Kanye West Sued By Former Employees He Allegedly Called “New Slaves” – Update
Kanye West is being sued by a group of former employees, who accuse him and former chief of staff Milo Yiannopoulos of “fostering a racist environment” and forcing employees to work “insanely long hours.”
According to TMZ, the filing was by developers hired to work on West’s YZYVSN streaming service app, which he wanted to use to promote his new albums, “Vultures” and “Vultures 2.”
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They were reportedly promised $120,000 in pay if they “completed the app.”
However, they were later forced to sign nondisclosure agreements under the threat of losing their jobs and not being paid. Meanwhile, some employees who were minors were required to sign “volunteer” agreements. Those indicated they would receive no pay for their work.
The developers mostly worked on the app remotely, staying in touch via Slack and other tools. They were trying to meet a May 1, 2024 deadline for completing the app.
When they asked for their pay, neither West nor Yiannopoulos allegedly responded to their requests. That led to the lawsuit.
The former employees are asking for the complete payment of their unpaid wages and compensation for overtime. They are also asking for emotional distress damages they allegedly suffered.
In the documents, the developers alleged that they were openly “mocked with racist jabs.” They also alleged that some of their colleagues were called “slaves” and “new slaves” during interactions.
West’s wife, Bianca Censori, was alleged to have sent “one worker a file-sharing link containing hardcore sexual activity,” which allegedly was to be used for the development of West’s porn app. .
The lawsuit comes several weeks after Yiannopoulos resigned from Yeezy because of West’s porn studio project.
West has not publicly commented on the lawsuit. Deadline has reached out to his representatives.
UPDATE: Milo Yiannopoulos has issued the following statement:
I’ve been authorized by Bianca to stress that any allegation that she showed or caused to be shown any pornographic material to minors is offensive, disgusting, abhorrent and categorically and wholly false. The tragic, desperate, attention-seeking wannabe Yeezy staffer behind this egregious and repulsive pack of lies, Shemar DaCosta, has never had any kind of access to Ye, his family, or Yeezy, or any information pertinent to the company, and he never will.
DaCosta, known as ‘Hotep Susan’ in Yeezy circles for his histrionic and absurd race-baiting, faked an entire job history at Yeezy on his LinkedIn profile—the most tragic and thirsty lie imaginable. He claimed to be a lead developer for Yeezy. He has never worked at Yeezy. Read my lips: He will never, ever, ever land a job at the company after telling such odious lies about the Lady of the House.
There’s a simple reason DaCosta’s clownish claim—that minors were shown Yeezy Porn—isn’t true and can’t be true. Yeezy Porn doesn’t exist. I made sure of that by falling on my sword and quitting over it. All I’ve done since is try to get these app developers paid, as voluminous correspondence demonstrates. Anyone asserting otherwise, including many in the press, are lazy or simply dishonest buffoons uncritically repeating mendacious lies from a lawsuit that takes more imaginative leaps than The Lord of the Rings.
Secret white chat rooms? No, the other team just hustled harder than you did. Hostile working environment? How can that be? You were never hired. Minors working illegally? Give me a break. The only minors being taken advantage of are the poor suckers roped into this lawsuit, who have no idea what a pack of lies their names have been attached to. If anyone’s taking advantage of kids, it’s Shemar DaCosta and his bozo Instagram lawyer Ben Lockyer, whose area of legal expertise appears to be credulous African Americans with dubious causes of action. Both of them should be ashamed of themselves. And if they’re not now, they soon will be
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