Kanye West (who also goes by the name Ye) was sued on Tuesday by a former employee who accused the rapper of threatening staff and students at Donda Academy, West's private and unaccredited Christian school in Ventura County, Calif.
Filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by Trevor Phillips, the 47-page lawsuit also claimed that West engaged in discriminatory and antisemitic behavior, likening himself to Adolf Hitler and creating a hostile work environment. Phillips worked for both Donda Academy and West's fashion brand, Yeezy, from November 2022 to August 2023. The suit states that Phillips’ daughter and younger brother attended Donda, and that Phillips’ mother assisted him in getting the job. He was hired shortly after the rap mogul's businesses began to flounder and his major-record label was cast into jeopardy, following his repeated antisemitic comments. Notably, West at the time tweeted that he would support "death con 3 ON JEWISH PEOPLE," causing X/Twitter and Instagram to subsequently restrict his account.
Phillips' suit states that he was initially hired to assist with “projects related to growing cotton” and other plants in an effort to make Yeezy "self-sustainable," before shifting to his role at Donda Academy. The former staffer asserted that West continued to make antisemitic remarks in front of employees at the school, including “the Jews are out to get me” and “the Jews are stealing all my money," per a report from The New York Times. After sports empire Adidas severed ties with West in October of 2022 over his statements, the music artist reportedly told Phillips, “The Jews are working with Adidas to freeze up my money to try and make me broke!" per the lawsuit.
West ultimately issued an apology to the Jewish community last year, releasing a statement written in Hebrew that said, "It was not my intention to offend or disrespect and I deeply regret any pain I may have caused.” The apology also claimed that he was committed “to learning from this experience to ensure greater sensitivity and understanding.” Phillips however, in the latest in a series of lawsuits filed by former Donda employees, alleged that West continued to make antisemitic comments behind closed doors at work. The lawsuit says that West during one dinner at high-end sushi restaurant Nobu pretended to masturbate and described his sex life in detail to Phillips, who believed the meeting was concerning Donda's horticulture program, per Business Insider. West also during the meeting referred to the Holocaust as "fake" and called Hitler "great," saying that the German dictator responsible for a genocide that killed millions was an "innovator."
"He invented so many things. He’s the reason we have cars," the complaint purports West to have said. During the same conversation, the suit claims, West said, “Yeah I am going for the gays! FIRST the Jews, THEN the gays.”
"Gay people are not true Christians," the suit quotes West to have said. "And Gay people are controlled by Bill Gates so that they don't have children for population control."
Text messages from another conversation about seeds for the Donda Academy garden reportedly show West to have said, "I am on some complete Hitler level stuff. Minus the gas chambers. In Jesus name."
"Phillips, on several occasions, witnessed Kanye preach to his staff obscenities such as 'the Jews are out to get me' and 'the Jews are stealing all my money,'" the suit reads. "Fearing for their jobs and also to de-escalate Kanye's absurdities (so that the two present school children did not hear), the school staff did their best to ignore him."
The complaint also accuses West of threatening two Donda Academy students, reportedly telling the children that he "wanted them to shave their heads and that he intended to put a jail at the school — and that they could be locked in cages.”
“The staff quickly distracted the children and escorted them out of the room," the lawsuit says.
Phillips, who is Black, also detailed how West allegedly treated Black employees at Donda, including himself, “considerably worse than white employees.” At Paris Fashion Week in the fall of 2022, West wore a shirt that featured a slogan of white supremacists — "White Lives Matter " — which is deemed hate speech by the Anti-Defamation League.
Business Insider reported that Phillips is seeking $35,000 in damages and an injunction to prohibit West from owning and operating any sort of educational school for kids under 18 years of age in the state of California. "By filing this lawsuit, we hope our injured clients' rights are vindicated, and that the famous artist Mr. West understands that his messages — which we alleged preach discrimination, antisemitism, and Hitler-love — have no place in the world," Carney R. Shegerian, whose law firm is representing Phillips, told the outlet.
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