Frank Ocean Sued by His Father for $14.5 Million Over Gay Slur Claim
Update (Feb. 3, 2:47 p.m. EST):
Pitchfork has gotten ahold of Cooksey's full complaint, in which he calls Tyler, The Creator a "devil worshipper" and accuses Frank of being "a fraud [who] only cared about making millions of dollars through Defendant's exclusive deal with Apple Inc."
"It's important to note that on June 21, 2016, the Defendant did NOT include a homophobic bigot named Tyler the Creator in the Defendant's June 21, 2016 anti-homophobic Tumblr essay," reads the complaint, which also accuses Frank's mother, Katonya Breaux, of being a hypocrite for criticizing gospel singer Kim Burrell's homophobic remarks while staying silent on Tyler's proclivity for slurs.
"This is the reason Defendant did not include this homophobic Tyler the Creator on June 21, 2016, because it would expose Defendant as a hypocrite and fraud who dishonestly betrayed the LGBT fans base for Tyler the Creator, who has clearly demonstrated hate for the LGBT community," reads the lawsuit.
Original Story:
Frank Ocean is being sued by his father for $14.5 million following a Tumblr post the singer published back in June of 2016 in response to the shooting at Orlando's Pulse nightclub. Ocean wrote then, "I heard the gunman feigned dead among all the people he killed. I heard the news say he was one of us. I was six years old when I heard my dad call our transgender waitress a faggot as he dragged me out a neighborhood diner saying we wouldn’t be served because she was dirty."
Ocean's father, Calvin Cooksey, is suing the singer for defamation, TMZ reports, saying that the story affected his money making opportunities in film and music. The typically private Ocean has yet to issue a statement on the lawsuit.
This wouldn't be the first time Cooksey sued someone within the hip-hop world, as in September of 2014, when he filed a lawsuit against Russell Simmons for $142 million. Similar to this recent suit, Cooksey sued the mogul for libel, claiming he was unfairly portrayed as a negligent father on Simmons' website. He claimed that the characterization would result in the loss of future income.
In a December 2012 tweet, Ocean alluded to the fact that his father wanted to sue him, writing, "Father wanna sue me for a million. Like I owe him back child support. Weak individual bought me a swiss knife at 6yrs old then dipped on me."
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