A former employee accuses the rapper in a new lawsuit of wanting to build cages for bad students at his Donda Academy school.
Ex-employee says Ye wanted to build cages for students
A new lawsuit obtained by Rolling Stone on Tuesday (April 2) details Trevor Phillips’ claims. Phillips worked at Ye’s Yeezy fashion brand as well as his Donda Academy school before it closed. The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles as numerous former employees of the Vultures 1 hitmaker continue to file lawsuits against him.
Philip said in the 42-page complaint that he worked for Ye for nine months, starting in November 2022, shortly after Ye’s deal with Adidas fell apart over his anti-Semitic comments.
Philip claimed that Ye continued to make similar “dangerous remarks” in front of students at Tangda College, and allegedly told numerous students that he wanted them to “shave their heads and plan to set up prisons at the school” and told them “they might be imprisoned” Locked in a cage.”
In addition, Phillips, who is black, said Ye gave preferential treatment to white employees. He claimed that Ye “treated black employees much worse than white employees” and that he “screamed and berated black employees while never raising his tone toward white employees.”
XXL has reached out to Ye’s team for further comment.
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Former staff detailed other troubling allegations
The lawsuit also alleges that Ye frequently expressed anti-Semitic values in front of students and allegedly said in front of parents that he “only likes to date white women,” while telling employees that if anyone got fat, they would be fired.
Phillips also detailed a disturbing meeting he had with Ye in December 2022 at the Nobu Hotel in Malibu, California. The former employee said Ye spent three hours hyping up Hitler’s greatness and calling the Holocaust a fake. He also criticized the LBGTQ+ community and said “homosexuals are not true Christians.”
In addition, Phillips claimed that Ye then lay on the bed, began watching 2022’s “The Batman” with muted sound, and “began moving his hands up and down slowly over his genitals, as if he was masturbating.” Ye then described his sex life in detail before having a video call with a woman and asking her to wear new underwear and shoes he had purchased for her. Phillips said he recognized the woman because Ye had “showed off” her naked body to staff weeks earlier.
Phillips is seeking at least $35,000 in damages for what he considers whistleblower retaliation, race-based discrimination and a hostile workplace, among eight other causes of action.
