Frank Ocean

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An R&B vocalist affiliated with the outlandish hip-hop crew Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, Frank Ocean (Christopher "Lonny" Breaux) was born and raised in New Orleans. The aspiring songwriter and singer had just moved into his dorm at the University of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. With his future under water, Ocean immediately left the academic life behind and moved to L.A. to give music a shot. He cut some demos at a friend's home studio, shopped them around town, and eventually landed a songwriting deal that would find him working for Justin Bieber, John Legend, and Brandy. Some of this work was alongside Christopher "Tricky" Stewart, a fellow songwriter and producer who would convince Ocean to sign a solo artist deal with Def Jam in late 2009. It was also around this time he met Odd Future and began writing music for the crew while making guest appearances on their mixtapes.

In February 2011, as Odd Future were making waves, Ocean broke out on his own with the Nostalgia, Ultra mixtape, issued through his Tumblr blog. Later in the year, he appeared on Tyler, the Creator's Goblin ("She," "Window"), Beyoncé's 4 ("I Miss You"), and Jay-Z and Kanye West's Watch the Throne ("No Church in the Wild," "Made in America"). Def Jam's plan for the release of Nostalgia, Lite — an EP-length version of the mixtape — was scrapped, yet the songs "Novacane" (produced by Stewart) and "Swim Good" (MIDI Mafia) were released as singles with accompanying videos. The former reached number 17 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart. The latter peaked at number 70. By the end of the year, several publications listed Nostalgia, Ultra as one of 2011's best releases.