‘(At Your Best) You Are Love’ is credited only to the Isley Brothers and is commonly thought to have been written about their mother.Īccording to Ocean, Keith also claimed he wrote Buddy Ross’ song ‘Be Yourself’ that was on Blonde.īlonde went to #1 in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Belgium, Norway and Scotland. Poignant, its transparent with altering modes of bravado, vulnerability and desperation. He supposedly even refused to acknowledge that he had not served as a writer on ‘(At Your Best) You Are Love’ a 1976 Isley Brothers tune that Ocean cut in 2015 and emerged on his visual album Endless. The two had, apparently, an oral agreement for Blonde.īut when Ocean’s lawyers tried between 20 to get him to commit to a written agreement, Keith refused. Ocean and Keith had a written agreement that Keith would understand he was a hired hand, be paid a flat rate and would sign that he had not written or co-written the songs. Keith had helped Ocean produce his breakout record Channel Orange, as did Malay. Away from the spotlight and music industry, Frank was quietly crafting his sophomore album, Blonde. An album which saw Frank Ocean tucked away in London at Abbey Road Studios working 16-hour shifts. Ocean wants a judge to rule that Keith and the other defendants do not own any part of his song, they must stop claiming they did, and for legal costs. August 20th, 2018 marked the second anniversary of the album the world was yearning for. These were for ‘Be Yourself’, Futura Free’, ‘Godspeed’, ‘Ivy’, ‘Nights’, ‘Nikes’, ‘Pink + White’, ‘Pretty Sweet’, ‘Skyline To’, ‘Solo’ and ‘White Ferrari’. Īlso named in the suit are Keith’s company Analog Genius Corporation and several unnamed John Does as defendants, whom Ocean insists “did not own any portion of the copyright rights” to his music and “did not contribute any lyrics, melodies, or music that would give rise to any claim of authorship.”ĭocuments tendered to court say that Ocean’s lawyers tried several times to get Keith to sign a written agreement that he did not write any of the Blonde songs.īut he refused to sign and, it claims, tried to get himself registered as a co-writer. According to credits, Ocean did the production but was helped by a number of producers including Keith, Malay, James Blake, Jon Brion, Buddy Ross, Pharrell Williams and Rostam Batmanglij.