2012 has been pretty good to Frank Ocean. The Odd Future member, rapper and singer bravely came out online, dropped one of the best albums of the year with channelOrange, and became so popular that just last week his tunes were used to soundtrack an episode of "Gossip Girl." Really. Now, if all goes according to plan, he'll have one last hurrah before the year is out.
GQ recently profiled Ocean and in wrapping things up, they noted that "he's got at least five projects in the works, among them a song he wrote for Quentin Tarantino's 'Django Unchained'…." Well, that's certainly a nice surprise. In fact, of all the things known about QT's upcoming slavery/vengeance tale, it's the soundtrack that has been the most guarded it seems. The trailers have been using James Brown's "The Payback" — a pretty obvious choice all around — but Ocean suggests that QT has updated his record collection beyond the 1970s. We kid, but it's a contemporary choice that certainly seems like a fresh approach, and indeed that's not all. How about a little Maybach Music?
"I ran into Rick Ross [and] I said, 'Rick, you should come by the set because I know Quentin doesn’t do original stuff, but it wouldn’t hurt for you to come and just feel it because Django is hip hop. This is a different thing.' So Rick Ross shows up, huge fan of Quentin and I said, 'Rick, if you’re going to write a song, I think you should say these words: I need 100 black coffins for 100 bad men, dig 100 black graves so I can lay they ass in. 100 black coffins.' So that would be my contribution. Now what he does with it, I don't know. But if he does what I think, it’s going be it’ll be great," Jamie Foxx recent told About, also noting that John Legend sent a track (on cassette no less).
That being said, just because a song is commissioned doesn't mean it will be used and it remains to be seen how the soundtrack for "Django Unchained" shakes out. But, considering each of Tarantino's movies have been marked by a great selection of songs, we're intrigued to see if this will be his most eclectic yet. [via Pitchfork]