Married couple have been accused of exploitation and creating a toxic work environment
Rapper Kanye West and his wife, Bianca Censori, have been named in a lawsuit filed in a U.S. District Court.
The lawsuit alleges that West, along with his former chief of staff Milo Yiannopoulos, created a toxic and exploitative work environment while developing an app to promote West‘s music and potential venture into the adult film industry.
According to the lawsuit, West and Yiannopoulos hired an international developer group that included several Black members and underage teens thought to be as young as 14. The lawsuit claims that Westaimed to avoid paying these companies to promote his new albums, Vultures and Vultures 2, withholding money once their work was complete.
What did the lawsuit accuse them of?
The employees, who primarily worked remotely, communicated with West, Yiannopoulos, and their team using apps like Discord, Zoom, and Slack.
In April 2024, Yiannopoulos promised to pay the developer group 120,000 dollars upon the app’s completion, provided the employees signed non-disclosure and “volunteer” agreements. Failure to comply would result in termination and non-payment, although that ended up happening anyway.
The situation reportedly worsened when West’s white managers overseeing the foreign and minority workers allegedly created a hostile work environment using disparaging language. The employees, including minors, were allegedly bullied into working long hours without pay, mocked with racist remarks, and referred to as “new slaves”, which is the title of a Kanye West track.
Yiannopoulosallegedly sent a chat message with a Black/brown skin emoji to an African American team member and referred to a younger worker as a “school shooter.”
Additionally, during the app development process, West announced the launch of an adult film business called “Yeezy Porn.” Biancaallegedly sent explicit content to a worker, exposing minors to inappropriate material.
