‘Anyone that has an issue with Frank Ocean is an idiot,’ Fif tells MTV UK.
50 Cent may be all tough guy on the outside, but the G-Unit CEO falls far from the thug stereotype. Many expected a visceral hip-hop reaction toFrank Ocean’s revelation that his first love was a man, but a vast array of the genre’s artists have come out in support of the Odd Future singer.
“Anyone that has an issue with Frank Ocean is an idiot,” 50 Cent told MTV UK. “I think Frank Ocean is a talented artist, I think he’s created material that made me know his name, that impressed me, with things he said on a song like ‘Novacane.’ ”
For Fif, Ocean’s efforts in the studio are way more important than his goings-on in the bedroom, and because Frank has delivered exemplary performances on record, his romantic revelation is a non-issue for the Get Rich or Die Tryin’ MC. “It could be revolutionary or it could be a tragedy,” he said before noting the timing of Frank’s announcement and his Channel Orange album release. “You can call it brave or you can call it marketing, because it was intentional; it wasn’t an accident.”
50 compared Ocean’s situation to late R&B icon Luther Vandross or Intro singer Kenny Greene. Vandross was rumored to be gay, though such reports were never confirmed. Greene however, admitted in a 2001 interview that he was bisexual shortly before he died from complications caused by AIDS. “There are artists before who have made these choices just not having made the choice to expose it to the general public before an actual release of music,” 50 said.
Still, 50 remarked on the changing times, alluding that sexual preference just isn’t as taboo anymore — at least it isn’t for him. “Obama is for same-sex marriage,” 50 pointed out. “If the president is saying that, then who am I to go the other way?”