Frank Ocean Interviews Jay Z About the Current State of Radio and Clubs

Earlier today, Frank Ocean announced his new radio show with Beats 1 and now it appears he has another surprise. Moments ago, during the surprise broadcast of his new blonded RADIO show, he played an interview he had with Jay Z discussing the current state of radio and clubs, in addition to how music should be moving forward with technology. During the discussion, Jay wasn’t too pleased with the current state of radio, saying “these places are not even based on music” further adding “a person like Bob Marley right now probably wouldn’t play on a pop station. Which is crazy.” The episode also covered tracks from Sade, OutKast, Dirty Projects, Stevie Wonder and even some jams from Frank Ocean himself. You can check out Jay Z’s full excerpt below:

Take radio for instance. It’s pretty much an advertisement model. You take these pop stations, they’re reaching 18-34 young white females. So they’re playing music based on those tastes. And then they’re taking those numbers and they’re going to advertising agencies and people are paying numbers based on the audience that they have. So these places are not even based on music. Their playlist isn’t based on music. If you think a person like Bob Marley right now probably wouldn’t play on a pop station. Which is crazy. It’s not even about the DJ discovering what music is best. You know, music is music. The line’s just been separated so much that we’re lost at this point in time.

They have to revolutionize that thing, you know, be more progressive. I think with all the technology and where we are today, it’s definitely a more efficient way to get music out. Because it’s the whole idea behind having a festival that played all sorts of music. Because no one listens to music like that – you just listen to music more than ever. Back in the days there used to be hip-hop clubs. Like, specific hip-hop clubs. Now every club is a hip-hop club. Every club is a music club. You go in there, you’re liable to hear EDM, hip-hop, you’re gonna hear some soul, you’re definitely going to hear “Poison” around 2-3 in the morning.

It’s unfortunate because with, you know, technology and everything moving forward, we should, it should be a better way that the music, the musicians, radio, and these things that are supposed to be instruments for the arts, should exist. And it shouldn’t be about advertisement. And it shouldn’t be about—so the more times, you know, someone like yourself can bypass that, it’s better for the, for the arts. And it’s better for the audience ‘cause you have to have, like, a level of discipline and just a belief to put music out in this place where not everyone can. You know, people, like, they wanna shoot for that, and then they’re making music that’s not really conditioned to who they are (Frank says “right”), who they are so they can reach a certain platform.

Listen to the full show here, the Jay Z interview starts at the 1:03:00 minute mark, and then again at the 1:53:00.