Thinkin’ Bout You

On the fourth of July this year, Kanye cohort and OFWGKTA member Frank Ocean published an open letter on his Tumblr stating that his first love was a man. Why does it matter? Well, aside from the fact that the hip hop universe has, on occasion, been a deeply homophobic one, I don’t know why, but it does matter; an overwhelmingly positive response proved that much. ‘Thinkin’ Bout You’, the first single from Ocean’s debut solo album Channel Orange, doesn’t explain why either, but it does shed some light on why the 24-year-old chose this time to reveal his bisexuality. A stirring, meditative tale of unrequited love, it doesn’t say anything about the person it was written about, only the person who wrote it, a man whose every ache and pang is selflessly brought out into the open, wrapped in a Usher-sized R&B jam.