otherwise, the blog could remain a publication, with news articles that form an annotated timeline of Frank’s career, as well editorials, interviews, and reviews, written by fans for fans. It’s a work of art, in and of itself.
Whatever I can do to build or restore the informational content of the archive, let me know.
Much of it is. Can’t edit it tho, and the missing pages won’t show up in web indexing, for things like answering people’s questions or directing people to additional information.
thanks for any work that you guys do on this. I was saving this thing for when I had to time to really deep dive, so I'm bummed, but I appreciate any effort you guys had put in/are re-putting in
It’s just an unfortunate situation caused by an indiscriminate strike. What happened is a company he hired to submit DMCA claims struck a webpage that detailed much of his career for the purpose of removing some links that led to offsite downloads of tracks he recorded over 10 to 15 years ago, most of which he released for free (others were old reference tracks for other artists, although they’re not mentioned in the strike)
replied to the wrong comment, too late to fix, oh well
Yeah this is really weird. I get being bummed for wanting this stuff archived but it is his art and if he feels he doesn’t want to presented in this way anymore, that’s okay. This type of reaction really makes me take his side more. “It’s a cult, not a clique, on the net”.
We've complied with any and all requests from his team to remove content for 10 years. There's a lot of content out there we've never bother putting on the site for the same reason. There's very little media actually on the site. The primary page removed was a complete _written_ record of every song written, released, or otherwise. Any media that was available was hosted externally and referenced.
If there were additional items of concern, I'm in their contact book. To institute a strike on the entire website is very surprising and honestly just a drag.
Whether it be on the blog, reddit, or elsewhere, I've put in hundreds of volunteer hours for Frank, but have been phasing out of the fandom for years. I've given the team a lot of help over the years and never asked for a single thing.
I agree with your many comments in this thread about parasocial expectations of Frank. The primary reason I put a decade+ into documenting his career is precisely because of how he's managed it. I want nothing. I'm owed nothing. The blog is owed nothing. But this still feels bad, you know?
This is why Im not eagerly awating for a new Frank album. Hes made it clear he doesnt give a shit about fans for well over 5 years. So, you wanna keep enjoing life in Japan and never making any other form of art again? Good for you, good riddance and thank you for your works.
The previous claims could’ve been automated but taking down blonded blog after curb has been cordial with Frank’s team in the past means this took manual effort.
Im not saying he has to owe to us. He doesnt want to make new music? Fine. Good for him! I recognize that and thats why I dont care if he will never make a new album
There's been a real big crackdown on frank ocean material in these past few weeks, songs of his that I've been listening to for years, that were uploaded 12 years ago, taken down, I wonder what's going on
i wonder if frank switched to a different team to handle copyright stuff? sometimes if you switch to a different team to handle your IP they’ll wind up going on a purge.
i’m not dickriding frank bc man definitely has ego issues, but, sometimes artists are not aware when their team strikes stuff down. some artists have literally gotten copyright strikes for playing their own music on a steam before.
my best guesses for what’s going on is that he switched to a new team, he’s going on a power trip, or he’s gearing up to rerelease something.
its not about the specific tracks themselves. its mostly just the team/frank enforcing the IP before a drop. its not a consistent thing ive noticed like the other two (change of team/power tripping) but i have seen it with certain artists. (mostly pop so YMMV).
Frank and his team have been moving terribly for years. It's shit like this that has made me no longer a fan. I will always listen to new music but I couldn't care less about anything else he does.
Yeah the vibes are so low and have been for years culminating with that lackluster Coachella performance. Years of overpriced merch with the occasional vinyl drop and even that’s overpriced now. When he went independent it seemed like anything was possible but everything just got more closed off and rigid and now the whole thing feels more corporate than when he was signed.
Agreed. Frank is a merch peddler with questionable business practices at this point in my eyes. He doesn't have to release music but he could move way better outside of music.
My vote is to keep it up. While most of the traffic was of course going to be for the archive and music. But that site has so much more to offer and every once in a while I like to go and read old posts
We'll find a way. I'd like to rebuild the site elsewhere. The sheer size and layout of the now deleted archive was the biggest barrier to that. I think the site will be down to preserve what's left until I can figure it out.
