Kanye West has been hit with two lawsuits in less than a month.
On June 4, Rolling Stone reported that the rapper, now legally known as Ye, was being sued by his former assistant, Lauren Pisciotta. Pisciotta filed a lawsuit accusing her former boss of sexual harassment, breach of contract, and wrongful termination. She claimed she was owed US$3 million after having endured intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Ye’s legal representative went on to call those accusations “baseless.” He also accused Pisciotta of “blackmail and extortion” and said Ye would be counter-suing her, per the BBC.
The rapper, now legally known as Ye, was hit with a second lawsuit, the news of which broke on June 30. Described as a “bombshell suit” by TMZ, the case was filed by ex-employees of Ye’s, who name him and his former Chief of Staff, Milo Yiannopoulos, as defendants. Per the outlet, the suit alleges that Ye and Yiannopoulos engaged in “forced labour and cruel inhuman, or degrading treatment.”
The two lawsuits come less than a year after former employees of his fashion brand, Yeezy, claimed the rapper played pornographic videos during company meetings and broadcast an explicit image of his former wife, Kim Kardashian.
Lauren Pisciotta Sues Kanye West
Pisciotta says she began working as Ye’s executive assistant in 2021, after having collaborated with him on his first Yeezy women’s line, and contributed to three songs on his album Donda. She was reportedly offered a salary of US$1 million under the condition she made herself available to Ye “24/7.”
In the lawsuit, Pisciotta claims she was fired in 2022 after she was not promoted, as she claims she had been promised she would be, to Ye’s Chief of Staff. She also said she was owed a multi-million dollar severance package, which she claims was never paid.
Pisciotta also accused Ye of sexual harassment, alleging that he sent her lewd texts throughout the duration of her employment, with some including pornographic videos. The plaintiff also claims that Ye masturbated while on a phone call to her, and once masturbated in front of Pisciotta after “trapping” her in a room on an aeroplane.
Ye Replies To His Ex-Assistants Allegations
Ye’s legal representative challenged Pisciotta’s claims, saying she “was terminated for being unqualified” and “demanding unreasonable sums of money.” The lawyer also accused Pisciotta of “lascivious, unhinged conduct,” and claimed that she “consistently used sexual coercion” to demand money and material items from her employer.
The statement from Ye’s lawyer also accused Pisciotta of attempting to blackmail the rapper after he rejected her alleged sexual advances.
Kanye West Sued By Yeezy Staff
Less than a month after Pisciotta filed her lawsuit, Ye found himself facing another crop of allegations.
A group of former Yeezy employers named Ye and Yiannopoulos as defendants in a separate lawsuit. In March, Ye and his company, Yeezy LLC reportedly hired an international developer group to work on the YZYVSN app, which was reportedly intended to be a streaming platform similar to Tidal or Apple Music. Per the Hollywood Reporter, this group included a 14-year-old developer.
In the documents, the plaintiffs claim they were promised $120,000 in pay if they “completed the app.” However, the minors were allegedly required to sign “volunteer” agreements which indicated they would not be paid for their work. The suit alleges that the group were all made to sign non-disclosure agreements and threatened with losing their jobs and not being paid if they declined to. When the developers asked for their pay upon meeting a pre-determined deadline, they claim neither Ye not Yiannopoulos responded to them.
In addition to asking for payment of unpaid wages, attorney fees and compensation for overtime, the plaintiffs are suing for damages, alleging they suffered emotional distress while working on the project.
The developers, who met predominantly via online means, such as Slack, claim they were “regularly and viciously bullied” over factors including “ages, races, genders, sexual orientation, and national origins/ethnicities.” Per the Hollywood Reporter, the team further allege they were “mocked with racist jabs” while working for Yeezy, and that some of their colleagues were part of Slack group chats called “slaves” and “new slaves.”
Documents also claim that Ye’s wife, Bianca Censori sent “one worker a file-sharing link containing hardcore sexual activity.” This was allegedly in relation to the development of Ye and the company’s pornography site, Yeezy Porn.
The lawsuit states, “No guardrails were put in place to prevent the underage YZYVSN workers from working on Yeezy Porn, or to prevent them from being exposed to and being forced to view pornography to perform their work.”
Yiannopoulos has since resigned from his post at Yeezy LLC due to clashes over the Yeezy Porn concept.
Milo Yiannopoulos & Bianca Censori Respond To Yeezy Lawsuit
While Ye is yet to speak on the lawsuit from the group of former employees, Yiannopoulos has issued a statement.
Per Deadline, said: “I’ve been authorised by Bianca [Censori] 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.”
Yiannopoulos further claimed that the alleged plaintiff never worked for Yeezy.
“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,” Yiannopoulos continued, with said Lady seemingly referring to Censori.
“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,” Yiannopoulos’s statement went on. “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.”
Yiannopoulos concluded: “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. ”
At the time of writing, Ye has not commented on the second lawsuit.
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