Ever since Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All jumped onto the scene about 18 months ago people have been moaning about their perceived homophobia because pretty much every other word that Tyler The Creator says is faggot. Well, today Frank Ocean – probably the only other notable member of Odd Future, except maybe that white guy who gets to hang out with them because he sells their t-shirts – revealed on his tumblr that he might be gay.
Yeah, only might be. Kinda disappointing. He basically wrote a story about how he really liked hanging out with a dude for a couple of summers and then realised he was in love with him. But the dude wasn’t into it so they never really did any of the bad stuff together. At least he doesn’t mention it if he did but he probably gave him a cheeky BJ or something because everyone knows if you get a BJ off another guy you aren’t fully 100% gay, just like bicurious or in your mid 20′s or something. At least that’s what Oz taught me anyhow, although I’m not sure how drenched in reality that is considering it’s set in a brutal high security prison.
But anyway, if you’re interested in what Frank Ocean had to say, here’s the important parts of the text:
“4 summers ago, I met somebody. I was 19 years old. He was too. We spent that summer, and the summer after, together. Everyday almost. And on the days we were together, time would glide. Most of the day I’d see him, and his smile.
“Sleep I would often share with him. By the time I realised I was in love, it was malignant. It was hopeless. There was no escaping, no negotiating to the women I had been with, the ones I cared for and thought I was in love with.
“I sat there and told my friend how I felt. I wept as the words left my mouth. I grieved for then. Knowing I could never take them back for myself. He patted my back. He said kind things. He did his best, but he wouldn’t admit the same.”
“He had to go back inside soon. It was late and his girlfriend was waiting for him upstairs. He wouldn’t tell the truth about his feelings for me for another 3 years. I felt like I’d only imagined reciprocity for years.”
“I kept up a peculiar friendship with him because I couldn’t imagine keeping up my life without him. I struggled to master myself and my emotions. I wasn’t always successful.
“I don’t have any secrets I need kept anymore. There’s probably some small s**t still, but you know what I mean. I was never alone, as much as it felt like it. As much as I still do sometimes. I never was. I don’t think I ever could be. Thanks. To my first love, I’m grateful for you.
“Grateful that even though it wasn’t what I hoped for and even though it was never enough, it was. Some things never are. And we were. I won’t forget you. I won’t forget the summer. I’ll remember who I was when I met you. I’ll remember who you were and how we’ve both changed and stayed the same.
“To my mother. You raised me strong. I know I’m only brave because you were first. So thank you. All of you. For everything good. I feel like a free man. If I listen closely, I can hear the sky falling too.”
So yeah, that’s that. What does it mean? That Frank Ocean was in love with a dude for a bit and maybe still is. I guess it’s pretty cool he’s just decided to tell the whole world about this deeply personal thing for no reason all of a sudden. Apparently it was supposed to be on the liner notes of his new record because a lot of the songs are apparently love songs about this dude, and he felt like he needed to post it on the internet now to address a bunch of rumours about his sexuality that had emerged following a few people listening to the record, which makes sense sure.
But wait a minute, did we just casually drop in that Frank Ocean has a record out next week? Smooth. What better way to publicise your new record release (without even really publicising it!!!) then doing something like writing a deliberately ambiguous letter that kind of implies you’re gay without ever actually saying it (I mean there’s no mention of anyone else except this one dude) and publishing it on tumblr? Once again Odd Future prove that they have the best PR people in the business working for them.
This shit hasn’t really kicked off yet the way Frank Ocean probably intended it to, but there’s definitely more of a buzz about his new record now then there was 24 hours ago. I hadn’t even thought about Odd Future since we posted this stupid story of Newsnight being idiots when they profiled them a few months ago but now they’re like the tenth trend on twitter on LDN. Wow. But yeah, of course I clicked on it.
Anyway, I should probably put in some disclaimer here saying something like I’m not homophobic and really support Frank Ocean’s decision to come out (if he even has?) in case anyone gets up at me for being a dick about this and accuses me of any of these things which will probably happen. I’m all for celebrities coming out and setting an example for kids to do the same thing because it’s probably even harder for them than it is for most people so yeah props for that Frank Ocean.
If you don’t believe me on that, I did write a whole sympathetic article about Tom Gabel becoming Laura Jane Grace a few months ago and how inspiring it was, so you know I’m all for progression and celebrities using their status to make people more aware of difficult issues. I guess the difference was that Against Me! didn’t have a new record coming out that week. I guess you can argue that the Frank Ocean situation only happened because people who heard the album started blogging about it but I mean seriously, he’s a fairly big deal – he knew what was going to happen when people heard those songs and so did the people working for him and they’ll have been working on the best way to spin this for months. Let’s hope it works.
Undoubtedly the best thing to come out of this story though is Tyler the Creator’s reaction on twitter. I can’t even say anything funny about this because it’s just TOO funny. The last three words are so killer.
“My Big Brother Finally F**king Did That. Proud Of That N**ga Cause I Know That S**t Is Difficult Or Whatever. Anyway. Im A Toilet.”
This kind of contradicts his lyrics a bit but I guess that means he doesn’t hate all gay people. Or whatever. Although the whatever and toilet stuff makes this slightly ambiguous too. God, Odd Future are just so complicated, will we ever get to the bottom of them?
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