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Frank Ocean countersued over songwriting credits dispute
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 30 May 2018
Producer Om’Mas Keith has filed a countersuit against Frank Ocean in an ongoing dispute over what involvement he did or didn’t have with the singer’s ‘Blonde’ album.
Ocean went legal earlier this year, after Keith registered himself as a co-writer on a number of ‘Blonde’ tracks via the ASCAP database. Keith – who worked on Ocean’s previous album, ‘Channel Orange’ – is not credited in the liner notes for ‘the 2016 record, and Ocean’s lawsuit says that he did not “contribute any lyrics, melodies, or music that would give rise to any claim of authorship”.
In new legal papers, obtained by The Blast, Keith demands that Ocean’s lawsuit be dismissed, saying that he produced and co-wrote the majority of the songs on ‘Blonde’. He says that he accepted a flat fee for his work on ‘Channel Orange’, but made it clear to Ocean that he would not accept the same deal for ‘Blonde’. However, no specific deal was actually agreed before the album was released.
Keith says that Ocean is causing him irreparable harm by denying his involvement in ‘Blonde’. As well as asking that Ocean’s lawsuit be dismissed, he is demanding a court order stating that he is indeed the co-writer of the tracks he claims to have contributed to, as well as unspecified damages and a cut of royalties from the ‘Blonde’ album.