A lot of musicians have been showing support for Frank Ocean’s coming out, which is great. Click below to hear Ne-Yo’s viewpoint.
Singer Frank Ocean is still a huge topic of discussion amongst the music community after he penned an open letter to his fans last week, detailing the first time he fell in love (with a man). The revelation drew a huge amount of support from the likes of Beyonce and Russell Simmons who took to their blogs and tumblr pages to applaud Frank Ocean on his bravery.
Ne-Yo, who has had to defend himself against sexuality rumors in the past, also shared his thoughts in a recent interview. When asked by Yesi Ortiz of Power 106 how he felt about Frank Ocean, he responded:
“To each his own, if that’s how he rock, that’s how he rock, you know what I mean. It don’t change the fact that his music is incredible. It don’t change the fact that he’s an incredible artist. He chose to put his personal life out there, and that’s him. I don’t fault people for who they are, if that’s really who you are, you know what I mean. If that’s really who you are then by all means do what you do. I’m not gonna judge you behind that. That’s not my place.
He also added that he’s tired of the ‘gay’ rumors that have circulated about himself:
Call me ugly or something, let’s think of something else. This whole gay thing has been lingering for a little too long. Say I’m adopted, I’ll take the ninja turtle comments, I’ll take that. Let’s do something else.
Ne-Yo is currently promoting his new album, ‘The R.E.D Album’ which hits stores in September. Meanwhile, Frank Ocean, who dropped his album ‘Channel Orange’ on Tuesday, is going through a little drama of his own. Target is refusing to carry his album because he decided to release it on Itunes exclusively a week before it hit stores, however, a member of Frank’s team implied in a tweet that he believed it had more to do with his sexuality.
Target has refused to carry Franks album because of Itunes exclusive. Interesting since they also donate to non equal rights organizations.
With everything that’s going on, it will be interesting to see what the first week sales of ‘Channel Orange’ will be. The reviews from sites like Billboard and LA Times have been excellent and right now he’s on the path to sell 110k-125k which are good numbers considering he doesn’t have as broad of a fanbase as other R&B vets like Usher and Chris Brown who sold 128k and 134k respectively.