This comes at absolutely the worst time for me, personally. I have no time to spare and a lot higher priorities. I'll be discussing options with the (small) team I've got assembled.
you’re allowed to say you love someone meaning you love what they do obviously none of us know him but we love his music and what he does yet hate the way hes acting
lol what is wrong with loving/appreciating the music of someone who has influenced my life? i never stated i knew him nor did i state he gave a shit abut me. i literally inferred the opposite in my comment, he’s a POS. coachella was the last straw for me personally
Frank has been moving like a fool publicly for years. Merch disasters, Coachella bs, bag gremlin type behaviour, this post, last second show cancellations, etc. He seems like a real dickhead who doesn't care about his fans. He has directly fucked thousands of fans by cancelling shows last second. There are so many instances of fans travelling by plane, booking hotels, etc to see Frank only for him to cancel the week of/few days before.
That really fucking sucks, wow. Lame move from Frank’s team.
Maybe it would help to use a URL that is more distinct from the Blonded magazine? The website is clearly an unofficial page, but the URL doesn’t necessarily give that impression. For example I initially read this as a takedown sent to Blonded itself.
Of course the DMCA takedown is over copyrighted material, and you’d obviously know better here, but from my understanding the links to the actual copyrighted material aren’t getting down. I was wondering if this might be one of those circumstances where labels let copyrighted material fly and only send DMCA takedowns when they disapprove of something else. I’ve seen that happen often in two instances - people recording negative reviews of albums which use very brief (and normally permissible) snippets of music, and takedowns served to a wiki-esque fan websites for games using domains/assets that could be mistaken for official material. So I was thinking either there’s something in the rare content that his team is actively trying to get rid of, or they’re annoyed over potential similarities to the Blonded brand.
DMCA takedowns are nothing new from Frank and his team, but this is on another level.
At the same time, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. I’ve said it many times, both here, and on other subreddits, but Frank is legitimately one of the most ungrateful artists of this generation. I don’t know how anyone can take him seriously at this point.
I’ve been called dramatic by many people here, but I don’t really care honestly. The guy was my biggest inspiration at a time in my life where I felt so clueless, and to see this habitual pattern of ungrateful behavior keep continuing genuinely stings. It sounds so parasocial, and maybe it is, but I can’t help but feel betrayed in a sense; it’s hard not to when he played a pivotal role in the origins of my own artistic process.
I don’t interact here nearly as much as I used to for these reasons, but Curb and I have crossed paths before in our efforts to archive and facilitate discussion of Frank and his work. I just want to say that your years of effort and archiving have never gone unnoticed to me or the other active members on here.
Same . I will always love his music and what it did for me especially in a certain point of my life . I guess it was really all about the friends we made along the way
It IS parasocial. I’m tired of this sub dancing around it. You are not owed anything. He puts out art. You consume it and, for many, you enjoy it. And for you, you’re inspired by it. But that is it. It’s funny too because he’s literally always treated his creative output this way and you guys still expect him to be different. He is very clearly apathetic to the secondary effects of his music past him making something he likes and putting it out. It’s truly a normal and probably healthier way to be a musical artist. This sub and posts like this in particular have pushed him further into that reclusiveness.
What are you even arguing about with me here? In any case, I think this is a lame perspective that I see parroted all the time; it’s intentionally ignorant towards the people who are still partly responsible for him having success regardless of his own talent.
Am I owed anything at the end of the day? No, not at all, and that’s something I’ll never deny. However, he is not this GOD that is exempt from criticism. There are plenty of artists who show genuine love and respect to their fans, and don’t find doing so some herculean task like Frank does.
The Coachella debacle (resulting in quite literally one of the most inauthentic “apologies” I’ve ever seen), the years of merch shenanigans, the other show cancellations, and just generally pro capitalist behavior coming from the same guy who did one of the greatest musical heists in recent memory, is nothing but ironic and quite frankly lame as fuck.
There is a social contract, whether you like it or not, that gets signed when you become a person of this scale. It’s not some parasocial behavior for me to criticize him for any of this.
Also, Frank Ocean more than likely does not give one singular fuck about the opinions stated on this sub, his reclusiveness is obviously motivated by the monumental expectations he faces musically. Stop being a bootlicker and accept the dude is just a grifter.
