 In the wake of Nostalgia , Ultra , other artists took interest in Ocean and contacted him about working together , leading to collaborations on Channel Orange . He previewed songs at different stages of completion to get feedback from guest artists , some of whom he cited as his " creative heroes " , including record producer Pharrell , who co @-@ wrote and co @-@ produced " Sweet Life " with Ocean . Ocean and Malay previewed songs to rock musician John Mayer , which inspired his guitar playing for both " Pyramids " and " White " . For the latter track , they used the instrumental of the song of the same name from Odd Future 's 2012 album The OF Tape Vol . 2 , recorded atmospheric instrumentation by Mayer and other musicians , and tracked it to the original instrumental . Ocean reached out to rappers André 3000 and Big Boi of hip hop duo OutKast to appear on " Pink Matter " . However , André 3000 did not want to reunite with Big Boi as a duo on another artist 's album . The former ended up rapping alone and playing guitar on the song . Ocean told him to tell any kind of story with his verse for " Pink Matter " , of which André 3000 later said , " when I got the track , I just started writing to it and I was just , I 'm just happy to be a part of that whole movement and his whole movement because he has become a whole ' nother kind of icon in today 's age . " 
