Though Frank Ocean is probably not addressing any specific rumors in his “i don’t know anything. & neither do you” Twitter bio, that does seem to hit the nail on the head concerning the whispers (and headlines) surrounding his upcoming debut album .
For those of you who don’t know who Frank Ocean is, he is a 24-year-old R&B singer and songwriter and earlier this year, he released a mixtape. He has already had some hits like Novacane and Swim Good and he even appeared on Watch the Throne. Frank is currently promoting his album “Channel Orange” in the UK ahead of the July 17th release date, and Max, a London music critic who listened to Channel Orange, believes his album isn’t the only thing “coming out” that day. She claims that the lyrics she heard reveal Frank Ocean is bisexual:
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 there 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. If you love women and men, that’s your business.
Max goes on to say Channel Orange is a “beautiful album and worthy of sitting next to classics by Prince, Michael Jackson, George Benson and Sade.”
When you think of classic R&B love songs, most if not all of them are men singing about women and women singing about men, but eventually someone is going to deviate from that norm. Whether or not that’s Frank Ocean is yet to be determined. So far, Max is the only listener who interpreted his lyrics in this way. Other people listened to the album, including Complex magazine, and they didn’t come to that conclusion. Frank Ocean hasn’t commented either way, so I guess it will be up to the fans to determine for themselves when the album is released and they have their own listen.
What do you think? Would you listen to an R&B album of a man singing about another man?
Follow Alissa Henry on Twitter @AlissaInPink
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