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Frank Ocean sits down with The guardian to talk about some of the recent events that have made him the most talked about man in music right now, which is pretty ironic since he hasn’t done much talking himself. He talks about risk taking, depression and breaks the silence on his decision to make is sexual orientation public knowlege.

I think it’s fair to say Ocean has taken pretty big risks —  from releasing what easily could have been a successful album, Nostalgia, Ultra, for free and without his label’s knowledge, to penning a letter which revealed that his first love happened to be another man, to dropping his new album, Channel Organge,  a week early and losing a major distributor in the process — but if you ask him, he wouldn’t use the word risky to desribe any of his decisions thus far:

“I won’t touch on risky, because that’s subjective,” he says. “People are just afraid of things too much. Afraid of things that don’t necessarily merit fear. Me putting Nostalgia out … what’s physically going to happen? Me saying what I said on my Tumblr last week? Sure, evil exists, extremism exists. Somebody could commit a hate crime and hurt me. But they could do the same just because I’m black. They could do the same just because I’m American. Do you just not go outside your house? Do you not drive your car because of the statistics? How else are you limiting your life for fear?”

He also speaks on the overwhelming support he has recieved for his bravery in deciding to come out:

“I don’t know, [a] lot of people have said that since that news came out. I suppose a percentage of that act was because of altruism; because I was thinking of how I wished at 13 or 14 there was somebody I looked up to who would have said something like that, who would have been transparent in that way. But there’s another side of it that’s just about my own sanity and my ability to feel like I’m living a life where I’m not just successful on paper, but sure that I’m happy when I wake up in the morning, and not with this freakin’ boulder on my chest.”

Some have stated that they believe the timing of Ocean’s announcement seems to be somewhat of a publicity stunt or at the very least a marketing tool. It’s true that the decision wasn’t spontaneous (we know this because the letter was written this past December), but Ocean speaks on his motivation behind the decision to share the news right before his first official project release:

 “I knew that I was writing in a way that people would ask questions,” he explains. “I knew that my star was rising, and I knew that if I waited I would always have somebody that I respected be able to encourage me to wait longer, to not say it till who knows when.” He’s not one for playing the game, clearly. “It was important for me to know that when I go out on the road and I do these things, that I’m looking at people who are applauding because of an appreciation for me,” he says. “I don’t have many secrets, so if you know that, and you’re still applauding … it may be some sort of sick validation but it was important to me. When I heard people talking about certain, you know, ‘pronouns’ in the writing of the record, I just wanted to – like I said on the post – offer some clarity; clarify, before the fire got too wild and the conversation became too unfocused and murky.”

On his lyrical content in songs like “Forrest Gump”:

“When you write a song like Forrest Gump, the subject can’t be androgynous. It requires an unnecessary amount of effort. I don’t fear anybody … ” He laughs, making eye contact at last, his face lighting up, ” … at all. So, to answer your question, yes, I could have easily changed the words. But for what? I just feel like it’s just another time now. I have no interest in contributing to that, especially with my art. It’s the one thing that I know will outlive me and outlive my feelings. It will outlive my depressive seasons.”

Ocean on his plans for the future:

“I enjoy singing my songs in front of people. I enjoy being involved in making the artwork for albums and stupid stuff like that. I wouldn’t be a part of [it] if I was just writing songs for others. And I said more about the music.”