Frank Ocean is a singer/songwriter born in Long Beach, California, on October 28, 1987. He grew up in New Orleans where he started listening to jazz music, but when he was a teen, he moved to LA to make music. Frank Ocean wrote music for other artists such as Beyonce and Justin Bieber but became famous as an artist in 2011 when he released his own album, Nostalgia Ultra. He then released an album in 2012 titled Channel Orange. He followed up in 2016 by releasing the back-to-back albums called Blonde and Endless.
He recorded music while working a couple of different jobs in high school to pay for the studio time. After graduating from high school in 2005, he went to the University of New Orleans. In August of that year, Hurricane Katrina hit, and the place where Frank Ocean’s studio is was badly flooded and looted. He decided to set aside his academic goals and take time to focus on his music career.
Frank Ocean moved to LA to continue making music. He thought he wouldn’t stay for long, but he was getting very popular, and his career seemed to be going well, so he extended his time in LA. He got a job and eventually got a songwriting deal and started working with other popular artists. In 2008 and 2009, he co-wrote the track “I Miss You” with Beyonce.
The following year he started to make music with the music group “Odd Future.” A popular artist in this group was Tyler, the Creator. Tyler encouraged Frank Ocean’s music career and helped him with it. Frank Ocean also met a producer by the name of Tricky Stewart. He helped Frank Ocean get a contract with Def Jam as a solo artist.
The following year Frank Ocean changed his name to Christopher Francis Ocean. He thought the name would look better on magazine covers.
In February of 2011, Frank Ocean released his album titled Nostalgia Ultra. He released his album on a website without his producer, Def Jam, knowing. He announced on Twitter that he had released this album without his producer’s knowledge because the label had not been supportive of him after signing him.
Frank Ocean’s self-released recordings had a mixture of originally composed music and samples of tracks from his favorite artists Coldplay, The Eagles, and MGMT. Artists like Kanye West and Jay-Z were also impressed with Frank Ocean’s career.
Frank Ocean was still getting super popular. He then began to work on a follow-up album with Def Jam Records who he had started to repair a relationship with.
In 2012 Frank released a track called “Pyramids.” The next month Frank Ocean performed another track from that album on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Then in July, Frank Ocean announced that he liked both men and women. All of his colleagues who were also in the music industry showed their support for Frank Ocean.
His album was released one week earlier than it should have been on iTunes. Frank Ocean did this to avoid his album being leaked. Within a couple of hours, it was number 1 on the Top Album Charts. Later on, the album was released on different platforms. Just like Frank Ocean’s other albums, it was very popular. He went on to win 2 Grammys in 2013 and is still one of the most successful artists to this day.
