Frank Ocean, an artist we love. An artist we admire.
We want to dedicate an entire article to Frank, for being a commendable individual. Not only for his gift of music, but for his gift as an outstanding person. First, let’s start with what know him for best, the music.
Take a listen right here.
A rendition of Aaliyah’s You Are Luhh, sung beautifully by Frank. That’s why we love him. He sings from his heart while making it seem so effortless. We can listen to this on repeat. Especially when we’re alone in our rooms, with nobody to tell us to stop playing the same song over and over.
Next, we’ll take a step into 2012. Here’s an open letter by Mr. Ocean himself. In fact, it’s the letter he wrote about, possibly, his first love. This could possibly be the guy he sung about in channel ORANGE, the album that changed lives. Channel ORANGE gave us Forrest Gump and Pyramids. We’ve never sang with such passion until our ears heard “Oh, where’d you go Forrest?”
In the letter above, the Thinking About You singer talks about how he loved a guy in a different way than he’d ever loved anyone and the love was unrequited for many years. He expressed in great detail how they spent so many days together that he didn’t even realize he was in love. It just happened. This is the second reason we love Frank. He’s just like us. He loves hard and he falls hard. That’s not the main reason for the post, though. It was the ‘who’ that really mattered. Frank was in love with a guy. That’s the third reason why we love him. He was finally free of a burden that many people aren’t strong enough to carry. He was free in who he was and who he still is and he expressed it in the best way he could—through his music.
Thanks, Frank Ocean. Thank you for all of your work and your dedication to making other people laugh and smile. Keep being you. We’re going to leave this piece of magic here for you guys to watch. A live performance of Frank’s hit Thinkin Bout You on SNL.