KANYE WEST SEEKS TO HAVE FORMER DONDA STAFFER’S LAWSUIT DISMISSED, CALLING THE ALLEGATIONS “SENSATIONAL”

Kanye West, the artist now known as Ye, is seeking to put an end to a workplace lawsuit involving Donda Academy, the Christian K-12 private school he founded and later shut down. In a new legal filing in Los Angeles, Ye is asking the court to dismiss a wrongful termination and harassment lawsuit brought by Murphy Aficionado, a former staffer who says his work on projects connected to Donda became a deeply troubling experience. A trial is currently scheduled for January, while a hearing on Ye’s motion is set for December 17. The case once again places the management of Ye’s various projects and his disputes with former staff members under public scrutiny.

Aficionado sued Ye in November 2024, alleging that his work as a Yeezy project manager became a “nightmare” after he was purportedly hired by Ye in late 2022 for $125 an hour. According to the lawsuit, Aficionado routinely worked around 70-hour weeks and sometimes slept at the office in order to meet Ye’s demands. One of the projects he was allegedly assigned involved a plan to relocate Donda Academy to a new site that he described as a “decrepit property,” despite the property allegedly lacking the necessary permits. The lawsuit also includes a text allegedly sent by Ye that read: “I need to pay you for your time.”

According to the allegations contained in the complaint, Aficionado was repeatedly exposed to what he described as bigoted and antisemitic remarks from Ye, as well as being yelled at and subjected to disparaging comments about his Filipino tattoos. One of the most notable allegations concerns an alleged conversation in which Ye reportedly said: “The Jews are out to get me. They froze my bank account. The Jews got Kim and my kids,” referring to Kim Kardashian, his former wife, and the children they share. These are allegations presented by Aficionado in his lawsuit, while Ye is now asking the court to resolve the case in his favor without a full trial.

In his new motion for summary judgment, Ye makes a fundamental argument: he claims Aficionado was never actually an employee of Yeezy. According to Ye’s side, Aficionado only taught a temporary, part-time engineering class at Donda Academy, and that job ended when the school shut down. Ye says Aficionado was paid $52 an hour for the teaching position and that the school’s principal never heard him complain about his working conditions. His filing states: “There was never any employment relationship between Yeezy and plaintiff. Plaintiff did not submit an employment application, receive an offer letter, there is no record of his onboarding, he has no personnel file, he was never provided an employee email account, he had no work schedule, or supervisory assignment.”

Ye’s argument also focuses heavily on the issue of evidence. According to the new filing, Aficionado’s discovery responses identify Ye as the person he claims harassed him but fail to describe specific incidents or identify a particular comment connecting the alleged conduct to a protected characteristic. Ye’s filing states: “Plaintiff’s sensational allegations in the complaint read more like material for tabloid headlines than a case supported by evidence.” The filing goes on to argue that when Aficionado was required to identify the facts supporting his claims under oath, he provided what Ye’s attorneys characterize as rote conclusions and vague assertions. The defense argues that Aficionado failed to identify any specific discriminatory comment, harassment incident, dated sequence connecting a complaint to an adverse decision, compensation rate or formation date for the alleged contract.

Aficionado’s attorneys had not immediately responded to requests for comment. Ye’s attorneys likewise did not respond to a request for additional comment. This means that the allegations contained in the lawsuit and Ye’s arguments in his latest filing currently stand as competing accounts, while the court has yet to issue a final ruling on the substance of the dispute. The central issue is the parties’ fundamentally different descriptions of their working relationship: Aficionado says he performed work connected to the Yeezy system and was subjected to a hostile working environment, while Ye denies that the employment relationship described in the lawsuit ever existed.

The lawsuit is also not the first time a former employee connected to Donda or Yeezy has made allegations about working conditions under Ye. Donda Academy became the focus of several other lawsuits in which former teachers and staff members accused the school of unsafe working conditions, wrongful termination, discrimination and other operational problems. The Los Angeles Times reported on several of those lawsuits and interviewed former employees who described an organization facing significant instability in its staffing and management. Ye has denied allegations raised in those cases.

Donda Academy itself was built around ambitions that extended far beyond those of an ordinary private school. The institution was named after Ye’s mother, Donda West, an educator who served as chair of the English department at Chicago State University and had an enormous influence on her son’s life. According to the Los Angeles Times, Ye envisioned Donda Academy as a place that could develop future leaders through creativity, independence and Christian faith. The school at one point had nearly 100 students, with tuition reportedly around $15,000 a year and scholarships available to some students. Students wore black Balenciaga uniforms designed by Ye and used Yeezy products.

That ambition, however, quickly encountered a series of problems. Former staff members alleged deficiencies involving safety and sanitation, including issues with electricity, hot water, waste systems and other aspects of the school’s facilities. A 2023 lawsuit filed by two former teachers also alleged that students were served only sushi for lunch and had to eat on the floor because the school had no dining tables, while staff members were allegedly restricted from using certain cleaning products containing chemicals. These claims were made in the former teachers’ lawsuit and have not all been independently established by a court.

