Stop the press: A mainstream, black, male artist in hip-hop revealed his first love was with a man. Only weeks before the release of
Frank Ocean's debut solo album on Def Jam, Channel Orange, he opened up about his sexuality via Tumblr. A huge risk for the member of the edgy hip-hop group Odd Future -- admitting you are anything but heterosexual and ultra-masculine in hip-hop normally equates career suicide, which is what makes the 24-year-old's admission so powerful -- his honesty is more important than the album sales.
Only an hour into Independence Day, Ocean posted: "Four summers ago, I met somebody. I was 19 years old. He was too. We spent that summer, and the summer after, together. Every day almost, and on the day we were together, time would glide. Most of the day I'd see him, and his smile. By the time I realized I was in love, it was malignant. It was hopeless." He described a deep love that forever changed him, staying with the singer-songwriter for years. Ocean added, "I don't have secrets I need kept anymore... I feel like a free man."