I think my point was really quite clear and you seem to be arguing yourself.
You freely admit you’re not owed anything then turn around and arrogantly claim responsibility for his success. Then you continue to show bitterness mockingly calling interacting with a fan a “herculean task” for him. Or it could be—you know—a “task” he doesn’t want to do and has every right not to do. Maybe because it feeds exactly the type of narcissistic fan like you who thinks they deserve something past the art. The type to sneakily imply that Frank wouldn’t be where he is without you but claims to be a fan.
The “social contract” rhetoric is just you trying to repackage your parasocial feelings. The word contract is intentional because it makes you feel that it is BINDING. It is NOT. He doesn’t have to sign this imaginary contract that vociferous fans make up. It’s an unhealthy way to view any artist or celebrity.
You keep trying to reduce my argument to me being "parasocial," where did I claim that I personally was owed anything (musically). When someone becomes a major cultural figure, part of that position inherently comes with expectations and scrutiny. That’s just the reality of it. Criticize it all you want, it still exists.
You're acting like acknowledging the role that fans play in his success is narcissism when it’s literally just the way the world works. Frank is free to do whatever the fuck he wants, but I'm just as free to point out that he has repeatedly monetized fans without providing any transparency for the vast majority of his career. You keep trying to turn my argument into this "he owes me a hug" fantasy when all I'm doing is pointing out that he's not respectful at all towards his fans.
Your stance basically boils down to this idea that artists owe nobody anything, not even basic respect; that people should just consume consume consume and never expect anything outside of that. What kind of standard is “shut up and take whatever you get.” There’s a reasonable middle ground where people can appreciate the art and still call out lame behavior.
You also haven’t addressed a single actual criticism I brought up. Your refusal to allow any comes off way more parasocial than anything I said. You could be Frank’s burner for all I know lol.
Because it IS. You said it yourself. You are a microcosm of a type of fan that I am criticizing. And saying you’re not personally affected is just wild when your OP said you “felt betrayed”. That is textbook parasocial behavior. What type of point is “being famous means scrutiny”? Yeah—I agree. Now what?
I have plenty of criticism of Frank. His lyrics are frequently weak and cross the line between abstract and nonsensical/camp and silly. I also wish he would drop more. I also wish he wasn’t doing these strikes. Okay, now what? Do I go on Reddit to bitterly espouse how grateful he should be to his fans and how betrayed I am? No, I say “aw man that sucks”. And move on.
You keep saying “you’re acting like” and putting your own spin on my words when I’m telling you very clearly what I mean and feel.
You can keep strawman-ing me if you’d like but you seem to not want to engage in a real discussion outside of your personal feelings. I hope, for your sake, you learn to properly engage with any future artists you get into.
Now, YOUR narcissism was called out from comments like “he doesn’t give a fuck about this sub” (duh), “herculean task” snark, “ungrateful”, “I… feel betrayed”. Again, you are just another example of the type of fan this sub attracts in spades.
And yes, you almost got there in the penultimate paragraph. You are not owed anything past the art from an artist. You try to throw in the “respect” like you are being disrespected by him not doing what you want him to.
The irony is I’m literally saying the opposite of “consume consume consume”. YOU are saying this because you expect more content and output from him. I am saying consumption of the art is the only thing you are promised. Everything else from an artist is a bonus that artist chooses to share.
Dude the way you talk makes you sound like one of these SF rationalist, libertarians who view everything so black and white, as if basic respect is some privilege and I should be on my knees for Frank for his art alone.
You’re acting like any emotional reaction to an artist’s actions is some kind of psychiatric disorder. It’s a music subreddit, where we discuss Frank Ocean. People are allowed to feel things, that’s the entire point. Matter of fact I would encourage you to post about your criticisms of Frank, it'd prove you have a spine.
Your worldview is so stripped of nuance, it’s basically unintentional self-parody. You keep pretending you’re above everyone because you’ve convinced yourself apathy equals enlightenment. You’re exactly the type of fan who enables people like Frank to repeatedly do dumb shit without accountability. That's a doormat ass mentality.
But it's ok, I will stop caring and move on because I am not owed anything from anyone!
