Prostitutes and pimps, drug mules and drug lords, rich kids with too much money to be happy, and at moments, the narrator himself-these are the cast of alienated, paralyzed SoCal misfits swirling around in Frank Ocean’s moral imagination. That right there, that compassionate understanding of human nature, is the guiding ethos behind Channel Orange, a very beautiful album about not-so-beautiful people. “Human beings spinning on blackness, all wanting to be seen, touched, heard, paid attention to.” “Whoever you are, wherever you are, I’m starting to think we’re a lot alike,” the letter began. It was a soft, lovelorn thing that reached for understanding, rejecting labels.
The letter, originally intended to be liner notes for the physical copy of Channel Orange, told the story of Frank’s first love, who happened to be a male. It’s interesting, then, that he seems at his most comfortable when he’s making big statements, like the one he made with that letter he posted to his Tumblr on July 4, a response to a music critic who asked about gender pronouns on his new album. As a guest voice on Watch the Throne or a modest presence in the rabble-rousing rap group Odd Future, Frank Ocean tends to leave a calming effect on everything he touches.
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