 When asked by The Quietus if the songs from the album drew from his personal experiences, Frank commented "My kitchen is usually pretty clean, you know. But you have fun with the imagery, and for me the whole concept that everything has to be ... Like, nobody gets upset with a director when a director's film isn't about his life. People think that with a recording artist that shit has to be like a fucking play by play of their whole life, but it's not. It's imagery, and a little bit of satire." When asked if he made R & B music, Ocean replied that he disliked how that in the United States, "if you 're a singer and you're black, you 're an R & B artist. Period." Ocean stated that the songs on the mixtape do contain R & B influences, but that it is not an R & B album entirely.
