Rapper Frank Ocean Opens Up About Sexuality

05 July 2012

R&B star and member of controversial collective Odd Future -- Frank Ocean has opened up about his sexuality and revealed his first true love was a man.

Ocean revealed in an open letter published on his Tumblr.com page how he fell for a male friend.

In the candid post, Ocean reveals his world was turned upside down after he realised he was in love with a man.

He writes, "Four summers ago, I met somebody. I was 19 years old. He was too. We spent that summer, and the summer after, together. Everyday almost... Sleep I would often share with him. By the time I realized I was in love, it was malignant. It was hopeless. There was no escaping, no negotiating with the feeling. No choice. It was my first love, it changed my life."

"Back then, my mind would wander to the women I had been with, the ones I cared for and thought I was in love with. I reminisced about the sentimental songs I enjoyed when I was a teenager. The ones I played when I experienced a girlfriend for the first time. I realized they were written in a language I did not yet speak."

The 24 year old goes on to thank the unnamed friend, adding, "I don't have any secrets I need kept anymore... 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."

The news may come as a shock to many of Odd Future's fans -- the collective was famously dumped from the Auckland leg of the Big Day Out this year (2012) because of complaints from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community over the group's violent and homophobic lyrics.

Frank Ocean has also collaborated with a number of other artists - including Jay-Z and Kanye West on Watch The Throne.