Frank Ocean’s wildly successful Blondealbum made him a millionaire because he released it independently through his Boys Don’t Cry label.
Early reports said that Ocean fulfilled his Def Jam contract through the visual album, Endless, but now the Associated Press says that the major label released the singer early. In fact, they let him out of his contract before Endlesswas even released.
The anonymous source says the relationship between the singer and the label was like a “bad marriage.” As fans waited longer and longer for the follow-up of the Grammy Award-winning Channel Orange, tensions worsened between Ocean and the Universal Music Group company.
“He didn’t want to be on a label. He wanted to do his own thing,” the source says.
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The person “familiar with the situation” did not reveal how many albums were left on Ocean’s contract, but believed that there was a negotiation clause that allowed him to be released.
HipHopDX reached out to Def Jam for comment, but did not hear back before time of publication.
Blonde, which features Kendrick Lamar and Beyonce, debuted at the top of Billboard’s Top 200 albums sales chart.
