Frankly That Ocean so Mothaf*****g Good

I have been in Florida for about a week. There, I connected with two Oceans, the first of which was the Atlantic Ocean. I was right on the Gulf of Mexico the entire time, and I even had a day in the Gulf by myself. Yeah, apparently summer is "off-season" in Florida, which is backwards to me, because the weather is great all the time. So anyway, I had the Ocean to myself.

I reflected upon the nature of the Ocean. The first thing that strikes me is the sheer vastness.

There's no real segregation between the oceans of the Earth; it's not like the continents truly surround any ocean at all sides. Here I was, a spec off the coast of Florida, but I was still in the same body of water as a girl off the coast of South Africa, or a piece of trash in the pacific, or a fish in India. I never feel more like a part of something grand then when I stand in the ocean.

But the other thing that struck me about the ocean are the waves. I found myself splashing and kicking only so that I could examine the waves; at first, my splashes kick back against the ocean, but the then the current sweeps them back the way the ocean was going anyway. It was almost as if that huge force of nature had been reminding me of its power, and that in something so big, the struggles of a human were ultimately moot.

 The second Ocean I became in touch with in Florida, was Frank

 I remember when I first heard of Frank Ocean. Tyler the Creator had just started advertising Frank Ocean on Odd Future's blog. He caught my attention immediately caught my attention with his first single, "Novacane". On the surface it was just another vulgar R&B romp. Upon a close listening to the lyrics, it was actual one of the most haunting ballads I had ever heard.



Ok Frank you have my attention. Then I learned how he became the newest Odd Future member (wolf?): his mixtape wasn't catching the attention of the execs at DefJam, he was in danger of getting dropped, he saw Tyler the Creator becoming an online sensation whilst releasing albums on tumblr. Hey, he said, it's that easy. So he sent Tyler his mixtape and said that he wanted to be in Odd Future. Tyler was won over, Frank got free promotion. DefJam started taking him seriously, and he became a budding R&B star. But still there was something different about Frank.

He's there on the left, sitting as Odd Future grandstands. Now, I know, 99 percent of the world's population aren't as outgoing as Odd Future, but still Frank stood out. He wasn't seen in public very often, when he was, he would sit down at the red carpet. There was something on his mind.

And a few weeks ago, he let it out.
Amid rumors of  non heteronormal pronouns on his forthcoming album, "channel ORANGE", he released, in a letter on his tumblr, what was supposed to be his "thank yous" section.

It turned out to be something more momentous.


Frank Ocean came out as a bisexual man.

This wasn't a publicity stunt. This wasn't a push of any sort of envelope. It was honesty. Yes, there were some hims where you'd except hers and boys where you would expect girls in the lyrics of the songs. I guess that's the point of being a bisexual songwriter- sometimes you write about women, sometimes you write about men.

The indecent Frank describes in his letter is featured heavily on the album; not only does the last song feature a recording of someone stepping inside from the rain (as the letter described- this would be the POV of the other man) but the incident is extrapolated on in detail in the song "Bad Religion".





Good songwriters will write from the heart; great ones will let you into to their hearts. Frank wrote a very personal song about a personal moment, and by the way, it hits with all the gravitas of Otis Redding with a pain in his heart. Coming out wasn't an agenda, or a message. Frank just wanted to be on the same page with everyone. This song is about being heartbroken because of a man, and he's comfortable enough to say that out loud so you can not misinterpret anything. It's a move to connect the songwriter to his audience. We can all be connected to Frank Ocean, like we all are when standing shoulder deep in the real Ocean.
 
As much as "Bad Religion" is a milestone, it's not the only track on the album. For all of the press his sexuality is getting, Frank Ocean released a very vaginal album: there's all these reffrences to women and their "fruits", and even just a song about the Brahman nature of vaginas.




At their best, his songs for women make me want to fall in love with a brown skinned beauty on a foreign island.



And honestly, I would have blogged about this album one way or another, because it contains a ten minute epic, "Pyramids", which blends seamlessly from an eyewitness account of the Battle of Actium, to a pimp in Las Vegas, to a John Mayer guitar solo. Holy shit, was this song made explicitly for me?




Sure, Frank Ocean is not the first pop artist to come out, but what makes this different is the timing; his star is rising a year into his career, and he has chosen this moment to let his audience get to know him. Elton John didn't come out until the 80s. Freddie Mercury didn't come out until he was nearly dead. And even they were rockers, we haven't seen this high profile of an event in hip-hop and R&B yet.

Hip-hop's long standing struggle with homophobia and hyper-masculinity is well documented, and usually swept under the rug by the hip-hop community itself. Popular music often acts like a "megaphone for the culture" as the linked video said. Just as the current can sweep you away in the Ocean, there's been a homophobic backlash to Frank Ocean's revelation. It's impossible to detail everything that bigots on twitter have lobbed to Frank, but it became a big enough deal that there is a backlash to the backlash.

In the patriarchal world of hip-hop, what the established figureheads say becomes law. Jay-Z, who lest you forget featured Frank quite heavily on Watch the Throne, and praised him for his courage. New York's Hot97 is playing his tracks. But the best seal of approval for Frank thus far was from hip-hop god Russel Simmons, CEO of the world, pretty much.

Yes, that old guy. He's the reason you know Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys. Back to what he said about Frank Ocean.


"It took a lot of courage for him as a man to write (his tumblr confession)...He made a sacrifice for the community at large, that's what's inspiring. I heard one person say, 'who cares?' And I said, 'People who are gay and don't have role models'".

Frank Ocean's coming out is brilliant move as a songwriter, sure, but it's a brave move as a man.