Kanye West, now known as Ye, has been sued by a former Yeezy and Donda Academy employee who claims the artist told students he wanted to shave their heads and lock them in cages, among many other explosive allegations.
Trevor Phillips joined the ranks of several former employees who have taken legal action against Ye by filing the lawsuit on Tuesday (April 2nd) in Los Angeles. Per reporting from NBC News and Rolling Stone, Phillips also alleges Ye frequently praised Hitler and once compared himself to the Nazi leader (“minus the gas chambers”), simulated masturbation during a one-on-one hotel room meeting, and threatened to punch Phillips during a “temper tantrum.”
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The lawsuit accuses Ye of verbally abusing Black staff and treating them “considerably worse than white employees,” as well as telling his employees that they could be fired for being “fat.” Ye also allegedly temporarily delayed paying workers after his Yeezy bank accounts were frozen.
Phillips was originally hired in November 2022 to work on the “vertically integrated crew” for Yeezy, but was transferred to Donda Academy after adidas cut ties with Ye over a string of antisemitic behavior.
He claims that Ye continued to “double down” on making antisemitic statements and threatened to go after the LGBTQ+ community “next,” which Phillips says he pushed back against. According to Phillips, Ye responded with “incessant harassment, humiliation, and attempts to both mentally control and destroy” him.
This behavior allegedly culminated in Ye firing Phillips during a tirade over a garden for which he was responsible. According to the suit, Phillips pleaded with Ye to stay on by explaining he had a medical condition and that his daughter and little brother both attended Donda. Ye responded by going after both Phillips’ medical condition and his daughter.
“Kanye raised his hand and pointed at Phillips’ neck condition and screamed: ‘Fuck your neck!’” the suit reads. “Then pointing at the school, Kanye belched, ‘And fuck your daughter. I don’t give a fuck about none of that.’”
The suit seeks more than $35,000 in damages for claims of discrimination, retaliation, and wrongful termination, among others.
In February, Ye released his much-delayed album Vultures 1 with Ty Dolla $ign after hosting numerous “listening parties” for the project. This was followed by a disastrous Rolling Loud headlining “performance” last month, during which the duo once again stood on stage and played back the album.
Since then, Vultures 2 has failed to materialize, and planned US listening parties for both albums have been scrapped.
