Ocean?s Kingdom

I?m not just thinking of his music, of course, but of the open letter that Ocean?born Christopher Breaux in 1987?posted on his Tumblr earlier this month, revealing that his first love had been a man. By doing so, he guaranteed that Channel Orange would become an intensely scrutinized piece of work: Despite hip-hop?s self-avowed open-mindedness, few moments in the genre?s recent history have been so suddenly paradigm-shifting. Support arrived swiftly from Russell Simmons and past Ocean collaborators like Jay-Z, Kanye West, Beyonc??even the gleefully un-P.C. Odd Future. Cynics decried it as a publicity stunt, but one is hard-pressed to recall the last time an all-caps embrace of fluid sexual identity catapulted a Def Jam release up the charts. Such openness on Ocean?s part could easily have backfired?just consider all the homophobic tweets his letter received in reply.

Whatever the reason for its timing, Ocean?s online missive provided a fascinating preface to Channel Orange. In the few days between the letter?s appearance and the album?s arrival, the songs he had already released took on new meanings. The vagueness of ?We All Try??wherein Ocean declares that marriage should be ?between love and love? rather than man and woman?and ?Thinkin? Bout You??pronoun-free, except for an exclamatory ?boy??seemed more intentional than before. The light cynicism of ?American Wedding? took on a more condemnatory cast. And one of his lines from Odd Future?s ?Oldie???I?m hi/ high and I?m bye/ bi, wait I mean I?m straight??now seemed like a remarkable joke that very few people got, as though our understanding of multi-entendre homophones had for some reason stopped short of the obvious.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=14dff3bd3aa5e4b31246275f7051965d

mitch hedberg secret service scandal shea weber greystone sidney crosby at the drive in alternative minimum tax