10 Things You Didn't Know About Frank Ocean

By Barr Balamuth

It’s been too long since we’ve heard new music from Frank Ocean. Since the 2012 release of his critically acclaimed debut Channel Orange, the former Odd Future member has kept to himself, avoiding the spotlight and even going so far as to delete his Instagram and Twitter accounts.

What's worse, he only seems to grace our timelines when other artists try to drag him there—remember that time Chris Brown jumped him over a parking space, or when Miguel tried to goad him into a sing-off?

That should change soon enough; in April, Frank posted a picture to his Tumblr showing off his magazine Boys Don’t Cry. The caption read: “I got two versions. I got twoooo versions.” #ISSUE1 #ALBUM3 #JULY2015 #BOYSDONTCRY.” Many of Ocean’s fans took this to mean he would be releasing his new album, along with a magazine, in July.

The clock is ticking: there are only four days left in July. If that sounds like too long of a wait, you’re not alone. We're fiending over here—maybe by publishing some Frank Ocean content, we can unconsciously tip the scales in Frank's brain and nudge up the release. While you sit and wait anxiously for the next four days, see how well you really know Frank Ocean.

Not even the ears of Frank Ocean are exempt from academia's calling. Fortunately, the lecture hall's hold on him proved too weak to last. He endured his higher education stint at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette, for a single semester in the fall of 2005, after which he bid farewell to schooling and committed himself to a career in music.

According to a 2013 New York Times interview, he originally intended to study at the University of New Orleans. Hurricane Katrina changed that, forcing him to transfer as the semester rapidly approached. The transition away from forced learning allowed for the existence of nostalgia, ULTRA and channel ORANGE. His move to Los Angeles at the behest of a friend awarded his work room to flourish, and flourish it did.

We're not to about to cosign dropping out, but if you've got talent and your shit together, never let anyone tell you it's not possible to succeed. Ocean is living proof of the contrary.

Before Ocean (then known as Lonny Breaux) met Tricky Stewart in 2009, he had a long string of odd jobs, everything from a Subway sandwich artist, to an AT&T salesman, to an Allstate claims processor. In total, he worked eleven different jobs before catching on as a solo artist.

Ocean’s songs often feel like complete narratives, with fully fleshed out stories and characters. He told GQ that Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic was the basis for Channel Orange standout “Super Rich Kids,” and we’ve known him to be a film buff ever since he sampled dialogue from Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut in Nostalgia, Ultra (not to mention namedropping the director in “Novacane”).

Ocean sees parallels between cinematography and music. “If you watch a great film,” he said, “you have a musical element to it, not just on the scoring, but in the way that the shots are edited – that has music and rhythm and time. Obviously the cinematography of films is art, just as a still shot can be art. If I'm watching a Wes Anderson movie, the color palettes alone, and the way they're painted, could be art."

In retrospect, the letter has only served to invigorate Frank's career and cement his status as a cultural trailblazer. At the time, however, Frank feared coming out so publicly might hurt his image and sales. "In black music, we've got so many leaps and bounds to make with acceptance and tolerance in regard to that issue,” Ocean has said.

He also worried that some would view his post cynically, as a way to boost the hype surrounding the release of Channel Orange. Neither of Ocean’s fears would come to fruition; the Tumblr post was met with widespread support, both from prominent black celebrities such as Odd Future cohort Tyler the Creator, Solange Knowles, Russell Simmons.