Jermaine Dupri Hopes Frank Ocean Can Save R&B

Frank Ocean is winning praise from critics with his major-label debut channel ORANGE. But Jermaine Dupri hopes the album’s success has a larger impact on the entire genre of R&B. The So So Def CEO wrote a letter on his site Global 14 lauding the album and hoping that it sells 200,000 copies (HITS Daily Double estimates sales of 125-135,000 in its first week based on iTunes only).

According to the hitmaker, R&B is in a state of emergency and Ocean may just be the person to save it. “The record companies don’t believe in it, radio won’t play it if it don’t have a rapper, and a majority of the artist that are labeled RnB are confused and lost,” writes J.D.

He hopes channel ORANGE‘s success will send a wake-up call to label executives and get radio to play more R&B records.

Do you agree with J.D.? Read his open letter below.

When I saw the # that Frank Ocean is suppose to hit next week, I got extremely Happy,I said I need to get in my car and and listen to this album,by the time I got to “Sweet Life” I was even more happy,finally!! a RnB album that’s hip,with out having the same 5 rappers on every song,I actually hope he hits 200k,for the sake of RnB,it’s in the worst position it’s ever been since I started making music,The Record company’s don’t believe in it,Radio won’t play it if it don’t have a rapper,and a majority of the artist that are labeled RnB,are confused and lost,so I repeat,I hope Ocean sells more than the 125k that he’s on pace for,maybe these executives u’llwake the fuck up,or at least try to copy what he’s doing,like they always do, by the way,the end of “Pyramids” jammin like a mufucka.