Frank Ocean Speaks!
Since he started appearing on people's radars in early 2011, Frank Ocean was always content to let his music speak for him—he rarely made public appearances or granted interviews. Now that the singer's debut album Channel Orange has been making the rounds, though, the reclusive singer has slowly been appeasing us media vulture types, appearing on "Jimmy Fallon" earlier this week and calling in to popular BBC DJ Zane Lowe's radio show last night to discuss Orange and its production and hype.
Asked about releasing Orange to iTunes a week before its physical release, Ocean said that was "the plan all along. I wanted to mirror what Jay and Kanye did with Watch the Throne, preventing the leak by staggering the digital and physical dates. Me, my management and the label have been going through a lot to make sure that it went down seamlessly and it did."
The singer admitted that he actually hasn’t held a physical copy of Channel Orange. “I’m actually still designing the package for vinyl," he told Lowe. "The physicals are done. When we sent them in, they were locked down at the manufacturer. They never went on trucks to any of the retailers because that’s when things leak. I haven’t even held it in my hands.”
Either by mandate or choice, Lowe noticeably avoided the elephant in the room: Ocean's admission earlier this month of falling in love with a man when he was 19. But good call. Don't let that issue, important as it is, overshadow Orange, which your favorite music site loves.
Full interview below:
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