Kanye West has been sued in a new lawsuit which claims he created a hostile work environment for his adult and minor employees, allegedly referring to them as “new slaves”.
According to TMZ, the rapper and his former chief of staff Milo Yiannopoulos were named as defendants in the lawsuit filed to a US district court, which states that West intended to create an app called ‘YZYVSN’ to promote his rap music in the spring of 2024.
The rapper allegedly did not want to pay rival companies Tidal, Spotify and Apple Music to promote ‘Vultures’ and ‘Vultures 2′, so he hired a number of adult and minor employees in a developer group and allegedly engaged in “forced labour and cruel inhuman, or degrading treatment”.
The employees were claimed to have included several Black workers, including some as young as 14 years old. Both West and Yiannopoulos are accused of forcing their employees to work long hours without pay or sleep.
The rapper’s white managers were also alleged to have used negative language towards foreign and minority workers to create a hostile work environment. The white managers would allegedly refer pejoratively to workers’ age, race, gender, sexual orientation and national origin in group chats, with some called “slaves” and others as “new slaves”.
Additionally, Yiannopoulos was accused of sending a message with a Black/brown skin tone emoji to a Black employee whilst calling a younger worker a school shooter.
It also claimed that West’s wife, Bianca Censori, sent hardcore pornography to staff that was accessible by minors. She allegedly sent the link when West announced he was launching an adult film company called Yeezy Porn in late April. She is not named as a defendant.
According to the document, the developer group were promised $120,000 in payment from Yiannopoulous upon completion of the app if they agreed to the work conditions and didn’t complain. However, West then allegedly demanded the employees sign NDAs, threatening to fire the minor employees and withholding pay if they didn’t comply. Minor employees also had to allegedly sign “volunteer” agreements.
The lawsuit then states one of the finished apps was shown to the rapper on May 1. Though it’s unclear which specific app was shown, West and Yiannopoulous did not pay the employees for their work. The developers have since decided to sue the pair, seeking damages for unpaid wages and overtime pay and emotional distress.
West and Yiannopoulous did not respond to TMZ for comment.
It is the latest in a series of lawsuits launched against the rapper for poor work conditions. He was sued for sexual harassment and wrongful termination by his ex-assistant at the beginning of this month (June 4). West fired back and branded the allegations as “baseless”, further announcing his plans to countersue.
He was also accused of racial discrimination by his former security guard at the Donda Academy in April, alleging that the artist subjected his Black employees to “less favourable treatment than their White counterparts”.
In Touch Weekly reported that West filed to have the lawsuit dismissed, arguing that “Defendants are informed and believe, and based on such information and belief allege that Defendants were justified in doing any and/or all of the acts alleged in the Complaint.”
West was further sued by another member of staff for allegedly threatening to “cage” his students in April as well. Trevor Phillips has accused the musician of a number of allegations including verbal abuse, threatening physical violence and comparing himself to Hitler.
While representatives have not yet responded to the claims from Phillips, they have previously dismissed claims about the Donda Academy. In a past response from Ye’s lawyer, the former employees’ descriptions of the school were described as a “dystopian institution designed to satisfy Ye’s idiosyncrasies”.
“None of it is true and the allegations do a disservice to the Donda Academy’s current staff and students and their parents who will attest to their positive experience,” they said in a 2023 filing.
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