Ocean began his musical career as a ghostwriter until joining the Los Angeles-based hip hop collective Odd Future in The year prior, he signed with record producer Tricky Stewart 's RedZone Entertainment , an imprint of Def Jam Recordings , although his debut mixtape , Nostalgia, Ultra , was released independently.
He was named by Time as one of the world's most influential people in After a four-year hiatus, Ocean released the visual album Endless to fulfill contractual obligations with Def Jam. His second studio album, Blonde , was released independently the following day. Expanding on Ocean's experimental approach, Blonde was met with critical acclaim, debuted atop the US Billboard , and ranked first on Pitchfork 's Best Albums of the s Decade list.
After , Ocean has released sporadic singles, worked as a photographer for magazines, launched the fashion brand Homer , and started Homer Radio. Ocean's grandfather Lionel McGruder Jr. Lionel was a recovering drug addict and later served as a mentor at Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous meetings.
He would take Ocean to these meetings, which was the inspiration behind Ocean's song "Crack Rock" from Channel Orange. In , Ocean moved to Los Angeles to pursue his music career, working at various fast-food and service jobs to support himself. In less than three years, he established himself as a songwriter under the name Lonny Breaux. But that's not why I moved away from school and away from family. He adopted the stage name Frank Ocean, getting the name from Frank Sinatra and the s film Ocean's 11 , which Sinatra starred in.
In April , Ocean stated that his relationship with Def Jam had strengthened since the release of the Nostalgia, Ultra. Ocean released the cover art for his debut studio album's lead single , titled "Thinkin Bout You", revealing the song would be released to digital retailers on April 10, If I write 14 stories that I love, then the next step is to get the environment of music around it to best envelop the story and all kinds of sonic goodness.
