Frank Ocean’s father has called the star a “scam artist, a fraud and a hypocrite”.
The 29-year-old star is being sued by his dad Calvin Cooksey over a Tumblr post following the shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in June last year, after he wrote: “I was 6 years old when I heard my dad call our transgender waitress a f****t as he dragged me out of a neighborhood diner saying we wouldn’t be served because she was dirty.”
Cooksey has denied the incident ever took place and has filed a $14.5 million defamation lawsuit against the star. He told Rolling Stone in a statement that the Tumblr post is a “lie” and said: “The events that defendant describes on June 21st 2016, that I called a transgender waitress F****T NEVER HAPPENED … The defendant is a scam artist, a fraud and a hypocrite who deceive the LGBT community on June 21st, 2016 for the financial success of [Ocean’s album] Blonde .”
He called the post a “publicity stunt in the wake of the Orlando attack” and said the star is “using his father as an instrument for personal connection in order to sell records”. Cooksey believes his son’s accusation has undermined his ability to make money in the film and music businesses.
According to the lawsuit, Cooksey argues that “Frank was aware that his father [has] written a manuscript titled Part of the Game, which is a crime thriller and defendant and his mother are in the movie. The defendant has destroyed his father’s reputation so that his father can never get a deal or produce his father’s movie.”
The lawsuit also referenced Frank’s collaborator Tyler, the Creator, who was previously banned from the UK because of homophobic lyrics. The suit states: “Frank knew that Tyler, the Creator had been banned from Australia and the United Kingdom for homophobic rap lyrics which could incite violence against LGBT members. Yet [he] still allowed … Tyler, the Creator to be a music producer on … ‘Blonde’. He attacked God’s scriptures as if God only sees homosexuality as a sin. Please see the Ten Commandments. Lying, stealing, lust and defendant’s favorite: disrespecting thy father.”
