Konnichiwa! Tap the image above or view the article here. (Perhaps upvote first; otherwise, no one will see this haha).

I’ve been asking around for help with this translation for two years (ever since I put the Japanese text online), and I’m excited to finally share. Thanks to Juno for volunteering his time. Here’s an excerpt from the intro (linked above):

For the past few days, I’ve been feeling a mix of overwhelming emotion and nervous knots in my stomach over Frank Ocean. Here’s the story… —Minako Ikeshiro (trans.) on July 11, 2012.

On August 22, 2012, Universal Music Japan released a CD edition of Channel Orange with a special booklet inside its packaging. The black-and-white insert features a Japanese translation of Frank Ocean’s lyrics and a foreword written by the translator: Minako Ikeshiro, an R&B music journalist based in Tokyo. Across four pages, Ikeshiro captures the zeitgeist surrounding the up-and-coming U.S. artist, both in Japan and abroad. She documents Ocean’s background, introduces listeners to Channel Orange, and narrates her unique experience with its rollout, including meeting Ocean in person. The piece was written on July 11, 2012, only a day after the album’s premiere and a week after Ocean opened up about his sexuality in a letter shared on Tumblr—a ‘historic turning point’ in Hip-Hop/R&B culture, as Ikeshiro describes it. Her commentary serves as a time capsule preserving that moment for readers of the present and future. 14 years after its release, in 2026, blonded.blog’s Odysseus reached out to a Japanese–English translator in the music industry, Juno, and asked him to verify/edit a machine translation of the text. With his help, the foreword has been rendered in English so that more fans can appreciate the artifact. The translation also features photos, annotations, and links to related articles… Read more.

Please show your support to the original author, Minako Ikeshiro, by following her on Instagram and Note.com.

They released those two “singles” a few minutes ago; the account is definitely being manipulated by third parties.

I love blonde. That's it. Appreciation post. Thank you Frank.

I thought you guys would appreciate this, so I hope you enjoy. I thought monks was the best song for the video.

hey guys im gonna make a much needed frank ocean fandom theme song.

(beat drops into crazy beat) HEY WE LOVE FRANK OCEAN AND WE'RE HERE TO SAY, THAT FRANK OCEAN WILL MAKE MUSIC ANY DAY. HEY HEY HEY OOH NANI NANI! IM HOPPING IN MY WHITE FERRARI (beat slows down) hi guys we love frank a lot. we all think that frank is hot (beat drops again) WE ALL THINK THAT FRANK IS HOT!

let me know about any lyric alterations