Frank Ocean famously had a contentious relationship with his former label Def Jam, and he famously fulfilled his contractual obligation with them by releasing his Endless album. Of course, he released Blonde, a less experimental album, a few days later. Now Ocean has discussed what it felt like getting out from under Def Jam’s shadow, and he said that when it was done, he felt “euphoria.”
Ocean is the subject of a new Dazed profile, in which he fields questions from a variety of people. Jpegmafia asked Ocean, “How did it feel f*cking over a label like that,” and Ocean responded:
“You know, it’s funny talking about it these days because I couldn’t really tell anybody anything for a couple of years. Couldn’t tell anyone at the label, obviously. But I also couldn’t talk with anyone at Apple because the industry is too small and it would’ve gotten back to the label for sure. So I kept it to myself and a few in my circle. I carried my hard drives around with me when I travelled because I used to not store anything online. Those drives became a physical representation of the stakes. If the files had leaked, everything would have worked out very differently for me. When August came around and both projects were uploaded I felt the euphoria, yeah, but mostly I just needed to sleep. I probably slept something like 15 hours.”
He also provided a Channel Orange update that is sure to please fans: When Nile Rodgers asked when Channel Orange will be released on vinyl, he answered simply, “ASAP.”
Read the full interview here.
