Ever since Frank Ocean's Tumblr-assisted outing last week, he has had a number of high-profile messages of support from the R&B community. Jay-Z posted an article called Thank You, Frank Ocean, on his Life + Times site (the key line was: "we were all made better by your decision to share publicly,") while Beyoncé posted a picture of Ocean overlaid with inspirational statements including "Be Yourself." They were joined by Def Jam co-founder Russell Simmons and Ocean's Odd Future bandmate Tyler the Creator who said: "Proud of that n****, cause I know that shit is difficult."
But the New York Times has pointed out that prolific tweeters such as Nicki Minaj, Drake and Rick Ross have remained silent on the matter, perhaps perfectly illustrating hip-hop's uneasy relationship with homosexuality. Even former collaborator Kanye West, who has spoken out against homophobia in rap before ("I wanna tell my friends 'yo stop it'"), and has a (mainly positive) lyrically obsession with lesbians, has remained schtum. We're sure his message of support is incoming, even though he has found it rather more pressing to retweet a picture of the "his and hers" trainers he has with girlfriend Kim Kardashian.
