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Frank Ocean 'Pink Matter': Producer Malay Explains Story Behind Andre 3000 Feature

Posted Jul 6th 2012 2:50PM by Georgette Cline
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Frank Ocean's debut album, Channel Orange, is one of the most highly anticipated projects of the year. Since giving a select few an advance listen of the effort and publishing an open letter about his sexuality after gay rumors surfaced, July 17 can't come fast enough for fans to hear the very songs that have the Internet buzzing.

Producer Malay, who co-wrote several songs on Ocean's new LP, gives some insight on the effort, especially a track that is sure to be a fan favorite. "Pink Matter," featuring Andre 3000, is a song comprising the Channel Orange tracklist. Malay tells Complex.com how the collaboration came about.

"It was just a simple thing," he shares." There came a point when we knew we were getting close to wrapping the record. Frank was kind of narrowing down who he wanted features from. We knew we didn't want to make it a record full of a whole bunch of big name collaborators just for the sake of having them. We were just really trying to decide who we could bring to this project that's going to elevate the overall project."

Malay, who's worked with John Legend, Fantasia, Yelawolf and Big Boi, among others, belies "Pink Matter" is the song most listeners will gravitate towards.

"That record's an incredible song and it's a lot of people's favorite record when they've heard the album," he reveals. "And with a name [Andre 3000] like that you'd think it'd be a single type song or something. But if you listen to it it's probably the opposite of that.

"It's that record that's everybody's favorite song on the album but it's not the single. That's showing where Frank really is at. He's strictly doing it for the art. It's not about, 'Hey, this is going to help sales.'"

Check out The BoomBox's exclusive coverage of Frank Ocean's Channel Orange listening session here.

Read Frank Ocean's Letter About His Sexuality