Kanye West hit with new lawsuit over hostile workplace, unpaid wages

Kanye West and his company Yeezy have been accused of mistreating multiple staff members — including bullying and failing to pay some of them while they were working on developing a streaming app earlier this year — in a new lawsuit filed Saturday. the Washington Post reports.

Eight employees, including some minors, claim that West (whom they know, Ye says), his then-chief of staff Milo Yiannopoulos and Yeezy's company did not pay team members and also referred to them as “slaves” and “new slaves” . along with other degrading treatment. They also claim they were exposed to pornographic images in the “hostile work environment”. The plaintiffs are seeking payment for unpaid wages along with attorney fees, as well as damages for emotional distress.

According to the lawsuit, the team involved in filing the lawsuit was working to develop a streaming service app for Ye, with the goal of promoting Vultures 2. Yeezy acquired the YZYVSN app to carry out the venture, and the team consisted of personnel from around the world, including, according to the lawsuit, minors as young as 14.

Some of the group's communications took place on Discord, where group members were bullied based on age, race, gender, sexual orientation and ethnicity, according to the message. The complaint also alleges racial slurs were made against Black team members and only white team members were promised developer positions at the company.

According to the suit, some members of the group claim they were called “slaves” and a Discord channel for newcomers was called “new slaves” before a member of the Black group asked to be renamed. The suit also alleges that minors were subjected to pornography in group chats.

In 2022, reported Rolling Stone that former members of Team Yeezy accused West of using porn, intimidation and “mind games” to control them. Publicly, West has been referred to a “Complete addiction to pornography” that “He destroyed my family.”

According to the recent lawsuit, after the streaming service's implementation was completed, Yeezy and Yiannopoulis said the team members would be paid, but the payment never came, the lawsuit alleges.

“No safeguards were put in place to prevent YZYVSN's underage workers from working at Yeezy Porn or to prevent them from being exposed to and forced to view pornography in order to perform their jobs,” the lawsuit states. In April, Ye announced that he planned to start an adult film studio Yeezy Porn. in May, Yiannopoulos resigned as chief of staff over Ye's plans to move into the pornography business.

An attorney for West did not immediately respond Rolling rockhis request for comment.

Yiannopoulos answered The Rolling Stones request for comment with links to two of his posts on X, formerly Twitter, where he denied the charges, calling the filing a “joke lawsuit.” Of the allegations of recruiting minors, He wrote“The company has signed releases from and contractor agreements with every partner in every closed and open source project, including parents or guardians where appropriate,” and added: “Yeezy Porn does not exist, so it could not have been shown to anyone. »

The latest lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in California, is one of several other lawsuits the rapper is facing from former employees. Earlier this month, West's former assistant Lauren Pisciotta accused him of sexual harassment, breach of contract and wrongful termination. West said he would file a countersuit, with a statement from his legal representative calling Pisciotta's allegations “baseless” and accusing her of engaging in “extortion and extortion” after he dismissed her sexual advances. In April, former Yeezy and Donda Academy employee Trevor Phillips sued West, joining a number of former employees, accusing him of spewing “dangerous rhetoric,” including anti-Semitic comments and at one point threatening to punch him.