Kanye West is facing yet another lawsuit and this one went against him and his former chief of staff Milo Yiannopoulos in U.S. District Court, according to new legal documents reportedly obtained by TMZ. Moreover, it accuses them of subjecting their employees to "forced labor and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment," specifically those that formed part of the YZYVSN development team. For those unaware, that's an app that Ye wanted to use to distribute VULTURES 1 and future installments instead of using streaming services like Spotify, and he also planned a porn venture that apparently is now scrapped. Regardless, he and Yiannopoulos allegedly abused their power over this development team in a very exploitative manner.
Furthermore, Kanye West and his former chief of staff hired an international developer group of various Black tech wizzes, a few of which were as young as 14 years old. The lawsuit accuses Ye and his colleague of falsely promising payment for these employees, forcing excessively long shifts through the night with no pay, and engaging in racist jabs and demeaning rhetoric. For example, they allegedly called some employees "new slaves," a reference to the Chicago artist's 2013 Yeezus track and a horrible way to treat your co-workers. According to court documents, this development team mostly worked remotely via platforms like Zoom and Slack.
Kanye West & Bianca Censori At Paris Fashion Week
Then, in April of 2024 (about a month into the possible YZYVSN launch), Milo Yiannopoulos allegedly promised to pay the team $120K. This would be after they completed the app's development and under the condition of both no complaints and full agreement concerning work conditions. Kanye West allegedly demanded NDAs from all of them and threatened to fire and not pay them if they didn't sign, which complicated things. Minor developers had to sign "volunteer" agreements, according to court docs. In addition, white managers overseeing the operation would allegedly disparage employees with racist remarks and other attacks on their identity, such as Yiannopoulos sending a Black team member a Black emoji and calling a younger employee a school shooter.
Meanwhile, another bombshell claim concerns the inception of "Yeezy Porn" in late April of 2024, which Yiannopoulos actually resigned over. Kanye West's wife Bianca Censori allegedly sent someone in the app development team a file-sharing link with hardcore adult content, which the minors were allegedly not shielded from viewing. However, it's important to note that Censori is not a defendant in this case. On May 1, the team allegedly showed one of the finished apps to Ye, although it's unclear which one, and the lack of payment is what led to this lawsuit. The team seeks damages for unpaid wages, overtime pay, and emotional distress. At press time, no public response has emerged.
