Kanye West Sued by 8 Former Employees, Including Minors

Kanye West Eight former employees sued him earlier this year, alleging a hostile work environment, unpaid wages, discrimination and other charges while developing a new app for the artist.

The 47-year-old rapper with his Yeezy brand and former chief of staff Milo Yiannopouloswas named in a lawsuit filed by former YZYVSN employees — some of whom are minors — on Saturday, June 29, in the Central District Court of California.

in the filing received our weeklyThese former employees, aged 14 to 25, alleged that they were not paid for working long hours and were harassed, including being called “slaves” and “new slaves” on the company’s Discord channel. (Discord is an app in which users can communicate via voice calls, video calls, messaging and other means.)

According to the lawsuit, they also claimed the work environment was “hostile” as the team’s app developers were allegedly harassed over their race, gender, age, sexual orientation and more.

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our weekly West’s team has been contacted for comment.

In addition, former employees allege they were shown pornographic images in the workplace after West began promoting the idea of ​​an adult film venture called Yeezy Porn in April. The lawsuit claims that West’s wife, Bianca Sensari“sent YZYVSN activist a file sharing link to hardcore pornography via app”.

“No safeguards were taken to prevent YZYVSN’s minor employees from working on Yeezy Porn or from being exposed to and forced to work on pornography,” the lawsuit states.

Sensei, 29, strongly denied the allegations in a statement. Page Six Yiannopoulos, 39, said this on Monday.

“I have been authorized by Bianca to state that any allegations that she performed or showed any pornographic material to minors are offensive, disgusting, abhorrent, and categorically and completely false,” he told the outlet.

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The lawsuit also claims that West and Yiannopoulos told employees they would be paid upon completion of the app; however, none of the plaintiffs received their wages.

Yiannopoulos responded to the filing as follows: X On June 29, multiple posts wrote that the “joke lawsuit” was filed by a “disgruntled” former employee who was “upset that he wasn’t selected for a full-time Yeezy job.”

The employees are seeking payment of back wages and attorney fees, as well as compensation for emotional distress.

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trial The incident comes nearly a month after West’s former assistant was killed. Lauren Pisciotta, sued him sexual harassment, hostile work environment, and wrongful termination.

In addition to Pisciotta’s allegations, West also faces multiple lawsuits over his school, Donda Academy, which runs until April 2023. Several teachers have alleged the school has numerous health and safety violations, which they claim West overlooked.

At the time, West’s attorney denied the claims and asked the judge to dismiss the lawsuit. “None of this is true, and these allegations are damaging to the current staff and students of Donda Academy and their parents, who will attest to their positive experience,” the attorney said. Gregory Suhr in June 2023, the court said, according to documents obtained by NBC News.