All the way back in 2015, Frank Ocean teased his Boys Don’t Cry magazine with a Tumblr post captioned, “I got two versions. Twooo versions.” Since then, he’s adopted that phrase as a guiding principle of his work, releasing two albums (Endless and Blonde) back-to-back, two versions of the song “Nikes” (in which the line “I got two versions” also appears), and since starting his Blonded radio show on Apple Beats 1, two versions of most new tracks he’s shared.
It began with “Chanel,” which got a remix featuring A$AP Rocky almost immediately. Then “Lens” came along and minutes later, so did an alternate version featuring Travis Scott. He even added Young Thug to the already-existing track “Slide On Me.” Early this morning, the sixth episode of Blonded aired, and we received yet another version of a recent Ocean track, as well as two new versions of a brand-new song. Talk about staying on-brand.
Speaking of brands, “RAF” is a luxury clothing-referencing (Raf Simons in this case) posse track featuring Rocky, Ocean Lil Uzi Vert, and Quavo. The two versions shared differ only in Ocean’s song-ending verse, during which he’s more decidedly on the rapping side of the rapping/singing divide he usually bridges effortlessly. We’ve included the second one (because Frank’s bars are a bit better), but you can listen to the first here.
Swagged out, propulsive, and catchy, “RAF” seems like it could be a hit, especially considering the starpower behind it– Quavo and Lil Uzi have been Hot 100-seeking missiles in the past few months. It’s officially credited to Rocky, which suggests that he may be in album mode. Either that, or “RAF” is taken from an upcoming A$AP Mob release, which would also make sense as Rocky and A$AP Ferg just shared a track from that a few weeks ago. Wherever it lands, this track is unquestionably a banger.
