According to a new lawsuit filed in California on Tuesday, controversial rapper Kanye West routinely shouted at Black staff and lauded Adolf Hitler as a “innovator”.
The creative mind behind the Yeezy designer brand, whose music and fashion activities have made him extremely wealthy, has often courted controversy in recent years with racist or antisemitic words, as well as some strange historical revisionism.
Now a former employee claims the songwriter of the hit song “Stronger” informed kids he was being persecuted by Jews.
Trevor Phillips, who, like West, is Black and has worked for two of West’s companies for about a year, claims in a Los Angeles lawsuit that West, also known as Ye, subjected him to extreme discrimination, harassment, and retaliation.
Phillips claimed that West did not “berate a white person, but on countless occasions he saw and/or personally experienced Kanye frenziedly yell at Black people.”
Phillips was employed by the rapper’s clothing business, Yeezy, in November 2022, and began working immediately at the Donda Academy, a school West built outside of Los Angeles.
“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’,” according to the complaint.
GAP and Adidas parted relations with West following his prior antisemitic remarks.
The suit also says that West lauded Hitler, referring to him as “great” during a dinner at an exclusive Los Angeles restaurant.
“Hitler was an innovator. He invented numerous items. According to the lawsuit, West stated, “He’s the reason we have cars.”
Several persons, notably Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, are credited with the development of the automobile, but the Austrian-born tyrant was not among them.
Phillips claims in the lawsuit that the rapper once urged two Donda Academy students to shave their heads and threatened to lock them up.
“Kanye also told the employees… that no staff could be fat — otherwise he would fire them.”
Phillips, who quit working for West’s ventures in August 2023, is requesting $35,000 in compensation.
His lawyer, Carney R. Shegerian, stated that the lawsuit was intended to redress the wrongs his client had endured while also delivering a broader message.
“We hope… that the famous artist Mr West will understand that his messages, which we allege preach discrimination, anti-Semitism and love for Hitler, have no place in the world.”
West, who split from famous entrepreneur Kim Kardashian in 2022 after a decade together, apologized to Jews on social media last year for prior antisemitic remarks.
The rapper has been upfront about his challenges with mental health, and Kardashian has asked for understanding while he works through them.