Kanye West Hit With Scathing Lawsuit By Former Employees Who Claim They Were Called 'New Slaves'

A recently filed lawsuit has revealed questionable information about the work environment of rapper Kanye West's Yeezy company.

In the suit, which named West and his former chief of staff, Milo Yiannopoulos, as defendants,  they were accused of "fostering a racist environment" and forcing employees to work "insanely long hours."

Model Bianca Censori, whose husband is Kanye West, also appeared in the docs for allegedly sending porn files to staff that were accessible by minors.

According to TMZ, a group of disgruntled Yeezy employees have filed a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court against West and his former chief of staff, Yiannopoulos.

The filing stemmed from West allegedly refusing to fulfill work agreements and "forcing them to work insanely long hours."

The disgruntled employees, which consisted of adults and minors as young as 14, were hired as developers to work on West's YZYVSN streaming service app, which he wanted to use to promote his new albums, "Vultures" and "Vultures 2."

They were reportedly promised $120,000 in pay if they "completed the app," and they "agreed to the work conditions," and didn't "complain."

However, out of the blue, they were forced to sign non-disclosure agreements under the threat of losing their jobs and not being paid. Meanwhile, the employees who were minors were required to sign "volunteer" agreements, implying they would receive no pay regardless of their contributions.

The court documents revealed that the developers mostly worked on the app remotely while giving feedback to West, Yiannopoulos, and other relevant showrunners via Slack and other online communication tools.

They allegedly worked hard to get a finished app to West by May 1, 2024, due to the pressure on them to deliver quickly.

However, when they asked for their pay, neither West nor Yiannopoulos responded to their request, prompting them to pursue a legal means of resolving the standstill.

Now, the former employees are asking for the complete payment of their unpaid wages alongside compensation for overtime. They are also asking for damages for the emotional distress they suffered while working for Yeezy.

In the documents, the developers also alleged that they were openly "mocked with racist jabs" by Yeezy white managers in charge of the overseas and minority workers.

Some of the disparaging language referenced their "age, race, gender, sexual orientation and national origin." They also alleged that some of their colleagues were called "slaves" and "new slaves" during different work interactions.

Yiannopoulos was accused of being one of the senior employees who acted in a racist manner, with the docs claiming he "once sent a chat message with a Black/brown skin emoji to an African American team member" and called a minor staff a "school shooter."

Meanwhile, West's wife, Censori, was also complained about for "sending one worker a file-sharing link containing hardcore sexual activity," seemingly to be used for the development of the rapper's porn app. It was mentioned that she made no move to shield the viewing of the explicit videos from minors.

The lawsuit comes several weeks after Yiannopoulos resigned from Yeezy due to West's porn studio project.

The 32-year-old, in his resignation letter, claimed that he "cannot be complicit in the production of pornographic films and literature, for moral and religious reasons."

He also stated that getting involved in the project would be "an imminent danger to my life as a recovering addict and an unacceptable risk to my spiritual and physical health as a former homosexual."

However, he left the door open for a possible comeback under the condition that Yeezy would abandon the project.

Apart from Yiannopoulos, several other showrunners left the company around the same time, although it is unclear if their decision to leave was related to the porn studio project.

West also received multiple backlash for announcing the project, which seemingly forced him to pause the move despite already consulting with the likes of porn actor and producer Michael "Mike Moz" Mosny.

The "Gold Digger" rapper's foray into the adult film business comes as a surprise after he previously detailed how he struggled with porn addiction.

According to the Daily Mail, West previously opened up on his struggles with porn addiction and later decried how it had destroyed his family, which he once shared with reality TV star Kim Kardashian.

In his 2019 interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music's Beats 1 Radio, the "Vultures 1" rapper admitted that he had a "full-on pornography addiction," which began at age five when he found a Playboy magazine.

He said, "For me, Playboy was my gateway into full-on pornography addiction. My dad had a Playboy left out at age five, and it's affected almost every choice I made for the rest of my life."

He added, "From age five til now, having to kick the habit, and it just presents itself in the open like it's OK, and I stand up and say, 'No, it's not ok.'"