The following month he performed another track from the album on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. In June 2012, he unveiled a new track, Pyramids, again via his Tumblr site. Still riding the wave of success that followed his release of nostalgia, ULTRA, Ocean began to work on a follow-up album to be released by Def Jam records, with whom he had begun to repair his relationship. Also impressed with his efforts were superstars Jay-Z and Kanye West, who, at Beyoncé’s prompting, enlisted Ocean to contribute vocals for two tracks from their August 2011 album, Watch the Throne. The album was widely acclaimed, and received enthusiastic reviews from NPR, Rolling Stone and the BBC, among many others. Ocean’s self-released recording featured a mixture of both originally composed music and heavy samples of tracks from the likes of Coldplay, the Eagles and MGMT. He released the recordings as a free download on his Tumblr site, without Def Jam’s knowledge, announcing via Twitter that he had done so because the label had not been supportive of his efforts after signing him. In February 2011, Ocean released a mixtape titled nostalgia, ULTRA. The following year, Ocean officially changed his name to Christopher Francis Ocean, believing that the new name would look better on magazine covers. Around this time, he also met producer Tricky Stewart, who helped land Ocean a contract with Def Jam as a solo artist. That same year, Ocean began to work with the Los Angeles-based hip-hop collective Odd Future, most notably with Tyler, the Creator, who encouraged Ocean in his songwriting. He contributed to the writing of the Justin Bieber track “Bigger” in 2008, and the following year he co-wrote the track “I Miss You” with Beyoncé Knowles for her album 4. Eventually, he got a songwriting deal and began collaborating with producers.
To make money during this time, Ocean took a job processing insurance claims.
However, as he continued to make meaningful contacts within the music industry, he decided to extend his stay. Ocean moved to Los Angeles to continue his recording projects, intending to stay only a short while.
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