The last year has seen soulful crooner Frank Ocean make his foray from the Underground into the mainstream; a process which looks set to culminate with the release of his debut album ‘Channel Orange’ (due July 17th).
Today saw the LP receive its London press playback, and oh did it serve up more than expected. See what we mean via Max/BBC 1 Xtra‘s preview below…
Excerpt via This is Max:
“Frank has also opened up about his sexuality on the album, we think it’s brave and admire him for being so honest and sharing such a personal aspect of his life through his music. On the songs ‘Bad Religion’ ‘Pink Matter and ‘Forrest Gump’ you can hear him sing about being in love and their are quite obvious words used like ‘him’ and not ‘her’.
In the world we live in now we can’t see this being an issue or why it should be?? But we do commend him for not continuing a facade and conforming to what a Hip Hop so called rule book expects, we say live your life and be yourself.”
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Intriguing – even more so when considering what this could mean for strides in the “Urban diaspora”. For, having earned accolades a plenty in his short time “on the scene”, it’ll be uber interesting to see the mass reaction to his apparent declaration.
Whatever it is, we can only hope it’s one that isn’t hypocritical. For, any sudden jolts or negative OMG’s would be silly given that the industry has a pronounced “pink” presence – whether folk know or like it. It simply is what it is. If anything, Ocean should garner praise for actually “going there” – given that so many of his contemporaries don’t. Yuuup.