They finished writing Channel Orange in two to three months.
Maybe it is and it's a metaphor the way he did it'. It's not necessarily his personalâlike something that he's experiencing. when he's singing maybe from a female perspective or whatever, it's a story, it's a world that he created. the true storyteller' and said of the lyrics, 'I don't think anyone during any given point during the creative process knew what was happening. In an interview after Ocean's open letter, Malay called him 'the new hybrid of what an MC used to be in the '80s or '90s.
I tried to channel overwhelming emotions.' ĭuring their writing sessions, Malay noticed Ocean's use of gender pronouns in his lyrics, but attributed it to Ocean's poetic license rather than his sexuality. I wanted to create worlds that were rosier than mine. He also remarked on writing Channel Orange after years of emotional struggle with the experience, stating in the letter, 'I wrote to keep myself busy and sane. Ocean's disclosure was received with support from Def Jam and praise from other recording artists and cultural commentators.
Originally written in December 2011, it recounted his unrequited feelings for a man when he was 19 years old, citing the experience as his first love. Scrapping his original plan of including it in the album's liner notes, Ocean published a TextEdit file as an open letter through his Tumblr blog on July 4. The lyrics addressed a male object of love and deviated from the heterosexual perspective of his past songs. In June 2012, news outlets and music journalists from pre-release listening events for Channel Orange raised questions about certain songs' lyrics and Ocean's sexuality.