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Music

Frank Ocean Opens Up About His Grammy Boycott

Plus everything else we learned from an interview with everyone’s favorite painfully elusive musician.
Lauren O'Neill
London, GB

The sky is blue, the grass is green, and Frank Ocean is notoriously private, to the point where if he even breathes publicly, it's international news within about three minutes. So, it's to be expected that the music world is now hanging on every word of a new interview he gave to the New York Times, in which he talks about his problem with the Grammy Awards, and finally reveals just where he was all that time.

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In the lengthy profile, Ocean recalls feeling isolated after the success of his breakout record, Channel Orange: "Within my circle, there was a lot of places I thought I could turn that I felt like I couldn't turn to anymore." He describes a move to London, where he began recording music at studios including Abbey Road. New music took so long to emerge simply because he was taking his time: "I know that once it's out, it's out forever, so I'm not really tripping on how long it's taking." So, not the escape to the Bermuda Triangle that most of us had guessed at, after all. He also made clear the issues that led him to withhold both of his 2016 releases, Endless and Blonde, from consideration for next year's Grammy Awards, stating that the Grammy system "just doesn't seem to be representing very well for people who come from where I come from, and hold down what I hold down," calling the nomination process "dated." It's rare to hear Frank speak so candidly about his career – most of what we glean about him these days come from sparse, poetic posts on his Tumblr – and with his track record, it's likely that he won't do so again for another ten years or so. To that end, you can read the rest of the profile here. Follow Lauren on Twitter​. (Image via Vimeo​)