After heavy speculation, Frank Ocean has come out as bisexual or gay. The singer and Odd Future member posted a long bit of text on his Tumblr that he says was originally intended as the liner notes for his upcoming Channel Orange. Prompted by journalists questioning his use of masculine pronouns on some of the record's love songs, Ocean details how the much of the record was inspired by his falling in love with a man when he was 19, then addresses how he’s been dealing with it since. He ends the post—where, it’s worth noting, he never explicitly says he’s gay or bisexual—by saying “I feel like a free man. If I listen closely…I can hear the sky falling too.”
While this sort of thing becomes more of a non-issue every day, Ocean’s coming out could mean big things in the hip-hop community, one of the few remaining artistic bastions of homophobia. Even Ocean’s own group, Odd Future, has been heavily criticized for Tyler The Creator’s frequent use of the word “faggot,” despite fellow member Syd The Kid’s status as an out and proud lesbian. Tyler took to Twitter this weekend in support of Ocean, albeit in typical Tyler fashion. “My Big Brother Finally Fucking Did That,” he tweeted, going on to say, “Proud Of That Nigga Cause I Know That Shit Is Difficult Or Whatever. Anyway. Im A Toilet.” He later tweeted, “IMA START SINGING SO LIKE, ALL OF FRANKS BITCHES CAN YOU COME OVER HERE AND LIKE HOLLA AT YA BOY.”
Ocean’s statement has also garnered props from Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons, who made a post on his blog titled, “The Courage Of Frank Ocean Just Changed The Game!” In it, Simmons writes, “These types of secrets should not matter anymore, but we know they do,” and goes on to call Ocean “one of the greatest new artists we have.“