On this day, July 4, in hip-hop history...

Jason Kempin, Getty Images
Jason Kempin, Getty Images
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2012: Frank Ocean uses his Tumblr account to post a powerful open letter in which he reveals that he's bisexual.

In the letter, which Ocean said was meant to be included in the liner notes for his debut LP, Channel Orange, the then-Odd Future crooner revealed that he had once fallen in love with another man.

"Four summers ago, I met somebody. I was 19 years old. He was too," Ocean explained in the letter. "We spent that summer, and the summer after, together. Everyday almost. And on the days we were together, time would glide. Most of the day I'd see him, and his smile.”

“Sleep I would often share with him,” he continued in the post. “By the time I realized I was in love, it was malignant. It was hopeless. There was no escaping, no negotiating to the women I had been with, the ones I cared for and thought I was in love with.”

Responding to Ocean's letter, which many described as being courageous reveal in an often homophobic music industry, the singer's Odd Future groupmates offered up their support.

“Fucking Finally Sus Boy @frank_ocean,” tweeted Tyler, The Creator. “Hahahaha, You Still Aint Got No Bitches Hahaha My Nigga Dawg," he wrote in another tweet.

Having revealed his sexuality at an earlier point in his post, Ocean absorbed the full impact of being able to live life as he saw fit. “I don't have any secrets I need kept anymore," he wrote toward the end of his post. "I feel like a free man."

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