Lonny Breaux: Frank Ocean’s Alter Ego
Frank Ocean fans; I know Frank is taking forever to drop music, so here’s something to listen to while you wait:
Upon deep diving through SoundCloud’s unreleased music, I came across a song called ‘Miss You So’ by Frank Ocean. As I’m listening to it, I find more and more songs with the same cover; a black 5.0 Fox Body Mustang. I then came across a playlist: ‘The Lonny Breaux Collection, Part 1 & 2’.
Frank Ocean is a 35 year old singer and songwriter. He began his musical career early, booking his first studio at the age of 12. He was a ghostwriter for artists such as John Legend and Justin Bieber, and then joined the group Odd Future in 2010. From then, he released his debut mixtape Nostalgia, Ultra in 2011.
The singer hides under a shell of privacy and mystery, which leaves fans eager to know when he is releasing or creating new music. His last album, Blonde, released in 2016 and debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200. His bona-fide lyrics are hard hitting and powerful, which intrigues listeners.
Who Is Lonny Breaux?
Frank was born under the name Christopher Edwin Breaux, and grew up in New Orleans until he was 18. The ‘Self Control’ singer was supervised by his mother and his grandfather, Lionel, who’s name stuck to Frank as people nicknamed him “Lonny”. Lonny Sr. unfortunately turned to drugs and alcohol during Frank’s early childhood. He became a massive part of Frank’s life and even a muse for his music. The song ‘Crack Rock’ from Channel Orange reflects on days spent in NA meetings with Lonny Sr.
In 2005 after Hurricane Katrina wrecked Frank’s studio, Frank was offered from a friend in Los Angeles to use his studio for a discounted price. After scraping up some funds, he drove to Los Angeles. One night at a listening party, Frank gets the opportunity to play his music. In an interview with GQ, he says, “…they were like, “Oh sh*t.” There were producers there, and they said, “You should come up to the studio and write.” So I did. I’d sit in those rooms for hours.”
Frank began to write music under the name Lonny Breaux, which he found success in. He connected with producers and musicians and ended up becoming great friends with Tyler, The Creator.
The Lonny Breaux Collection
The Lonny Breaux Collection is an unofficial compilation of demos that fans put out when Frank was a songwriter for other artists. Frank acknowledged the collection at one point, saying,
“let’s get this out in the open. the only songs that i, myself, frank ocean, have ever released are…’pyrite’, ‘acura integurl’ & of course the songs included on ‘nostalgia, ultra’. all other songs are on the internet as a result of record industry email hacks/leaks that happened some years back. several of these songs i had no hand in writing. i only laid reference vox on em because i was being paid. the rest are incomplete ideas, reference songs that were sent out for placement on other artists. records that were never intended to represent me.” -Frank Ocean
The full collection contains 64 tracks. Every song was either written or sung by Frank. Some of the tracks were even commercially released by other artists, like ‘Suprise Ending’ and ‘Quickly’.
You can listen to the collection here:
