No secret that we’ve been following Frank Ocean this year. With the debut of his solo album channel ORANGE, penning letters about his sexuality and landing the season opener for Saturday Night Live, he’s had an amazing year. Trying to overcome homophobia with the industry and perfecting his craft is something that keeps Frank Ocean on his game.
In his intimate interview with GQ’s Amy Wallace, the singer opens up and reflects on his crazy year and his career thus far, sharing how he got his start, some insight on his creative process, and what drove him to publish his open letter on Tumblr that rocked hip-hop. Check out some highlights from the interview: …his thoughts on posting The Letter… The night I posted it, I cried like a fucking baby. It was like all the frequency just clicked to a change in my head. All the receptors were now receiving a different signal, and I was happy. I hadn’t been happy in so long. I’ve been sad again since, but it’s a totally different take on sad. There’s just some magic in truth and honesty and openness. GQ: Did you worry it would derail your career? I had those fears. In black music, we’ve got so many leaps and bounds to make with acceptance and tolerance in regard to that issue. It reflects something just ingrained, you know. When I was growing up, there was nobody in my family—not even my mother—who I could look to and be like, “I know you’ve never said anything homophobic.” So, you know, you worry about people in the business who you’ve heard talk that way. Some of my heroes coming up talk recklessly like that. It’s tempting to give those views and words— that ignorance—more attention than they deserve. Very tempting. Some people said, “He’s saying he fell in love with a guy for hype.” As if that’s the best hype you can get in hip-hop or black music. So I knew that if I was going to say what I said, it had to be in concert with one of the most brilliant pieces of art that has come out in my generation. And that’s what I did. Why can I say that? Why I don’t have to affect all this humility and shit is because I worked my ass off. I worked my face off. And the part that you love the most is the easiest part for me. So I’ll do it again. I’m sure if you’d wanted an excuse not GQ: So do you consider yourself bisexual? You can move to the next question. I’ ll respectfully say that life is dynamic and comes along with dynamic experiences, and the same sentiment that I have towards genres of music, I have towards a lot of labels and boxes and shit. I’m in this business to be creative—I’ll even diminish it and say to be a content provider. One of the pieces of content that I’m for fuck sure not giving is porn videos. I’m not a centerfold. I’m not trying to sell you sex. People should pay attention to that in the letter: I didn’t need to label it for it to have impact. Because people realize everything that I say is so relatable, because when you’re talking about romantic love, both sides in all scenarios feel the same shit. As a writer, as a creator, I’m giving you my experiences. But just take what I give you. You ain’t got to pry beyond that. I’m giving you what I feel like you can feel. The other shit, you can’t feel. You can’t feel a box. You can’t feel a label. Don’t get caught up in that shit. There’s so much something in life. Don’t get caught up in the nothing. That shit is nothing, you know? It’s nothing. Vanish the fear. …on his first jobs in LA… The first four and a half years was me in the studio every day, writing songs for other people. I had jobs, too— eleven jobs. I worked at Kinko’s, Fatburger, Subway—I was a sandwich artist—and I was a claims processor at Allstate Insurance. Also, photos in the magazine feature Frank Ocean alongside his clique, Odd Future groupmates Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt at a car shop- somewhere.
(Photo credit: Peggy Sirota/GQ) The GQ’s December Men of the Year issue is on newsstands now. For the full interview, please visit GQ.
Tags: Channel Orange, Frank Ocean, GQ, magazine, Odd Future, OF, Peggy Sirota, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt, Tyler