Lyrically, the song narrates a young female dental student who makes a living doing porn and who recreationally uses local anesthetic drugs which she acquires from her place of study.

The song received a music video directed by Australian director Nabil Elderkin released on June 16.

The highly stylized video shows a long take of Ocean sitting in a dimly lit room as he applies lotion.

It was also performed during his fourteen-show North American tour in support of his debut studio album, Channel Orange.

"Novacane" was written by Frank Ocean and Victor Alexander with co-writing by Tricky Stewart who also produced the track.

"[3] When asked if the song was an R&B track, 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.

[6][7] Lyrically the track explores a narrative in which the singer meets a girl attempting to pay her way through dental school by working in porn, or at least that's what she told him.

"Novacane" received highly positive reviews from music critics, and has been described as the best song on Nostalgia, Ultra.

[8] Pitchfork editor Tom Breihman made the song "Best New Track" and commented that the song had a "stripped-back melodic construction with Ocean crooning over a synthetic backing that practically fades into nonexistence" and that "it draws its power from tiny little details, like throwaway observations or catches in Ocean's voice.

"[6] Ology writer JT Langley noted that though the song was "massively depressing" and that "Frank makes a foul mouth sound sweeter than your usual R&B through his brand of crooning ...

Tricky Stewart's production adds yet another morose element to provide the more macabre side of the drugs-for-love-lost genre.

A lot of things can cause that numbing, but in the video it was some sort of topical aesthetic and a little bit of special effects.

"[17] Supposedly, it required several takes to achieve the correct angle for the slapping moment, and the spliced images were placed in the video because Ocean asked the director whether or not they "can we put some kind of Asian-rain-forest stuff in there?

[19] Ocean embarked on a solo tour through North America and Europe to promote both the mixtape and his other musical projects.