Christopher Francis "Frank" Ocean (born Christopher Edwin Breaux; October 28, 1987), is an American singer, songwriter and rapper from New Orleans, Louisiana. Ocean embarked on his musical career as a ghostwriter for several prominent artists, including John Legend, Justin Bieber and Brandy. In 2010, he became a member of alternative hip hop collective OFWGKTA, also known as Odd Future. Ocean subsequently released his breakout mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra, to critical acclaim in 2011. The singles, "Novacane" and "Swim Good", both achieved chart success. In 2012, Ocean finished in second place in BBC's Sound of 2012 poll.

His debut studio album, Channel Orange, was released in July 2012 to critical acclaim and was promoted with three charting singles: "Thinkin Bout You", "Pyramids" and "Sweet Life". That year, Ocean also became one of the first major African-American music artists to announce that he was on the LGBT spectrum. Ocean's music has been characterized by music writers as idiosyncratic in style.