According to a new Hollywood Reporter article, the chain restaurant company Chipotle is filing a lawsuit against R&B singer Frank Ocean.
The lawsuit is a result of Frank Ocean’s alleged failure to deliver a promotional song for a Chipotle funded ad campaign the Reporter article says. Chipotle’s lawsuit, which was filed on Friday (March 7) in a Los Angeles Superior Court, seeks $212,500, the amount paid to the singer upfront, as well as the possibility of additional damages. Chipotle’s lawsuit claims that Ocean was paid $212,500 upfront with a second payment of the same amount planned upon delivery of the song.
The lawsuit names Ocean’s planned contribution as a song called “Pure Imagination.” The track was slated for use within a marketing campaign meant to “promote local and sustainably-sourced food, while warning of the dangers of industrial farming,” according to the Hollywood Reporter. Chipotle’s suit claims that Ocean was aware that Chipotle was behind the campaign and that the restaurant informed him that it would be used as an advertisement.
The scheduled deadline for Ocean’s delivery of the “Pure Imagination” song was not met in August of 2013 and, one week later, legal representatives for the singer sent a letter to the chain restaurant notifying them he planned to back out. “When Frank was asked to participate in this project, Chipotle’s representatives told him that the thrust of the campaign was to promote responsible farming,” the letter read according to Chipotle’s recent filing. “There was no Chipotle reference or logo in the initial presentation, and Chipotle told Frank that was an intentional element of the campaign…Frank was also promised that he’d have the right to approve the master and all advertising.”
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Chipotle’s lawsuit disputes that claim and asserts that Ocean “was shown the animated film his song would accompany” when it “was roughly 80 percent complete and did not yet include the Chipotle logo at the end of the film.”
In a separate lawsuit filed in August of 2013, Frank Ocean’s cousin, Sha’Keir Duarte claimed he was permamently injured in his back by one of Chris Brown’s bodyguards in January of the same year according to TMZ. The report alleges that Duarte blames a Brown associate and employee named “Hood.”
Ocean recently appeared on a song called “Superpower” from Beyonce’s self-titled surprise album at the end of 2013.
RELATED: Frank Ocean’s Cousin Sha’Keir Duarte Sues Chris Brown For $3 Million
