Frank Ocean recently opened up to John Caramanica of The New York Times for his first major interview in years, a story that was published by the NYT on Tuesday night (Nov. 15). Over the course of two days, the singer/songwriter spoke with Caramanica on the recording process of his No. 1 album Blonde, his personal life, the long and strenuous process of leaving Def Jam Records via buying himself out, his exile to London in 2013, and protesting the 2017 GRAMMYs by choosing not to submit his latest album for consideration.
Continue after the jump….
On escaping Los Angeles to London in 2013:
“It started to weigh on me that I was responsible for the moves that had made me successful, but I wasn’t reaping the lion’s share of the profits, and that was problematic for me. I had, in the midst of all of this, this feeling of isolation. Within my circle, there was a lot of places I thought I could turn that I felt like I couldn’t turn to anymore.”
On dating and if its difficult to do with his increased celebrity:
“I think normal would be the word, whatever that word means, which is usually nothing. I’m in a very different place than I was four or five years ago with all that stuff. Different in my relationship with myself, which means everything. There’s no, like, shame or self-loathing. There’s no, you know, crisis.”
If he’s been in love since 2012:
“Not the lasting kind.”
On the process Ocean describes as a “a seven-year chess game,” the decision to buy himself out from Def Jam:
“It started to weigh on me that I was responsible for the moves that had made me successful, but I wasn’t reaping the lion’s share of the profits, and that was problematic for me,” he said. “With [Blonde] in particular, I wanted to feel like I won before the record came out, and I did, and so it took a lot pressure off of me about how the record even would perform after the fact. Once the goal is met, everything else is lagniappe. It’s not essential for me to have a big debut week, it’s not essential for me to have big radio records.”
On choosing not to submit Endless or Blonde for consideration for the 2017 GRAMMYS:
“That institution certainly has nostalgic importance. It just doesn’t seem to be representing very well for people who come from where I come from, and hold down what I hold down.
I think the infrastructure of the awarding system and the nomination system and screening system is dated. I’d rather this be my Colin Kaepernick moment for the Grammys than sit there in the audience.”
Read the full interview with Frank Ocean over at the New York Times.
