Frank Ocean is happy with the success of his album “Channel Orange,” but says it was his intention all along to make sure the music spoke for itself.
“My thing was I wanted all the promotional elements to be, I don’t know if the word is retroactive, but [to] kind of 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,” Ocean said breaking his silence in an interview with BBC 1.
While it was a surprise to fans, Ocean also admits “Channel Orange” was released digitally first on purpose.
“It was actually the plan all along,” the “Bad Religion” singer told Zane Lowe. “I kinda wanted to mirror what Jay Z and Kanye did with “Watch the Throne.”
According to Ocean, this was the best way to prevent the album from leaking by “staggering” the digital and physical release dates.
While that cost him Target, Ocean is poised to have a strong digital debut on the charts next week. Physical copies of the album may give him a strong second week beginning Tuesday.
Nonetheless, Def Jam says Ocean’s letter describing a relationship with a man was not a publicity ploy. It was Frank being Frank.
“Absolutely not. You have to understand that Frank’s letter last week was in NO WAY intended to impact the marketing of this record. Like all things with Frank, it was a carefully measured, very personal decision,” said Def Jam president Joie Manda.
While Frank was forthcoming about the album, he was not forthcoming about his implied sexuality in the BBC1 interview Thursday.
