Produced by Pharrell Williams and featuring uncredited backing vocals from Beyoncé, “Pink + White” details Frank’s memories of his youth and someone close to him who passed away. He remembers this person by recalling the lessons they taught him.

The theme of mortality plays a key role in this song. In the second verse, he sings about a hurricane destroying everything in its path and its aftermath. The hurricane is likely a reference to Hurricane Katrina, which hit Louisiana while Ocean was a student at the University of New Orleans, forcing him to relocate to Houston. It’s possible this person died during Katrina.

As sung in the song’s opening lines, the track’s title is a reference to a sunset drive with Frank and his old friend. “Pink and white” describes the sky during the moment he is reminiscing on. Frank has used those colors in songs before—He has a song titled “White” in Odd Future’s The OF Tape Vol. 2 and a song called “Pink Matter” on Channel ORANGE.

Frank uses simple syllabic structure in this verse to keep the back and forth assonance of wordplay working and keep his lines short and understood with a lot of meaning behind each word he uses. He’s describing a situation, an experience he once had, while using as few words as possible to maintain the mood of the song itself.

Prior to the release of his debut album, channel ORANGE, Ocean was credited as a writer on Beyonce’s “I Miss You.” Queen B and Frank have also collaborated on Beyoncé’s track, “Superpower.”

Pharrell seemingly confirmed producing this song with an Instagram post.