Unearthing the Hidden Gems Within Frank Ocean’s ‘Channel Orange’ 10 Years Later

On July 10, 2012, the world was given an opus of pure heart, soul, and game changing r&b in the form of Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange. Debuting at number two on the Billboard 200 chart, the album was filled with a combination of psychedelic, electro, pop, jazz, R&B, and experimental sounds. The pensive lyricism from Ocean placed listeners into a world where love, life, drugs, sex, relationships, and class from a surrealist viewpoint encapsulated them. 

The album spawned several singles, including the Grammy Award-winning “Thinkin Bout You”. The single preceded the album release and was paired with a heartfelt note from Ocean detailing him falling in love with a man, his first love. That letter resonated throughout the music industry and society simultaneously, cementing “Thinkin Bout You” being about a Black queer man’s experience navigating love – an unheard moment for a such a mainstream r&b/hip hop artist.

Now a decade after the album’s release, its impact is still relevant today and a viral Twitter thread reminded the world of that. 

Posted by Frank Ocean Updates (@blahnded), the Twitter account highlighted a few fun facts about the album. Get lost in these:

Ocean’s album name is influenced by grapheme-color synesthesia, a phenomenon in which individuals associate letters and numbers with colors. Playing on that phenomenon, he describes orange as the color he connects with falling in love during one summer. 

Making music resemble the structure you sing about, like in “Pyramids” is pretty iconic.

Ocean is a cinephile, and makes that very known in his shout outs to various films in his songs, especially in Channel Orange.

And while different organizations attempted to hinder the release of Channel Orange…

Channel Orange still became one of the most critically acclaimed albums of its year and is still the most acclaimed R&B debut album out there. 

You can check out the full thread here and maybe take some time to listen to the masterpiece that is Channel Orange.