Frank Ocean: Prince made me 'more comfortable with how I identify sexually'

As the world still tries to process the news that Prince is dead, musicians like Aretha Franklin, Mick Jagger and Madonna have done their best to honor the man with the unfettered falsetto and unparalleled influence on music.

In a post on his Tumblr on Thursday, Frank Ocean said while he never got to meet Prince -- "I was too nervous the one time I saw him," he said -- the singer directly changed his life, musically and otherwise.

"He made me feel more comfortable with how I identify sexually simply by his display of freedom from and irreverence for obviously archaic ideas like gender conformity etc," the singer wrote. "He moved me to be more daring and intuitive with my own work by his demonstration - his denial of the prevailing model…his fight for his intellectual property - ‘slave’ written across the forehead, name changed to a symbol… an all out rebellion against exploitation."

Ahead of the release of his debut album Channel Orange, the Odd Future singer opened up about falling in love with a man at 19. 

I’m not even gonna say rest in peace because it’s bigger than death. I never met the man ( I was too nervous the one time I saw him) and I never saw him play live, regrettably. I only know the legends I’ve heard from folks and what I’ve heard and seen from his deep catalog of propellant, fearless, virtuosic work. My assessment is that he learned early on how little value to assign to someone else’s opinion of you.. An infectious sentiment that seemed soaked into his clothes, his hair, his walk, his guitar and his primal scream. He wrote my favorite song of all time, "When You Were Mine." It’s a simple song with a simple melody that makes you wish you thought of it first, even though you never would have - a flirtatious brand of genius that feels approachable. He was a straight black man who played his first televised set in bikini bottoms and knee high heeled boots, epic. He made me feel more comfortable with how I identify sexually simply by his display of freedom from and irreverence for obviously archaic ideas like gender conformity etc. He moved me to be more daring and intuitive with my own work by his demonstration - his denial of the prevailing model…his fight for his intellectual property - ‘slave’ written across the forehead, name changed to a symbol… an all out rebellion against exploitation. A vanguard and genius by every metric I know of who affected many in a way that will outrun oblivion for a long while. I’m proud to be a prince fan(stan) for life.

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