Christopher Francis Ocean is an American singer, songwriter, and rapper. Ocean has won two Grammy Awards and a Brit Award for International Male Solo Artist among other accolades, and his two studio albums have been listed on Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time”. Music critics have credited Ocean for pioneering alternative R&B, approaching R&B music differently to his contemporaries through his use of other genres, including experimental, electro, rock and psychedelic.
Ocean was born Christopher Edwin Breaux on October 28, 1987, in Long Beach, California.[6]His father is Calvin Edward Cooksey and was a singer and keyboardist, and his mother is Katonya Breaux Riley who later worked as a residential contractor. He was raised by his mother after his parents divorced when he was six years old.
After graduating from John Ehret High School in Marrero, Louisiana in 2005, Ocean enrolled in the University of New Orleans to study English. However, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August 2005, destroying his home and personal recording facility and forcing him to transfer to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He stayed there for a brief time before dropping out to focus on his music career.
Ocean began his musical career as a ghostwriter, prior to joining the hip hop collective Odd Future In 2010. The following year, he released his first mixtape, Nostalgia, Ultra, and subsequently secured a recording contract with Def Jam Recordings. His first studio album, the eclectic Channel Orange (2012), incorporated R&B and soul styles. At the 2013 Grammy Awards, Channel Orange Was nominated for Album of the Year and won Best Urban Contemporary Album; one of its singles, "Thinkin Bout You", was nominated for Record of the Year. He was named by Time as one of the world's most influential people in 2013.
After a four-year hiatus, Ocean released a visual album titled Endless in 2016 to fulfill contractual obligations with Def Jam. Ocean self-released his second studio album, Blonde, a day after Endless release. Blonde expanded on Ocean's experimental musical approach and ranked first on Pitchfork's list of the best albums of the 2010s decade. It was his first number-one album on the US Billboard 200 and was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America(RIAA). From 2017 onwards, Ocean released sporadic singles, worked as a photographer for magazines, launched the fashion brand Homer, and started Homer Radio.