Frank Ocean Covers Fader

Frank Ocean covers the August 2011 issue of Fader Magazine. The Odd Future crooner discuss his early beginnings in music, the artist he’s written for and how odd his future will be. You can read the full article on Fader now. In the meantime, check out an excerpt from the interview and a few flicks from his photoshoot below.

In the four months since Ocean released Nostalgia, Ultra, he’s seen his star rise tremendously, despite the fact that the album was released only as a free, grey area download. This is as much attributable to Ocean’s skill as it is his affiliation with the high-profile LA rap collective, Odd Future. “I met them at a function my homie John-O was throwing in the valley,” he says. “Each of us are pretty autonomous, but we all benefit from being associated with one another.” At the time he released Nostalgia, Odd Future’s Tyler, the Creator, was at the peak of his (internet) saturation. With a nod from Tyler to his 300,000 Twitter followers to download Ocean’s songs, an easy frenzy ensued. Nostalgia hit so hard because no one knew to expect it. The low profile is mostly due to the fact it was released outside the bounds of his official deal with Island/Def Jam, which he’d signed a few years ago via Tricky Stewart, an occasional A&R and prolific, well-respected producer from Atlanta, who he got to know while working as a songwriter. Despite I/DJ’s initial lack of support, Ocean says any negative feelings, if they existed, were all in the past. “We’re good now.” The label plans to reissue the release with bonus tracks (minus the songs whose samples could not be cleared) and Ocean is working on a new album, as well.