This week, Frank Ocean filed a lawsuit in California federal court against his longtime producer, Om’Mas Keith. According to the nine-page complaint, Keith verbally agreed to produce tracks for Ocean’s 2016 album Blonde for a flat fee, but later refused to sign a formal contract and ultimately claimed songwriting credits on 11 of the 17 songs.

Some attorneys specializing in music copyright law tell me Ocean should have an open-and-shut case. But others raise questions about the allegations. Their uncertainty jibes with what Ocean’s Blonde-era associates have told me, both previously and now, about how Ocean sessions tend to work. Like many other copyright claims, this lawsuit will probably settle. If it doesn’t, though, one of music’s most mysterious creators will be forced to divulge how his closely guarded masterwork was made.

A founding member of Los Angeles hip-hop trio Sa-Ra, Keith had already produced tracks for Erykah Badu, John Legend, Jill Scott, and Rick Ross before meeting Ocean around 2009. Two years later, when Ocean contributed hooks to two songs for JAY-Z and Kanye West’s Watch the Throne, Keith produced Ocean’s vocals. Keith then served as the producer for Ocean’s 2012 debut LP, Channel Orange; according to The New York Times Magazine, Ocean brought Keith in “to help him turn his sketches into major-label-release-ready album cuts.” As Ocean’s complaint states, Keith signed a written agreement to produce 14 tracks on Channel Orange in exchange for a flat fee, and afterward Keith acknowledged he hadn’t written any of the songs.

Blonde was different. While the complaint claims that Keith agreed to “essentially the same” arrangement, the deal wasn’t in writing. Both before and after Blonde’s release, Ocean’s lawyers sent Keith written contracts to sign. Keith refused. He then allegedly instructed his publisher to file registrations with ASCAP, a clearinghouse group for royalties, claiming that he had co-written the Blonde songs “Be Yourself,” “Futura Free,” “Godspeed,” “Ivy,” “Nights,” “Nikes,” “Pink + White,” “Pretty Sweet,” “Skyline To,” “Solo,” and “White Ferrari.” (There is a verification process before credits appear on ASCAP’s public database, a source with knowledge of the situation says, but these credits can sometime change after the fact, for any number of reasons.) Keith was not, however, credited as a songwriter in Blonde’s liner notes.

What parts, exactly, Keith claims to have written are unclear. According to the complaint, when Ocean’s lawyers asked Keith to identify his songwriting contributions, he refused. Neither Keith, nor Ocean’s attorneys, have responded to Pitchfork’s requests for comment.

“The case seems straightforward,” says Henry Gradstein, who represented songwriters in last year’s $43 million Spotify settlement. “The songwriter hired a producer to produce the tracks and the producer claims their contributions rose to the level of a joint work of co-authorship. They don’t.” Bert Deixler, who successfully defended the White Stripes against a royalties lawsuit by a sound mixer on that band’s first two albums, also voiced approval for Ocean’s cause. “Like Jack White, Frank Ocean is a musical genius,” Deixler tells me. “Such artists draw pretenders eager to claim credit where credit is not due.”

But the lack of a written deal could cause complications. “The pattern of contractual dealings between the parties seems messy, and may boil down to a ‘he said/he said’ situation,” says Judy Endejan, who successfully defended Sir Mix-A-Lot against a songwriter who claimed to deserve “Baby Got Back” royalties. “The court will have to look to all of the facts surrounding their relationship to figure out what these parties intended.”