Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, along with his former chief of staff, Milo Yiannopoulos, faces a disturbing lawsuit after eight former employees accused them of intolerable harassment and discrimination while developing the streaming service app called YZYVSN, Billboard first reported.
Yeezy LLC's Inhumane Working Conditions
Plaintiffs aged 14 to 25 from the US, UK, Hungary, and Nigeria filed a lawsuit on June 29 in California's Central District Court. Some were minors when employed at Yeezy LLC and claim they were unpaid during their tenure.
According to TMZ, Ye and Yiannopoulos subjected their employees to "forced labor and inhuman treatment," including making false assurances of payment to both adult and minor workers, compelling them to work excessively long hours, and subjecting them to racist insults such as being mocked as "new slaves."
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The documents reveal that Ye and Yiannopoulos allegedly recruited an international group of developers, including several Black members and minors as young as 14, to develop a streaming service app called YZYVSN to promote his "Vultures" and "Vultures 2" albums and compete with Tidal, Spotify, and Apple Music in Spring of 2024.
According to the documents, Yiannopoulos promised to pay $120,000 to the developer group after finishing the app if they accepted the work conditions without objections. The situation escalated when Ye mandated all employees sign non-disclosure agreements, threatening to fire underage workers and withhold payment if they refused. Minor developers were also allegedly pressured to sign "volunteer" agreements.
A Shocking Racially Discriminatory Environment
The employees predominantly worked remotely, using digital communication tools such as Discord, Zoom, and Slack to stay in constant contact with Ye's team, where they were allegedly exposed to a racially discriminatory environment and harsh working conditions.
Ye's white managers overseeing foreign and minority workers allegedly used derogatory language to create a hostile work environment, harassing their subordinates based on age, race, gender, sexual orientation, and national origin, referring to some team members as "slaves" and others as "new slaves" in group communications.
Yiannopoulos purportedly sent a chat message to an African American team member that included a Black/brown skin emoji and referred to a younger worker as a school shooter. According to the documents, employees were coerced into working late hours into the night without compensation or sufficient rest.
Minor's Disturbing Exposure to Pornography
According to the documents, Ye revealed plans to start an adult film enterprise named "Yeezy Porn" later in April, with his wife Bianca Censori reportedly sending file-sharing links with pornographic content with one worker, which were also accessible to minors.
One plaintiff, referred to as "John Doe 1" in the documents, alleges exposure to pornographic images circulated within group chats used for team communication. The Billboard reported that another plaintiff, identified anonymously as "John Doe 2" in the lawsuit, describes experiencing a highly inappropriate and distressing work environment.
Following a hectic development phase to complete the app, the team reportedly presented Ye with one of the finished applications on May 1, 2024, which was not compensated. The lawsuit seeks damages for unpaid wages, overtime pay, and compensation for emotional distress, with Ben Lockyer of Lockyer Law LLC expressing his team's anticipation of securing justice for the shocking environment his clients were forced to endure.
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