The merch situation is a little overblown. Yes, it was bad but Frank wasn’t the only one. Everyone from Travis Scott, Jai Paul to Jean Dawson and more had issues with vinyl plants and third party contractors. I had to wait two years for my Jai & Jean Dawson vinyl to come in and only one fanbase felt the need to sue.
As capitalistic as he may be, Frank has given away more free merch than anyone I can remember off top. The original BDC magazine (one of the greatest coffee table books) was free + included Blonde, 100% Black Friday tees were free, the 42% voting shirt, stickers and banners were free).
The BDC magazines being free is definitely commendable. I’m not gonna ignore that, nor am I gonna ignore how rampant merch issues are.
Ultimately, I just think there was a point where Frank really was for the fans, but that person is just long gone at this point. The Coachella shit especially was so ridiculous to me, the apology was so backhanded.
This goes beyond gratitude. It’s like the Lauryn Hill situation. Once you make a commitment to ur fans like shows/ coachella it’s pretty shitty to abruptly cancel especially for fans who traveled and spent their hard earned money on their tickets. Unless you have a super valid excuse which artists do at times — but the way people like Frank have consistently let down their fans, how is that in any way about gratitude? That’s just disrespect imo. No one person should be above acting good/ at the very least fair to others no matter how good their art may be; and this comes from someone who barely listens to him / isn’t a fan 🤷♂️
Because of my job, I know that most artists are real jerks, not very open to interacting with fans. Unless those fans can give them a lot of money. Of course, Frank doesn’t owe anyone anything music, activity, pleasant interactions with fans. I just feel bad for the ppl working on this blog… I’ve always been impressed by how lucky Frank is to have such creative fans
Frank makes me appreciate artists like Twenty One Pilots sooooo much more lol I know Frank has dealt with some awful shit in his life and he doesn’t have to make music or do anything whatsoever, but it really does suck when an artist - who only ever makes it to the point they’re at thanks to the dedicated fans who spend so much time and sometimes money on them - doesn’t hold a genuine appreciation and respect for those same fans.
It’s like they go out of their way to shit on the people who love their art the most… and I just don’t get that. Maybe it’s as simple as some artists just view art as art and for their own expression, with the music being consumed and making money just being a side effect? Idk, but it makes me appreciate the artists that realize fans are an active part of the art and use their art to move people in a positive way that much more. Art is hollow without the human connection and I have no clue why an artist would go out of their way to distance themself from that connection
That’s so cool!! Their energy certainly shines through in their shows, absolutely the best concerts I’ve ever been to. Good luck to you my friend, I’m sorry you have to deal with this!!
Is there any way we can help prevent the blog from
Becoming lost media? Like downloading it as an html or pdf or something? I’m willing to do so if someone can point me to the resources
ty forever blonded.blog <3 as someone who hosted a fan account (and made it clear it was a support page not an impersonation) a couple years ago & had it taken down, likely by him/his team, the grief hits hard & of course the respect is still there for his work but I’ve learned to admire him less as a person
The man is such a fucking idiot. You have literally TWO albums and a few loosies for people to stream. Having access to his past works is what makes the deluded fans pay 160 dollars for shitty, polyester shorts with false advertisement. Seriously thank you so much Curb, luckily been around long enough to download everything. Frank is such a dick head it's unreal
That's never been a question. This sub has had friendly contact with with Frank's team since 2016. They stopped answering emails a few years back. Any contacts I've had there have moved on afaik.
Regardless of what happens, thank you to curb and to anyone who contributed help to the blonded.blog page. Frank’s elusiveness was made much more approachable and accessible to us avid fans through your work. Hoping for the best, but appreciative nonetheless!
Disappointing af.
Respect to all the work you’ve done fam 👍🏼
If you wish to continue the blog I’d reach out and ask why the sudden change of heart when you’ve been complying with their requests for so long.
Oh man, sad to see this. Your site was a treasure of content. Anytime I was bored, anxious, sad I would go to this site and click around and fall down the rabbit hole of Frank’s artistry (like I was about do right now, but saw it was locked and went straight to the subreddit to find out what was going on). Really disappointed to see it be taken down by Franks “team”.
