Frank Ocean’s Album “Too Gay” For Some Fans After months of waiting and months of hype, Frank Ocean released his second album, Blonde, alongside a magazine called Boys Don’t Cry and a visual album called Endless.
While many of us are just trying to get our heads around that sort of approach to marketing an album (or is it two?), others are trying to get down to the lyrics and struggling. Why? Because Frank has previously said he’s fallen in love with a guy, and some of the lyrics seem to be - shock! - about guys!
See, the thing about Frank is that he likes men sometimes, and yes, he makes music. So do so many artists, regardless of their genre.
It’s notable that the worst thing Frank's done in his private life is love someone, writing about it in 2012 on Tumblr, describing a time when he was 19: ‘I met somebody. I was 19 years old. He was too. We spent that summer, and the summer after, together, everyday almost. And on the days we were together, time would glide. Most of the day I’d see him, and his smile.’
If these homophobes can’t reconcile that fairly anodyne - and beautiful - fact of Frank’s private life with his artistic output, it’s going to pretty tough for them when they try to comprehend that so many artists have done far worse e.g. R Kelly’s songs are bangers but he’s paid settlements to the 14-year-old girls he sexually assaulted. Chris Brown’s a great dancer but he also assaulted then-girlfriend Rihanna. Afrika Bambaata, pioneer of hip-hop, allegedly sexually assaulted young boys in the 80s… It’s not just hip-hop and R&B stars - from Woody Allen to Sean Penn and Christian Bale, there are celebrities who’ve been absolute shits in their private lives and don’t have it hauled up in front of their artistic output the same way Frank’s love does. Yeah, they probably should, but Frank? Who has he hurt?
If Frank Ocean’s sexuality is a problem for you, then you can’t have many problems. And he surely doesn’t - Blonde is being celebrated by critics and is currently riding high at number one in theUS iTunes sales chart. That’s a lot of people: gay, straight and everything in-between, managing to feel very comfortable with Frank!
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.