Super Rich Kids

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Lore & Background

The song was written by Frank Ocean, Malay, Earl Sweatshirt, Kirk Robinson, Nathaniel Robinson Jr., Roy Hammond, Mark Morales and Mark Rooney and produced primarily by Malay. Ocean and Malay came up with "Super Rich Kids" on their first day working together on Ocean's debut album, Channel Orange. According to Ocean, the 2000 film Traffic was an inspiration for the song. Ocean first performed the song during his debut solo tour in 2011, and later performed it on the Channel Orange Tour. The single release was originally announced on January 23, 2013. It was released in the United Kingdom on March 11, and in the United States on the 17th. The song's chorus takes its lyrics and melody from Mary J. Blige's "Real Love". The track includes a verse from Earl Sweatshirt, which, according to Complex, is a reminder of Ocean as "OFWGKTA at the end of the day." Paste magazine said that "Earl's low verses push Ocean way up into his vocal range."

In Their Own Story

The song is set in common time with a slow half-time groove tempo of 60 beats per minute. The key is E♭ major, with a chord progression of E♭maj9−A♭13sus4−D♭maj9−B♭9sus4−B♭7#5b9. The piano part references the thumping piano line of Elton John's 1973 song "Bennie and the Jets", and horns and synth arpeggios are also present. According to The Quietus, "a stomping piano and the steady smack of kickdrum anchors the ghostly crowd noise from a vast débutantes ball, as the synths quiver both nauseously and as subtly as candle-smoke in a floor draft." The song also takes samples from Marvin Gaye's "Got to Give It Up", and a reference to the 1970s sitcom Good Times (the "Dy-no-mite!" catchphrase of Jimmie Walker's character J.J. Evans). In 2012, the song appeared on the Gossip Girl season 6 episode "Monstrous Ball", along with four other Frank Ocean tracks: "Lost", "Pyramids", "Sweet Life" and "Thinkin Bout You". The song also appears as the seventeenth track on the soundtrack for the film The Bling Ring and on the HBO miniseries Big Little Lies.

Reader's Guide

The single received acclaim from critics. Sound and Motion magazine said that it "could easily be listened to repeatedly or just set on in the background for an evening's entertainment." Muso's Guide said the song "could be viewed as one of those tail end singles from a brilliant album that doesn't stand strong on its own... Ocean, proving his talent as a songwriter, and a jaded voice for this frustrated introspective generation is able to find something profound from a superficial world." The song became an Editor's Pick on DJBooth.net. Critical reactions of the song in reviews of Channel Orange were also positive. Time called the track a "stand out, tying together the album's two themes of class and love." Billboard, in a track-by-track review, said that "the steadiness of the beat is immediately familiar but wholly fresh – it's like Ocean snatched 'Benny and the Jets' and threw the composition down a trap door into another universe." Complex listed Earl Sweatshirt's appearance in the song number 15 on their "25 Best Guest Verses of 2012". In 2014, record label TufAmerica filed a copyright lawsuit against Vivendi and Universal Music Group for the sampling of Mary J. Blige's "Real Love" in "Super Rich Kids". This was because, according to the lawsuit, the sample included a sample of the Honey Drippers song "Impeach the President".

Did You Know?

• The song's chorus takes its lyrics and melody from Mary J. Blige's 'Real Love'.
• Ocean and Malay came up with 'Super Rich Kids' on their first day working together on Channel Orange.
• The song includes a reference to the 1970s sitcom Good Times via the 'Dy-no-mite!' catchphrase.
• In 2014, TufAmerica filed a copyright lawsuit over the sampling of 'Real Love', claiming it included a sample of the Honey Drippers song 'Impeach the President'.
• Complex ranked Earl Sweatshirt's guest verse on the song number 15 on their '25 Best Guest Verses of 2012'.