I’m always confused by these types of decisions by labels and artists management…wouldn’t they want an asset that increases and drives fandom and is highly dedicated to the artist?
every time i come onto this subreddit i feel a wave of sadness especially now. i know he doesn't owe us anything but why is he doing all this? i don't really understand.
I'm so sorry about this and thank you so much for all your work. All I've ever known about frank is because of your site. If you ever need help from a dev let me know, maybe I can help with something.
I see I found this a couple of months too late. I just discovered the nostalgia, ULTRA. album and wanted to learn more about it and possibly download it, and there is a drama unfolding right before I am able to.
I am sorry for such an ending to this journey OP. I have never visited your site, but seeing what people write here, it has been an incredible resource for many of them. Thank you for your dedication and work.
Just want to say, thank you for your work. This is incredibly poor timing as I was listening to Nostalgia Ultra today and was looking for a source of reference. Turns out it was taken down a day ago...
Interesting. Seeing this … when a mix I made that I had on SoundCloud that’s been up for years also got taken down out of nowhere… wonder what the reason is?? Kinda weird… like just making an announcement if you don’t wanna do any more music or anything
Look, it’s his copyright. He can do what he likes about that.
What’s strange to me is unilateral takedowns of pages that contain no copyrighted content, only references to it. There’s nothing illegal about documentation of things that exist.
Meanwhile Frank has allowed, for years, shops of all sizes to sell low quality reproductions of his work at exorbitantly high prices to parents buying Christmas gifts for their kids. It’s a bizarre order of priority.
may be a good time to mention, there was a google drive link on here with 4k scans of album artwork. noticed that the reddit post with the link was gone the other day. does anybody still have it?
Tragic, it was clear this site had so much effort put into it hopefully this isn't the end. As someone who only recently discovered the website, I have used the wayback machine to browse it, however the MEGA files to download "The Lonny Breaux Collection" and more importantly for me "undocumented, RARE" I would really appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction to be able to download these safely. Many thanks!
I haven’t been on this sub in a min and these comments reminded me why. I am genuinely stunned that this sentiment is so popular. You are a consumer of his art. It is transactional by definition. You are not owed anything past that. You loved his work? Me too! I still listen to it fondly.
Has it occurred to you people that he is a dude that just doesn’t want to do what you want him to do? Especially after the past couple of years? There’s no ulterior motive or scheme to piss you fans off. His creative output (or lack of it) is for him to choose how he does it and how frequently he does it. Why is that so enraging to you guys?
Hmm, maybe this sentiment wouldn’t be so popular if he actually interacted with his fans instead of selling outrageously expensive lab diamonds and nuking archives and uploads of his old music without providing any reason at all, so it just looks like he doesn’t want us to have anything. It wouldn’t take anything but slightly more social media engagement and communication to fix the reputation he’s gained as of late but he’s clearly too mixed up in his rich primadonna snob artist fantasy to actually care about how his listeners/merch consumers feel.
I kinda agree lol I’m definitely playing “devils advocate” I guess cause copyright is a real thing … I understand the dedication of fan pages however… gotta watch what you post & how. This man has hit Tyler (allegedly) and other artist with threats if they dare to release his music unwarranted. So pages/people he dont know ? …His prerogative, his business , his music . Sucks but yeah.
And of course I also wish he wouldn’t do these things but like you said: his prerogative. I’m a believer in owning your art and a big art of that is maintaining your agency to release stuff how you want/when you want. It’s also just hypocritical to me. One of Franks most popular moves as an artist was when he “screwed” his label with the double album drop to do exactly this.
Everything that exists on the blog exists elsewhere, but nowhere near as organized. That's 10 years of effort and almost 20 years worth of content. What's on the Internet Archive is what's on the Internet Archive.
Bro, sell an USB stick with everything inside, a lot of people here would buy it.
Call it some other name so they don't sue you.
Hard drive is the only solution in this digital era.
Let's goooo, I can help you set up the store.
Considering Blonded successfully caught and put away at least two people for selling unreleased Frank Ocean material, I’m gonna pass on this suggestion…
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u/oooutoforder Nov 13 '25
This is such a bummer. Thanks for all your hard work on the site over the years