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Luis Santa Cruz

Trishia Briones

ENGL 1301-123

November 6th, 2023

Rhetorical analysis of “The Free Black Artist: Frank Ocean Through a Decolonial lens,”

Ever since Black artists existed, white corporation and white owned business have

colonized and gentrified black artist and their creations. However, Frank Ocean has defeated

these attempts from his record label and won and “Freed” himself from his contract. In this

article the author makes his rhetorical statements when they used Ethos, Logos, and Pathos. They

use this to try to get their message across to the reader and make them feel something for the

subject of the article. “The Free Black Artist: Frank Ocean Through a Decolonial lens,” uses

persuasive language and tools to convince the reader that minorities are mistreated in the

entertainment and music industry and how Frank Ocean is smart because of his decisions that led

him to be free from the industry.

The author uses ethos in the very beginning of the article, “The music industry’s

treatment of Black artists is a form of neocolonialism that operates as the historical life force of

the music industry. From recording contracts that cheat Black artist out of money and creative

expression…”(Lewellyn-Taylor Pg.1) as this can make the reader feel sympathy for the exploited

artists and how they’re treated. More examples of ethos come in the second paragraph and states

how black artist were subjected to this treatment since the very beginning.
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In the second paragraph, it talks about the long and troubled history of the treatment of

black artist and their art. In the main title of the second paragraph the author strategically uses

the word “Neocolonialism.” The definition of this word means “The use of economic, political,

cultural, or other pressures to control or influence,” This helps the reader understand that what is

going on in the industry is unethical and unfair. The author uses pathos to get this point across by

writing “Black artist have long been subject to systematic neocolonial tactics by corporate

America” (Lewellyn-Taylor Pg.3) In addition, this paragraph tells how the industry wronged Jay-

Z out of his master recording for an exchange of being president of the label for only 10 years.

The paragraph also ends with the author writing “that not even Black leaders in the music

industry are necessarily free to own their own artistic productions,” (Lewellyn-Taylor Pg.5)

The author also uses the word Neo colonization again with the addition of the word

unexamined. As seen in this paragraph neo colonization rears its ugly head, and the symbolism

of the Grammy. This part of the article uses ethos in the title, because they include and name a

well-known established award to persuade the reader that the award is rooted in systemic racism.

The Grammy’s have recently been criticized and called out by the public for mistreating and

being unfair to Black artists. Ethos is still in use to persuade as it is states that “2008 was the last

year a Black artist (in this case, Herbie Hancock), won the award, and to this day Lauryn Hill

and Outkast are the only hip hop artist to receive the award, in 1999 and 2004, respectfully,”

(Lewellyn-Taylor Pg.5) This quote reinstates the fact that it is rare for a Black artist to receive

the top award which is album of the year at the Grammys. This is visible in the length of the time

between the artist award dates. While White artists are consistently in the running and awarded

for their talents, black artists are constantly overlooked (not invited, not seated in the front row,

and not asked to perform). The author also uses logos to convince the reader that the Grammy’s
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are racist, as stated that artist such as Beyonce, The Grammy’s reportedly broadcasted only 10

percent of her acceptance speech. This coupled with the fact that Grammy executive Portnow’s

blindfolded selection based on high levels of excellence is questionable on how the Grammy’s

view black artist.

Due to this situation, Frank Ocean is seen as revolutionary and planted the seeds for a

change in the music industry. In “The Free Black Artist: Frank Ocean” the author persuades the

reader that what Frank Ocean did was groundbreaking and a smart move. They described his

early career as an independent artist and told how he was contracted to record his new album for

only 1 million dollars. In addition, they tell how he played “A seven-year chess game” with his

label. Frank Ocean is quoted as saying “I wanted to feel like I won before the record came out,

and I did,”(Lewellyn-Taylor Pg.8) Logos are used because it tells how many units his

independent album sold after winning his chess game and had the third largest debut behind

Beyonce and Drake and had an increase of his profit share went up from 14 to 70 percent. This

part also states how Frank Ocean criticized the music industry and the Grammy’s by not

submitting his album for the award.

In the last two paragraphs (Conceiving the Decolonial: Black Bodies as Sacred Bodies

and See on Both Sides: A Decolonial Approach to Textual Analysis.) uses ethos to convey their

message of artist overcoming the systemic racism in the industry. Such as describing artists that

boycotted the Grammy’s and tell how Frank Ocean and Jay-Z are leaders of this movement are

and showing the truth and systemic racism of the music industry and Grammy’s. Ethos was

mainly used because it gave the reader a sense of empowerment and pride that people are

fighting the racism in the industry and exposing the truth.

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In conclusion, the author was able to use rhetorical strategies such as ethos, logos, and

pathos to state that the music industry was systemically racist and how several independent black

artists have utilized certain strategies to overcome the bias of the industry. This article focuses on

Frank Ocean who is a very good example on using different strategies (social media, small scale

marketing, merchandise tie ins, and exclusive collector item releases) that allows them to

succeed without a major label backing them. This article appeals to the idea that artists can break

away from major labels and contracts.

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Works Cited

Lewellyn-Taylor, Benjamin. “The Free Black Artist: Frank Ocean through a Decolonial Lens.”
The Free Black Artist: Frank Ocean Through a Decolonial Lens, 6 Dec. 2018,
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14769948.2019.1554329.