How Frank Ocean Scammed Def Jam Records Out of $20 Million Dollars.

Frank Ocean is a very popular R&B artist who has been known for his works since 2011. Since then, he has only released four official projects with two of them not being on streaming services. In 2016 he released two projects back to back, which was quite shocking to fans as he seems to be quite stingy when it comes to releasing music (we are still waiting for that album Frank...). However, there is a reason for this strange phenomenon.

It all started in 2009 when Frank signed with Def Jam Records for a 2-album contract for a $20 million deal. Def Jam wasn't too fond of him at first, so he decided to release a mixtape independently in 2011 since they wouldn't let him release an album. However, once they began to notice his talent they couldn't get enough of him. In 2012, he released his highly praised album Channel Orange under Def Jam and completed one-half of his contract.

Jump all the way to August of 2016, when a live stream suddenly popped up on Apple Music. The livestream went on for a few days and was mostly just a silent empty room. Suddenly, music started and we began to see movement on the screen. It was Frank, he was building what looked to be a staircase while his vocals echoed in the background. This went on for about 40 more minutes and then ended. Concluding Frank's visual album "Endless." 

This concluded his 2-album contract with Def Jam, allowing him to receive his $20 million. The catch with Endless, however, was that it couldn't be streamed or bought, it was simply a video you could watch only on Apple Music. This means that Def Jam made little to no money off of it.

That wasn't the end of the story though. The very next day, Frank Ocean released his real album "Blonde" and it was an absolute hit. It immediately rose to #1 on the charts and made millions of sales. Frank then returned the $2 million that Def Jam gave him for the album, allowing him to own around 70% of the royalties to Blonde.

And that's how Frank Ocean managed to get $20 million while still keeping almost all the revenue from his releases. I guess all that time he spent with Kanye and Jay-Z turned him into a great businessman.