Frank Ocean Sued Over Channel Orange Production Credits On ‘Lost’

Frank Ocean is being sued over the production credits on his track “Lost,” which featured on his 2012 breakthrough album Channel Orange.

Producer and songwriter, Micah Otano, has also included Ocean’s record label Def Jam and Malay — one of the album’s four producers — in the lawsuit.

Otano alleges that the song “Lost” is a copy of his track “Daylight.”

The suit was filed on March 6 in a District Court in California. Otano claims he originally co-wrote the track “Daylight” with Malay. He alleges that Malay then copied the song and re-named it “Lost” before it later appeared in its new state on Ocean’s album.

The amount Ocean is being sued for is unspecified. But, if Otano wins the case, it is likely he’ll be able to claim compensation for back royalties and damages.

Though it’s unclear in the credits who produced the track, Otano is credited as a co-writer on Lost alongside Ocean and Malay (via Discogs), although he is not credited for production.

Released on July 10, 2012, Channel Orange has sold over 500,000 copies and earned rave reviews from music critics, topping 2012’s ‘Best of’ album lists across a number of website and music platforms.

After his Grammy win for Best Urban Contemporary Album and his infamous Chris Brown dust-up, Ocean recently revealed that he is now working on his follow-up album with collaborators including Pharrell Williams and Tyler, The Creator.

Ocean told Zane Lowe’s BBC Radio 1 show, “I’m like 10, 11 songs into this next thing. It’s another cohesive thing bordering on a concept album again. At the end of Channel Orange there’s ‘Golden Girl’ and I kind of want to extend that feeling into the next record.”

It was also recently revealed that Ocean has recorded a track for his upcoming album with Depeche Mode’s Martin Gore and The Knife producer Christopher Berg.

Gore’s bandmate Dave Gahan said: “Martin and Christoffer Berg ended up doing a track with him, which I think is going to be part of his new record. Martin did some electronics and some modular synthesizer stuff he really wanted.”

The Otano v Ocean, Def Jam Recordings, Malay lawsuit can be seen here.

Do you think Ocean is being sued because the case has merit or because the song made it on to a hit album?