Frank Ocean’s ‘Channel Orange’ Selling Well, Heading For High Chart Debut

Robbie Daw | July 12, 2012 7:43 am

Who needs Target, anyway? The retailer may be refusing to carry Frank Ocean‘s debut LP Channel Orange once the physical CD is released next Tuesday — supposedly because the album was offered up on iTunes a week early — but digital sales are selling better than expected, Billboard reports. While Zac Brown Band‘s Uncaged is looking to be next week’s #1 album on the Top 200 chart with about 200,000 copies sold by week’s end, Ocean’s Channel Orange is on track to move about 100,000 digital copies — enough to possibly have it coming in at #2 once chart positions are revealed on Wednesday.

Billboard notes that Odd Future, the rap collective Ocean is a member of, saw their debut LP The OF Mixtape Vol. 2 enter the chart at #5 earlier this year with about 40,000 in sales. Odd Future’s Tyler, The Creator also debuted at #5 last year with Goblin, which opened with 45,000.

Ocean came out publicly last week by posting a letter on Tumblr detailing a relationship he had at age 19 with another young man. Controversy surrounding the online revelation seems to have been largely avoided in favor of other artists offering their support to the 24-year-old. After all, it was a brave move for an artist who came up in the hip hop community — an area of the music business where homophobia was still thought to be prevalent.

Likewise, Frank’s frank disclosure doesn’t seem to be hurting sales of his new album. Perhaps it all just comes down to what the Washington Post stated when reviewing Channel Orange earlier this week: “At 24, Ocean shows a sure-footed confidence that took many of his forebears years to summon. But his songwriting chops shouldn’t surprise anyone who’s been following this guy’s young career. ”

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