Kanye West is being sued for racial discrimination by one of his former security guards.
The lawsuit has been brought forward by Benjamin Deshon Provo – who worked for the rapper (who now goes by Ye) at both his Donda Academy school and at a warehouse used as storage for the Yeezy brand of clothing.
In the filing, the former employee alleges that the artist subjected his Black employees to “less favourable treatment than their White counterparts”, and People reported that the lawsuit also claims that Ye “frequently screamed at and berated Black employees”, and ultimately fired Provo for refusing to cut his dreadlocks.
The former member of staff began working for the controversial rapper in August 2021, after six months at the Donda Academy. This, he alleges, is when the school relocated and “assigned additional job duties” to employees “as a result of a lack of staffing”.
In the lawsuit, he accuses Ye of demonstrating a “stark difference” in the way he treated his Black employees compared to other members of staff, and claims that the rapper was “always abrupt, abrasive, and demeaning of Plaintiff and his Black counterparts” (via Metro). Alongside this, he accuses West of making “anyone associated with Donda dispose of books related to Martin Luther King, Jr, Malcolm X, and other prominent figures in the Black community”, and paying him less than non-Black employees “for no discernible reason”.
Elsewhere, Provo alleges that he complained to his line manager about the pay disparity, and was told not to raise the topic with the rapper. Shortly thereafter, he reportedly saw a “decrease in his paychecks”, which his white colleagues didn’t experience. This was put down by the company to the rapper not being able to “afford security”.
In the run-up to him being fired, the filing claims that it was around April last year that the ‘Vultures’ rapper “unjustifiably and unreasonably began demanding that Plaintiff and others shave their heads”, despite Benjamin having dreadlocks “as an exercise of his Muslim faith.”
He alleges he faced pressure to comply with Ye’s “ increasingly more aggressive, demanding” demands, and was fired directly because he refused to shave his head.
Provo is seeking damages for the alleged discrimination, retaliation, hostile work environment, labour code violations and for attorney fees. He is also aiming for a “preliminary and permanent injunction, and a public injunction, against all Defendants, prohibiting them from owning and operating any type of educational school for minor children under the age of 18 years in the state of California.”
NME has reached out to Ye’s representatives for comment.
This isn’t the first lawsuit that Ye has been faced with by a former Yeezy employee and Donda Academy student. Earlier this month, he was sued by another member of staff for allegedly threatening to “cage” his students. Trevor Phillips has accused the musician of a number of allegations including verbal abuse, threatening physical violence and comparing himself to Hitler.
While representatives have not yet responded to the allegations brought to light by Phillips, they have previously dismissed claims about the Donda Academy. In a past response from Ye’s lawyer, the former employees’ descriptions of the school were described as a “dystopian institution designed to satisfy Ye’s idiosyncrasies”.
“None of it is true and the allegations do a disservice to the Donda Academy’s current staff and students and their parents who will attest to their positive experience,” they said in a 2023 filing.
Elsewhere, he was accused of punching a man in the face who had allegedly “sexually assaulted” his wife Bianca Censori, accused by Underground producer TSVI for allegedly “stealing” a sample from his song ‘12345678’, and branded as an “anti-Semite” by Ozzy Osbourne for using Black Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man’ without permission last February.
Wife Sharon subsequently called West out, saying he “fucked with the wrong Jew this time”.
The rapper’s last album was ‘Vultures 1’, which he released with Ty Dolla $ign. The LP was given a two-star review by NME, and criticised for its “degrading lyrics and messy mixes”. Shortly after its release, Ye said that its follow-up ‘Vultures 2’ was delayed and hinted that he would not be releasing the two remaining LPs from the trilogy on streaming platforms.
In more recent West news, the rapper last week got involved in the ongoing rap beef between Drake, J. Cole, Future and Kendrick Lamar, and seemingly confirmed that he was about to launch a ‘Yeezy Porn Studio’ with the help of Stormy Daniels’ ex-husband, Mike Moz.
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