Frank Ocean Sued Over Hit Song "Lost"

Producer Micah Otano claims he was deprived credit for his work on the singer's hit song

By Alyssa Toomey, Baker Machado Mar 11, 2013 6:10 PMTags
Frank OceanKarl Walter/Getty Images for Coachella

More trouble for Frank Ocean, and this time it has nothing to do with Chris Brown.

The 25-year-old singer is being sued by Micah Otano, a producer who claims he was deprived of credit for his work on Frank Ocean's hit song "Lost," which was featured on Ocean's Grammy-winning album channel ORANGE.

E! News has obtained the documents filed by Otano against the Grammy-winning artist on March 6 in the U.S. District Court of California. 

Otano cited complaints for breach of contract, fraud in the inducement, rescission and restitution, copyright infringement and declaratory relief in his suit.

He insists he cocreated the song upon which "Lost" is based (a track called "DayLight" with producers Malay and Paul Shelton) and also "solely performed the lead synthesizer parts on ‘Daylight' as well as piano and other parts." 

The lawsuit further states that in his joint ownership of the track, Otano and Malay (also named in the suit) agreed they wouldn't "shop their joint work around the music industry without ensuring co-producer credit for the work" but that "Malay did just that, stealing Otano's performances, passing them off as his own, and using them on the Frank Ocean song."

Def Jam and Universal Music Group are also named in the suit.

Otano is looking for damages in an amount to be proven at trial.