Despite his R&B contemporaries keeping mum on his ‘open letter‘, this week saw Frank Ocean receive support from ‘Street King’ philanthropist / Rap heavy 50 Cent.
His comments on Ocean’s ‘coming out’ below…
Speaking to MTV UK, 50 explained:
Anyone that has an issue with Frank Ocean is an idiot.
I think Frank Ocean is a talented artist, I think he’s created material that made me know his name, that impressed me, with things he said on a song like ‘Novacane’.
It could be revolutionary or it could be a tragedy. You can call it brave or you can call it marketing, because it was intentional; it wasn’t an accident.
There are artists before who have made these choices just not having made the choice to expose it to the general public before an actual release of music.
While it’s great 50 has spoken out in Frank’s defense, we hope his comments come from the heart and not out of fear of being labelled homophobic for not conforming to popular opinion.
For while it’s important for opinion leaders like 50, Drake and Jay Z to speak out against the homophobic attacks aimed at Ocean and others in general, it’s apparent that many are expecting them to defend him when in reality… they really don’t have to.
Here’s hoping that in a bid to encourage a more free and equal society, we remember what it actually means to be a free and equal society and don’t endorse situations where the oppressed become the oppressors- bashing anyone who doesn’t subscribe to their way of thinking.
In short, just because 50, Jermaine Dupri and Tyler The Creator have chosen to publicly support Ocean does not mean ‘the others’ have to, regardless of how hypocritical their decision not to do so might be.