Frank Ocean first came to us as a member of Odd Future, crooning hooks on tracks like Tyler, the Creator's "She." To be honest, it was easy to think of him as just another voice -- one of those hook-crafting singers that are a dime a dozen. That passerby's perception greatly dissipated when the world heard Nostalgia, Ultra, which showcased an artist who was unbelievably talented, lyrically and musically. Nostalgia, Ultra was the beginning of Ocean developing his own genre -- something that draws on greats like Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, but whose experimentation and boundary-pushing is even more accelerated than contemporary neo-R&Bers like Maxwell and Usher. His subject natures and unique productions blew us away (and maybe even opened our eyes and allowed us to drool over Abel Tesfaye's The Weeknd). And even though the media's reviews of his EP were totally glowing, channel ORANGE suggests that we may have underestimated him again.

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