Following a four-year hiatus, Frank Ocean's Blonde was arguably the most highly anticipated release of 2016. The album presents several different sides of its creator's psyche, and Tyrone Lebon's video for "Nikes" illustrates these different sides in ways that often feel as much a stream of consciousness as the lyrics, the video's individual clips connected with thoughtful fluidity. As Ocean delivers the song's first verse in a high-pitched voice, a competing, pitched-down Ocean provides backing ad-libs. The result feels like a dialogue between opposing egos, settled finally by the singer's normal tone in the final verse. There is a conversation about the ambiguity of sexuality, reality and consumerism going on here, and Lebon attempts to further blur these lines with his visuals.
Directed by Tyrone Lebon.
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