Kanye West is being sued by his employees after allegedly referring to them as “new slaves,” and after Australian architectural designer Bianca Censori, who is reportedly married to the rapper, allegedly sent pornographic videos to staff, which were also accessible to minors.
The lawsuit states that West created an app to promote his music, which resulted in a racist environment with a toxic work environment, while Censori sent porn videos, accessible by minors, to staff, according to a report by TMZ.
West and his former chief of staff, Milo Yiannopoulos were named as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed in a U.S. District Court. Censori, meanwhile, was not named as a defendant.
The lawsuit reportedly alleges that West and Yiannopoulos engaged in “forced labor and cruel inhuman, or degrading treatment,” and that the two openly mocked the “Heartless” rapper’s employees as “new slaves,” as well as issued racist remarks.
West and Yiannopoulos were also accused of making false promises to pay their adult and minor staff, and bullying them into working long hours through the night without sleep, TMZ reported.
According to the lawsuit, the two men had hired an international developer group made up of black staff, as well as teen employees as young as 14.
Yiannopoulos promised to pay these developers $120,000 to create an app for West, as long as they also agreed to the work conditions and didn’t complain while developing the app, the complaint alleges.
The lawsuit goes on to claim that the employees were ordered to sign non-disclosure agreements, and the minor developers — who faced threats of being fired — were forced to sign “volunteer” agreements. They were also threatened with not receiving payment if they did not sign such documents, the suit claims.
From there, the developers worked remotely and communicated with West, Yiannopoulos, and others via platforms such as Discord, Zoom, and Slack.
In these group chats, the staff was subjected to disparaging language, as well as harassing language regarding race, sex, sexual orientation, and national origin from white managers who oversaw their work, the complaint alleges.
In one instance, Yiannopoulos allegedly sent a message including a black/brown skin emoji to a black employee, and referred to a young developer as a school shooter.
Then in late April — amid West announcing that he was launching an adult film business called “Yeezy Porn” — Censori sent an employee a file-sharing link containing extreme sexual activity, which minor staffers had access to, the lawsuit adds.
The complaint adds that the developers were never paid for their work after delivering a completed version of one of the apps on May 1.
The plaintiffs are reportedly seeking damages for unpaid wages and overtime pay, as well as emotional distress.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
