Frank Ocean has spoken about the lack of role models he had when he was a teenager, in an interview where talks about coming out.
Speaking to the Guardian, the 'Channel Orange' singer said of growing up without a role model: "[Since he made his sexuality public] I was thinking of how I wished at 13 or 14 there was somebody I looked up to who would have said something like that, who would have been transparent in that way."
He added that since posting the letter on his Tumblr, in which he explained his first love was a man, he was now "happy when I wake up in the morning, and not with this freakin' boulder on my chest."
The Tumblr letter, which was originally intended to make up the liner notes in 'Channel Orange', was written in December 2011, when Ocean realised that people might speculate on his sexuality after listening to his lyrics: "I knew that I was writing in a way that people would ask questions. I knew that my star was rising, and I knew that if I waited I would always have somebody that I respected be able to encourage me to wait longer, to not say it till who knows when."
Shortly before the release of 'Channel Orange', Ocean opened up about his sexuality in a post on his Tumblr. He prefaced his statement saying he hoped that "the babies born these days will inherit less of the bullshit than we did".
nme
He said this on twitter yesterday
Frank Ocean @frank_ocaen
If James Holmes was Arab-American, it'd be "terrorism". If he was black, he'd be a "thug". But he's white, so it's "mental illness". #truth
