Over the weekend, Frank Ocean performed on the season premiere of Saturday Night Live, pulling out abridged renditions of his songs “Thinkin’ ‘Bout You” and “Pyramids.” Here’s a break-down of only the most pertinent points of his performance.
1. Mayan-Inspired Fashion Is In
Young Ocean is never seen without his now trademark headband, but for his SNL turn he added a flamboyant Mayan-motif sweater. Fall fashion!
2. Retro Video Games: Timeless!
After Jean Grae’s Donkey Kong-inspired “Kill Screen” dropped the other week, Frank Ocean performed in front of an array of old arcade video games on the SNL set. Closing out his performance of “Pyramids,” he even ambled over to a Ms. Pac-Man machine to doodle with the joystick.
3. The Frank Ocean Windmill Dance
Frank Ocean likes to affect a solemn air on stage, largely standing rooted to the spot and letting his vocals convey a song’s emotion. But after around a minute-and-a-half of his strip-club ode “Pyramids” he aired out what we’d like to think is the start of a Frank Ocean Dance – arms flailed out and rotated like a particularly funky windmill.
4. He Has An Excellent Cry Face
This is what you probably saw if you ever snatched a toy away from Frank Ocean when he was a kid or, more recently, broke his heart into a thousand shattered little pieces.
5. Is John Mayer His New BFF?
After allowing John Mayer to take the reigns for an extended guitar solo during “Pyramids,” and with Mayer also having featured on the Channel Orange album cut “White,” are the signs moving towards some sort of a full-length Frank and John collabo? The smart money says it’ll be a Christmas album.
Watch Frank Ocean’s Saturday Night Live performances below:
“Thinkin’ ‘Bout You”
“Pyramids”














