Frank Ocean: Not Waving, Drowning

Even by the standards of the pop world, Frank Ocean is full of surprises. In 2012, the hip-hop star marked the release of his debut album, Channel Orange, by posting a letter on Tumblr in which he came out as gay — a rare and brave move given the homophobia rife within the genre.

Sunday Times.

He's not gay - get over it. 

And coming out is not 'brave', it's pretty prosaic.

You racist shitbag.

Frank Ocean: The Sound Of Silence

Over the past four days, there has been no bigger story in the arts space than Frank Ocean. Thursday night, the elusive artist released a meandering, yet fantastic visual album Endless. An even longer masterpiece Blonde came Saturday, along with a 360-page print publication titled Boys Don't Cry distributed at pop up shops in four major international cities.

However, reading many major gay publications, you wouldn't have any idea that one of the most visible, queer POC artist of our generation — an artist who by many accounts completely changed the game for queer celebrities — had returned.

Neither the Advocate Magazine, Out Magazine, nor the U.K.'s Gay Times covered any of Ocean's recent projects upon their release. Gay Times, which has a music section on its site, hadn't posted a single article on any Ocean-related content until Monday morning, and it eventually came in the form of a short stub about a poem from Ocean's Boys Don't Cry that was gaining coverage across the web. Many fans couldn't help but see this as yet one more piece of evidence in the ongoing conversation surrounding #GayMediaSoWhite...

Mic. 

I don't think it's racism, more that they're not very good at their job.

For the record, several gay media, did write about - and even reprint - his bobbins poem, Boyfriend, today.

And yes, I know I've written next to bum all aboout his comeback so don't write in.

Frank Ocean: Endless

Every media pretends to love Frank Ocean. Every media pretends to love Frank Ocean. Every media pretends to love Frank Ocean...

Frank Ocean: Secrets

This piece by Jamie Milton is quite good.

Vice: Gay Icon!

Vice.

Any journalist who uses the moronic term 'gay icon' should have their fingers broken, lest they ever go near a keyboard again.

PS Please note Vice has illustrated this article with several black men - one of whom isn't actually gay - cos they is so down with them, bro.*

*Actually all written be whiteys.

Frank Ocean: Oh No He Didn't!

The Independent.

Ridiculous.
He's never yet said publicly he's gay, just that he once had a relationship with a man.
Most of the songs on Channel Orange are clearly about women.
This really is the most ridiculous tokenistic twaddle.
Part of a tradition I call "The Whitey Album", where a record by a black artist gets fetishised and hyped by white journalists and is played at middle-class dinner parties by people desperate to show how street they are - and now this comes with added "gay"!
See also Public Enemy, De La Soul, Arrested Development, Wu Tang Tribe, Lauryn Hill etc etc...

Update: Rosie Swash on Guardian Music asks if 2012 was the year hip hop's attitudes to homosexuality changed - though she points out Ocean didn't say he was gay, and isn't really hip-hop...

Update 2: And once again Gay Star News show why they are the shittest and thickest gay media outlet in the world.

Frank Ocean: Happy 25th Birthday

Best wishes and the best of luck to you, Frank.
This happy occasion might be a good opportunity to revisit a few points about what became one of the most discussed music stories of the year.
Frank Ocean has never described himself as gay, or as a gay man.
Most of the songs on Channel Orange are clearly about women.
The song Forrest Gump is about falling in love with a man, and he says it's autobiographical.
But he's also said the relationship it describes - "my first love" - is in the past, and suggests it was a one-off (Read his Tumblr post on this here).
As far as I know he's only spoken about the "coming out" circus this gave rise to in one interview (in the UK press, at any rate), with The Guardian Guide. 
Much of the gay media were very excited about all this, though many seemed not to have listened to the album, or to what he's actually said.
The Advocate, America's biggest gay magazine, put him on the cover.
But, perhaps tellingly, Frank didn't give them an interview.
I'm not a mind-reader, and nor do I know him, so I have no way of knowing if Frank Ocean is actually gay (though it would be odd for him to be so candid and then write a load of love songs using the female pronoun).
But I also can't see any reason to try and shoehorn him into an identity that he doesn't use himself.

Update: Independent article on two gay club nights that play Hip Hop, It's A Hard Cock Life and Pac-Man.
Mentions Frank Ocean's "coming out", natch.
Try and guess which leading authority on Hip Hop they ask about it... Peter Tatchell!
Inspired journalism. 

Thought For The Day: Stevie Wonder

"I think honestly, some people who think they're gay, they're confused. People can misconstrue closeness for love. People can feel connected, they bond. I'm not saying all [gay people are confused]. Some people have a desire to be with the same sex. But that's them."

Oh dear - bit clumsy, Stevie.
Interview in The Guardian by Paul Lester.
He was responding to a question about Frank Ocean's apparent coming out.
It now seems obligatory for white journalists to bring this up when they interview black artists.
It's a new variation on ye olde 'Hip Hop = Homophobic' saw.
Cause all black people hate queers, right?
More like some white straight journalists can't get their head round the idea of a black gay man.
It's patronising racist Orientalist junk.
Basically.

PS Paul Lester is hardly someone to pull someone up on their homophobia.

Update: An official apology/clarification. 

Frank Ocean: Knee Deep In The Hoopla

Frank Ocean - arguably more talked about than heard - is now streaming his new album, Channel Orange, on his Tumblr thingamabob.
Enjoy!

Justin Bieber: Gay!

In The Sun, in The Sun, in the Sun, Sun, Sun.
So deffo true.
The only piece I've read making some sense of the Frank Ocean baloney is this on NPR online by Ann Powers which begins by stating the obvious, calling him "a gay rapper" is odd, when he hasn't defined himself as the former and is definitely not the latter.
As I've said before there's a clear racist subtext to much writing about this, even - or especially - in your so-called liberal media.
"A black man who's gay? How very exotic and improbable!"

Frank Ocean: Of Tears

An editorial meeting, earlier.
"So, guys, some black American Hip Hop guy has apparently come out..."
"I think we should go big with this, even though only four of our readers have probably heard of him, but we have a duty to print an article about Hip Hop and black people being homophobic every month."
"Aren't black people awful - so who shall we get to write it?"
"Some white English straight chap, obvs - as usual."
"Good call - make sure he puts in a quote from an authority on this Hip Hop thing."
"Peter Tatchell?"
"Good fucking call!"