The former reached number 17 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart. Def Jam's plan for the release of Nostalgia, Lite - an EP-length version of the mixtape - was scrapped, yet the songs 'Novacane' (produced by Stewart) and 'Swim Good' (MIDI Mafia) were released as singles with accompanying videos. Later in the year, he appeared on Tyler, the Creator's Goblin ('She,' 'Window'), Beyoncé's 4 ('I Miss You'), and Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch the Throne ('No Church in the Wild,' 'Made in America'). It was also around this time that Ocean met Odd Future and began writing for the crew while making guest appearances on their mixtapes.In February 2011, as Odd Future were making waves, Ocean broke out on his own with the Nostalgia, Ultra mixtape, issued through his Tumblr blog.
Some of this writing was done beside Christopher 'Tricky' Stewart, a fellow songwriter and producer who convinced Ocean to sign a solo artist deal with Def Jam in late 2009. He cut some demos at a friend's home studio, shopped them around town, and eventually landed a songwriting deal that led to work for Justin Bieber, John Legend, and Brandy. With his future under water, Ocean immediately left the academic life behind and moved to Los Angeles to give music a shot. The aspiring songwriter and singer had just moved into his dorm at the University of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. Despite further strained relations with music industry machinations, Channel Orange, his first proper album, made him a Grammy winner and performer, and once he left the major-label system, his commercial clout was greater than ever, as demonstrated by the chart-topping success of follow-up Blond.Born Christopher Edwin Breaux in Long Beach, California, Ocean moved with his family to New Orleans, Louisiana at the age of five. Ocean debuted as a solo artist with 'Novacane,' a single regarding a fling that could be read, in part, as a criticism of commercial radio, yet it found a home on mainstream urban playlists. A singer and songwriter whose output has defied rigid classification as R&B, he has nonetheless pushed that genre forward with seemingly offhanded yet imaginatively detailed narratives in which he has alternated between yearning romantic and easygoing braggart.
Frank Ocean has been one of the more fascinating artists of the 2010s.
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