Clive Davis Praises Frank Ocean, Hip-Hop Community For Embracing Star After Coming Out

Clive Davis Praises Frank Ocean And Hip Hop For Embracing HIm

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Clive Davis chatted at length about Grammy Award winner Frank Ocean's coming out and the hip-hop community's heartwarming reaction in a new interview with MTV News.

“I’ll tell you what was heartwarming was the reaction of the Hip Hop community," the current chief creative officer of Sony Music Entertainment, who played critical roles in the careers of Whitney Houston, Alicia Keys and Kelly Clarkson among others, said. "I mean, they accepted him as a person. This could have been very controversial."

Davis, who's been making the media rounds to promote his autobiography The Soundtrack of My Life, came out as bisexual last month.

Echoing the recent sentiments of hip-hop mogul and pioneer Russell Simmons, Davis pointed to polls which found today's youth aren’t as concerned with the sexuality of performers as they were in previous generations.

On the flip side, he mentioned that many musicians and entertainers may be terrified of coming out because of how that disclosure could impact their careers.

“You take an actor, a romantic actor, or years ago you take a leading man romantic singer that has fan clubs of females all over the world one way or another… it’s terribly detrimental to their career,” Davis said.

Last month, the record executive opened up about his late mentee Houston’s lesbian rumors.

“As I saw Whitney, and you keep your personal life to a separate side," Davis revealed.

Citing Houston's marriage to Bobby Brown as well as relationships with Jermaine Jackson and Eddie Murphy, Davis then concluded, "I just knew the heterosexual side of Whitney."

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