page_title: Scared of Beautiful
section_title: Background and recording
hierarchical_section_title: Scared of Beautiful / Background and recording
caption_attribution_description: Frank Ocean at Coachella Music Festival in April 2012.
context_page_description: "Scared of Beautiful" is a song by American recording artist Brandy Norwood from her sixth studio album, Two Eleven. It was written by Frank Ocean, Warryn Campbell and Breyon Prescott while production was handled by Campbell and Prescott. Not specifically written for Norwood, the song was one out of several songs Ocean crafted with production duo Midi Mafia. It was later submitted to her team, with whom she recorded a new version with a widely different instrumental for her album, consisting essentially of synthesizers and electric guitars. A mid-paced R&B ballad, "Scared of Beautiful" finds Norwood, as the protagonist, thinking about self and self-growth and being fearless.
  Considered by Norwood as one of her favorites, the song was originally conceived as a duet between Norwood and Ocean, but required last-minute recording sessions with Ocean failed to materialize prior to the album's release. "Scared of Beautiful" was generally well received by music critics who complimented its production as well as Ocean's aurally remarkable influence. Some of them also described the song as a "frantic" ballad and called it the highlight of the record.
context_section_description: "Scared of Beautiful" was written by Odd Future collective member Frank Ocean along with producer Warryn Campbell, and Chameleon Records head Breyon Prescott. Jaycen Joshua mixed the track, while Trehy Harris assisted in the audio engineering of it; both tasks were executed at the Larrabee Sound Studios, in North Hollywood, California. In early March 2012, Norwood made known that Ocean would contribute to her then upcoming sixth studio album, Two Eleven. He previously wrote the songs "1st & Love" and "Locket (Locked in Love)" for her 2008 album Human, a process which resulted in a close friendship between the singers. Though Ocean didn’t write "Scared of Beautiful" specifically for her, Norwood stated that she was owning it now: “It’s on my album, I got a claim... ’Frank Ocean, you wrote that song for me, you just didn’t know it’,” she joked. Ocean's demo of the track was leaked in late 2011. Crafted by Midi Mafia members Waynne Nugent and Kevin Risto along with songwriters Tim Stewart and Lamont Neuble, it features a significantly different, guitar-driven instrumentalization. Campbell, unaware of Ocean's version, produced his own variation of "Scared of Beautiful" with help from Prescott along Norwood's pre-recorded vocals only.
  On Two Eleven, the song was originally conceived as a duet between Norwood and Ocean, and was expected to feature the duo exchanging lyrics about looking forwards and not backwards, with lines such as "I wonder why there's no mirrors on these walls no more/ You can't tell me why you're so terrified of beautiful". However the final version features just Norwood. Speaking on how the song came about Norwood said, "Well, he had the song for a while and when I heard it, it really just spoke to me. Sometimes you get to a point in your life where you’re scared to be great, you’re scared to be beautiful, you’re scared to be the best version of you and you talk to yourself and you try to get yourself back on track. I just remember feeling like that at a point in my life. I know there are so many people out there that go through that dark time and I felt like it could speak to a lot of people." One of her favorites songs on the album, Norwood remarked that she calls "Scared of Beautiful" her "The Greatest Love of All," referring to Whitney Houston’s 1986 classic. In April 2012, Midi Mafia's Kevin Risto claimed that the song had been recorded by several other singers, including Beyoncé Knowles and Rihanna, but "for some reason, it just didn’t end up anybody’s album."
caption: Frank Ocean (pictured) wrote "Scared of Beautiful".
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