Kanye West is once again making headlines for the wrong reasons. The American rapper and producer, as well as his former right-hand man, Milo Yiannopoulos, are accused by former employees of “inhuman, cruel or degrading treatment”.
According to several American media reports, the design of the YZYVSN streaming application, which Kanye West intended to use to promote his albums Vulture 1 et Vulture 2did not go as planned.
In a lawsuit targeting the performer of Stronger and his former chief of staff, Milo Yiannopoulos, it is alleged that the developers hired to market YZYVSN never received the $120,000 they were promised, and that West’s management team also called some of these employees “slaves” and “new slaves.” The development team was made up of people of African descent, including several minors, and the communications in question allegedly took place on online messaging platforms such as Discord, Zoom and Slack.
According to the lawsuit, the team was quickly required to sign a non-disclosure clause regarding their work and the conditions attached to it, or face termination. It is also alleged that minor employees were forced to sign a “volunteer work” clause, in other words, volunteer work.
The plaintiffs report that they were forced to work long hours, in the middle of the night, without being able to sleep… or be paid.
The name of Kanye West’s wife, Bianca Censori, is also mentioned in this lawsuit. Without being formally accused by the complainants, she is accused of having sent employees a link containing pornography, which was also accessible to minors. This incident allegedly took place in April, when she and West were trying to launch Yeezy Pornan adult film company.
The plaintiffs are therefore seeking compensation from Kanye West and Milo Yiannopoulos for the amount they should have received for the development of the YZYVSN app, as well as amounts for overtime worked and emotional distress that the situation allegedly caused. At the time of writing, West and Yiannopoulos had not commented on this matter.
In the heart of the turmoil
Kanye West, now Ye, has caused a lot of ink to flow in recent months. In April, two former employees of Donda Academy, a school he founded, accused him of racial discrimination and mistreatment of students. Then, in early June, his former assistant, Lauren Pisciotta, accused him of sexual harassment and unjustified termination. The rapper refuted the facts put forward by the latter.
