Frank Ocean completed his first interview since his release of “Channel Orange”. Click below for the interview.
Although Frank Ocean chose a non-traditional route of promoting and releasing his album ‘Channel Orange’, he is still on track to sell at least 100-120k albums via Itunes when sales reports are released next week. [Which is somewhat amazing considering he’s only done one promo appearance the week of the album’s release and one interview].
Earlier this week, he called into BBC Radio 1 in London for a rare interview to discuss his decision to release his album a week early, as well as the recording process of the album and why he is selective when it comes to live performances. When asked if he had planned to release his album a week earlier all along, he responded:
It was actually the plan all along. I kinda wanted to mirror what Jay and Kanye did with Watch The Throne, preventing the leak by staggering the digital and physical dates. My thing was, I wanted all the promotional elements to be, retroactive, but kinda follow the album with the videos and the tour and do everything after. And kinda just let the music speak for itself for a second and not be in a situation where the record leaks. So it was always my plan to drop it ahead of [the physical date] and we [meaning my management and the label] have been going through a lot to make sure it went down seamlessly and it did. So I’m happy it went cool.
He also revealed why he is selective when it comes to live performances:
I want to give the best show possible when I can and put myself in a position to just do my best. So if that means a lesser volume of appearances then so be it. I’m in this thing, whatever it is, I hate to call it a game because I take it pretty seriously but I’m in it for as long as I’m allowed to be. It’s not about ‘let’s do a million things right now’. Its about ‘let’s just do our best to do the best things right now’.
Meanwhile, Target has been catching flack for their decision not to carry Frank’s album after his rep tweeted that he believed their reasoning had to do with Frank’s admission of bi-sexuality. They released a statement this week stating that their decision was based on Frank deciding to release his album early on Itunes.
“At Target, we focus on offering our guests a wide assortment of physical CDs, so our selection of new releases is dedicated to physical CDs rather than titles that are released digitally in advance of the street date.â€
His manager also issued an apology via Twitter:
I apologize for my comments about Target. They are not carrying Frank’s album because it went digital first. Not for ANY other reason. … My response was simply an emotional knee jerk reaction. … Stop. Breath. Do the best you can. Be honest. Keep it moving.
Listen to Frank’s interview on BBC Radio 1 below:
