Fans concerned about the welfare of Frank Ocean’s leg — a last-minute injury that reportedly derailed his headlining Coachella spot earlier this year — can officially breathe a sigh of relief. Over the last week and a half, the notorious recluse has been posting to Instagram with the energy of a man not working on his long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s Blonde. Also, he’s standing confidently on two feet. One post shows him walking without apparent issue. Another even shows him at the gym. His leg seems … fine!
So what does it really mean that he’s posting pictures of himself eating salad, thrifting books like Matt Groening’s The Big Book of Hell, and rocking out on a stuffed guitar? In all likelihood, it’s proof that the mystique with which fans regard him is misguided, and most of the time he’s just living a basic everyday life in the shadows.
For those intent on looking for clues in this maze, though, one of Ocean’s latest Instagram stories featured a snippet of an unreleased song, a woozy, reverb-heavy track on which he half-sings about a person whose heart has “been tangled in barb wires.†Ocean’s recent posts have also featured an early look at new jewelry from his luxury brand Homer, as well as an open letter written by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk about the tragedies currently occurring in Gaza. So, yes, there’s more to these posts than just mirror selfies. How much more, though, remains to be seen. Maybe Ocean will post a picture of latte art tomorrow. Maybe he’ll drop an album without warning. Maybe he’ll retreat back into silence immediately. Leave it to Frank to provide more updates on his life than he has in years while keeping his fans even further in the dark than they were before.