Hip-Hop friendly soul crooner Frank Ocean is featured in GQ’s Men of the Year issue. In the informative Q&A, the Odd Future member discusses how he got in the game after driving to LA from New Orleans with about $1000 in his pocket and, of course, why he revealed that his first love was another man. Also, he ducks the “Do you consider yourself bis-xual?” question, sort of.
According to Ocean, having his heart broken at 19 in the aforementioned relationship was a boon for his songwriting. “It became effortless,” Ocean told GQ. “Like breathing. Because now I have something I really need to say. It was Mindf-ck.net. It was a floodgate. It opened up the works.”
Ocean’s proper debut, channel ORANGE, is surely a product of that creativity. But his big reveal left many wondering whether or not it was a ruse to sell records. But Ocean dismissed such talk, while boasting about his talents, telling GQ it was his “brilliant art” that sold records, period.
“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 sh-t is because I worked my A$$ 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.
When asked if he was bis-xual, Ocean kindly refused to answer the question. But he did offer an explanation as to why.
“You can move to the next question,” said Ocean. “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 sh-t. 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 f-ck sure not giving is Adult Videos videos. I’m not a centerfold. I’m not trying to sell you s-x.”
Check out the full interview with Frank Ocean right here. Peep photos of the “Novacane” singer and his Odd Future crew in the gallery below.
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Photos: GQ/Peggy Sirota