A former assistant principal, Isaiah Meadows, also sued the school over allegations involving working conditions, wages and termination. In 2024, a judge entered a default judgment in Meadows’ case after the school failed to appear through a licensed attorney as required by the court. The Los Angeles Times reported at the time that there had been at least five lawsuits involving West and Donda Academy, with allegations including a hostile work environment, discrimination, antisemitism, retaliation and safety concerns.

For Aficionado, the Donda environment forms an important part of his account. In his lawsuit, he described meetings at the Beverly Hills Waldorf Astoria that he said left him deeply disturbed. During one alleged meeting in November 2022, Aficionado claims he encountered Bianca Censori, who was then Ye’s wife, topless inside a suite. According to the complaint, Aficionado attempted to leave but Ye allegedly ordered him to stay. He further alleges that Ye referred to a lawyer who had just left as “a Jewish spy,” before leaving Aficionado waiting while he had sex with Censori in a nearby bedroom. Aficionado also alleges that Ye later returned wearing a shirt bearing a swastika and asked: “Don’t you like my shirt?” These remain allegations contained in the lawsuit and are disputed.

The allegations surrounding Donda and Yeezy emerged during an especially turbulent period in Ye’s career. Beginning in late 2022, a series of antisemitic statements led major business partners to sever ties with him. Adidas was the most significant example. The company announced in October 2022 that it was ending its partnership with Ye immediately, stopping production of Yeezy products and ending payments to Ye and his companies. Adidas stated that it “does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech” and described Ye’s recent statements and actions as “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous.”

The collapse of the Adidas partnership was particularly significant because Yeezy had become one of the most important pillars of Ye’s business empire. The partnership began in the mid-2010s, and Yeezy sneakers quickly became a major force in sneaker culture. But following Ye’s controversial statements in 2022, Adidas, Gap, Balenciaga, CAA and other business partners either ended their relationships with him or took steps to distance themselves from him. Adidas also said that the decision could have a significant impact on the company’s short-term financial results.

Ye’s career before that period of upheaval was the story of one of the most influential figures in contemporary music and fashion. He began as a producer behind major hip-hop records in the early 2000s before establishing himself as a solo artist with The College Dropout. He followed it with albums including Late Registration, Graduation, 808s & Heartbreak, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy and Yeezus. At the same time, he expanded into fashion, design and business, transforming his personal name into a brand that extended well beyond music.

His private life has also spent years under intense media scrutiny, particularly his marriage to Kim Kardashian. The couple married in 2014 and had four children together. Kardashian filed for divorce in 2021, and the divorce was finalized in 2022. Their post-divorce disagreements over their children, privacy and Ye’s public behavior have repeatedly attracted attention. It was in one of the alleged statements cited by Aficionado in the current lawsuit that Ye reportedly mentioned Kardashian and their children, saying: “The Jews got Kim and my kids.”

After Kardashian, Ye married Bianca Censori in a relationship that attracted considerable attention because of the couple’s highly provocative fashion choices and public appearances. Censori has also appeared alongside Ye at numerous fashion and international events. Their relationship, like many aspects of Ye’s life, has frequently become the subject of entertainment coverage. However, the private details described in Aficionado’s lawsuit must be distinguished from information independently confirmed about the couple’s relationship.

Donda Academy ultimately failed to sustain its original ambitions. The school abruptly closed in late October 2022 as controversy surrounding Ye intensified, although it was reportedly reopened for a brief period afterward. In the years that followed, the school faced multiple lawsuits and a decline in enrollment. According to the Los Angeles Times, the student population fell from 82 to 36 during one period, while the school also faced questions surrounding records and its tax-exempt status. The California Department of Education confirmed that Donda Academy permanently closed in June 2024.

Aficionado’s lawsuit therefore forms part of a broader series of legal disputes surrounding Ye’s business and educational ventures. Before this case, Tony Saxon, a former worker at Ye’s Malibu mansion, also sued the artist. According to Rolling Stone, Saxon was awarded $140,000 following a trial in March over injuries he said he suffered while working at the $57 million property. The case demonstrated that employment disputes involving Ye extended beyond Donda Academy and continued into other areas of his business operations.

At the heart of the Aficionado case is the stark difference between the two sides’ accounts. One side maintains that there was a genuine employment relationship in which a worker was subjected to intense demands and alleged harassment and discrimination. The other argues that the employment relationship described in the lawsuit never existed and that the allegations lack the specific evidence necessary to support the claims. Ye is asking the court to resolve the matter through summary judgment rather than allowing the case to proceed to a full trial.

For Kanye West, the lawsuit comes at a time when new music and performances continue alongside legal disputes and controversies that have followed him for years. Two concerts planned in St. Petersburg, Russia, in October 2026 were also recently canceled following disputes involving the venue and the organizer. Reuters reported that organizers confirmed the cancellations, while controversy surrounding Ye’s previous statements continues to affect the organization of some of his international appearances.

The outcome of Murphy Aficionado’s lawsuit will ultimately depend on how the court evaluates the employment relationship, the available evidence and the specific allegations raised by both sides. While Ye wants the case ended at the summary-judgment stage, Aficionado continues to allege that his experience working with Ye went far beyond an ordinary disagreement between an employer and an employee. The December 17 hearing and the trial currently scheduled for January will be important next steps. For Ye, the dispute represents another legal chapter in a period of his career in which music, business, personal life and workplace litigation have increasingly become intertwined.