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Wale Clarifies Frank Ocean's Rise Wasn't Because of His Homosexuality

He cleared things up with TMZ.

Wales interview with the Breakfast Club ruffled a few feathers for its blatant honesty, and now he’s clarifying one major point he made about Frank Ocean.

During the conversation with Charlamagne Tha God, Angela Yee and DJ Envy, Wale explained that Frank Ocean’s popularity and major career looks, such as performing at the Grammys in 2013, was due to him coming out in an open letter.

"It’s an advantage to be gay in this country right now," he said. "That’s just the fact of the matter. Frank Ocean is very, very dope. Very dope artist. He got pushed to the moon when he dropped his album out. He got the Grammy joint — everything. He got about 30 artists in the country that sold about how much he did or more, they didn’t get none of that."

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He added, "He got to perform at the prime spot at the Grammys. All of these things happened for him. And like I said, that’s not taking nothing away from him. Do you think Miguel is getting those looks? Pharrell? Not really. Ty Dolla $ign? Not really. And obviously, they [sic] music is a little different. People look at it as you [sic] a hero, you’re a pioneer.”

A few days later, TMZ caught up with Wale as he was leaving the Roxy to ask him what he meant by his comments. He reconfirmed what he said on the Breakfast Club saying, that Frank Ocean is extremely talented, but got on an “accelerated pace because of the situation." He continued, “I’m not taking nothing away from Frank Ocean, the gay community, the straight community, none of that. I’m just saying it was a unique situation."

Is Wale right or wrong? Watch the whole thing and let us know.

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(Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

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