Target has decided not to carry Frank Ocean’s new album, Channel Orange. The mega-store is claiming the reasoning behind the slight is because Ocean has an exclusive deal with iTunes that gives the mac store the digital album a week earlier than the hard copy albums actually hit stores.
Frank Ocean’s manager, Christian Clancy wasn’t buying that excuse and took to his Twitter account to vent his frustrations. Check out his tweet below:
According to Entertainment Weekly, Clancy is referring to Target’s past donations to a political organization that supported Tom Emmer, a right-wing politician who unsuccessfully campaigned to become Minnesota’s governor back in 2010.
In an effort to be impartial, I will tell you that Target does carry other gay artists music including Adam Lambert and Elton John. So do you think Target really stopped carrying Frank’s album because of his coming out letter, or do you think it was the exclusive deal with iTunes that made them jump ship as they are claiming?
Either way, it looks like Frank Ocean is going to rise to the top with or without Target. We hear his album is expected to sell between 100K-120K first week on digital only. That’s double what the label was projecting. Also, instead of the album being in stores next Tuesday, Billboard is reporting that the label has authorized the retailers to sell the album as soon as they receive it.
I guess Frank Ocean won’t be shedding any tears over Target! Take a listen to “4 Tears” by Ocean below – one of my favorite records right now.
