So did we know that Frank Ocean’s new album Blonde was released independently and not on Def Jam Recordings? It seems Endless, the visual album Frank released hours ahead of Blonde, fulfilled the terms of his Def Jam contract.
While the full credits to Blonde haven’t been released yet, iTunes and Apple Music both attribute the album’s copyright to Boys Don’t Cry, possibly the name of a new independent entity.
Frank Ocean signed with Def Jam “at the end of ’09,” and the deal was made official in January 2010. In 2011, Ocean released a mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra for free online, outside the bounds of his label deal. He took to Twitter after the release saying “i. did. this. not ISLAND DEF JAM. that’s why you see no label logo on the artwork that I DID. guess its my fault for trusting my dumbass lawyer and signing my career over to a failing company. fuck Def Jam & any company that goes the length of signing a kid with dreams & talent w/ no intention of following through. fuck em. now back to my day. i want some oatmeal and toast. brunch swag.”
The same year, it was rumored that Def Jam would re-release an official version of Nostalgia, but that did not happen. Instead Frank’s album Channel Orange was released by Def Jam in 2012.
Leave a Reply