This August, Frank Ocean fulfilled and effectively ended his seven-year contract with Def Jam by releasing Endless, a visual album. One day later he released another album, Blond, as an exclusive with Apple Music.


Ocean was brought into Def Jam by Tricky Stewart, the legendary producer and writer who helped create career highs with Beyoncé, Rihanna, and Mariah Carey, and owns the Atlanta studio where Future loves to record. In late 2009, Stewart launched a label called RedZone Records as an imprint in partnership with Def Jam and Universal Music Group. Right away, he signed a writer and singer, then known as Lonny Breaux.


TRICKY STEWART: I signed Frank on the spot. Right around 2009. As soon as I heard Frank’s music I loved it. I knew instantly that I never wanted anybody to sing a Frank Ocean song. I wanted him to be an artist. I only looked at him as an artist. There was a connection between the words and his voice that I wasn’t prepared to break up. At that point, this is Lonny Breaux. That was his real name at the time. I remember when he changed his name to Frank Ocean. He came over my house, like, “I changed my name to Frank Ocean. And because I know you’re going to try and talk me out of it, here are my legal papers changing my name to Christopher Francis Ocean.” When he named himself Frank Ocean, he became Frank Ocean living inside of Lonny Breaux’s body. But to me he was always the same person and he never really wavered. I didn’t see something change, I just saw it get better and better.

Frank came in with the best intentions of being a great artist to a label. He was looking at it with an open mind. But bringing him into Def Jam was a little bit of a disaster. It was probably, in hindsight, a huge mistake on my part. The label wasn’t motivated by the signing. They didn’t give him the respect that I thought he deserved. I couldn’t really get Def Jam to respond to him the way the way that I wanted them to respond to him. At the time, with every record I was doing for Def Jam, we were on fire, whether it was Justin Bieber or Rihanna. I'd worked with The-Dream at Def Jam, and he had done extremely well, with Love/Hate and Love vs. Money. So I’m thinking it’s going to be gravy bringing my next guy through. I’m thinking when I bring in my stuff, I’m going to get the love. But it was a complete uphill battle. We were getting stonewalled. The truth is, if it wasn’t for Chris Clancy and the Odd Future team embracing Frank, we may not even know who Frank is today. On the Def Jam side, I couldn’t get nobody to pay attention to him. At the end of the day, it messed up me and Frank’s relationship. Because I couldn’t give him what I told him I would deliver. He was looking at it going, “The label is not supporting me.” And just like any other young kid, he wanted to feel wanted and needed. That wasn’t a service that Def Jam were willing to provide at that time. So Nostalgia, Ultra was made out of a survival instinct, and of Frank’s own talent. He made that project because he had to. When you’re really special, your first work is going to be special. I knew it was special. I was getting on airplanes passing out his CDs to strangers. I printed out the CDs myself and send them to every family member I had. If I saw somebody that was cute, I was giving it to her. I just knew that was I was holding needed to be heard. Frank was bubbling over with creativity and Nostalgia, Ultra was the first thing that he got a chance to get out there unobstructed, without anybody’s influence other than his own. He had his own thoughts up there. In that moment, we lost Frank Ocean — as a major record company, and from this industry as we knew it. When the label rebuked him and he found himself, the label lost it for everybody involved.


It was to the point where after we dropped Nostalgia, Ultra and Frank had changed his name, Def Jam didn’t even know that he changed his name. The whole world came running and looking for the kid! Def Jam was the last label to even call. They couldn’t be upset [that he released it] because they didn’t even know. We had the whole world going crazy and it was at least three weeks before Def Jam reached out. At the end of the day, I think Def Jam created a monster that they couldn’t control. He just treated them how he was treated. There’s too many artists out here with that story. Luckily for Frank, he was able to turn a negative time and a negative period into something that worked for him and his family. This is a changing of the guard. This story has got to make label people wake up and realize that they have great talent on their label. The next time that there is a great talent in this business — I’m talking about those special talents — you can’t be so sure that he’s going to walk through your doors anymore. There’s other options out here.


http://www.thefader.com/2016/08/26/f...wart-interview

Glad he left them and yeah they weren't supportive of him at all