Frank Ocean Interviews Jay Z About the Sorry State of Modern Radio

Turns out Frank Ocean had another trick up his sleeve today. During the surprise broadcast of his new Beats 1 radio show “blonded RADIO” this afternoon, he aired excerpts from a conversation between himself and Jay Z. Jay bemoaned the state of modern radio, saying “these places are not even based on music” and “a person like Bob Marley right now probably wouldn’t play on a pop station. Which is crazy.” Read more quotes below. And listen here, starting first at the 1 hour and 3 minute mark and then at the 1 hour 53 minute mark.

“blonded RADIO” also featured tracks by artists such as Prince, Sade, Nao, Outkast, Pixies, Dirty Projectors, Stevie Wonder, um, Celine Dion, and, of course, Frank, including his new song with Calvin Harris and Migos, “Slide.” Vegyn, Roof Access, and Federico Aliprandi served as guest hosts. It’s unclear if the show is a one-off event or a recurring series.

Read our recent feature about Jay Z's relationship with hip-hop radio at the start of his career, "The Rap Pact: How Jay Z and Hot 97 Combined Forces to Take Over Hip-Hop."

Jay Z said:

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.