Ever since Kanye West went on an abhorrent antisemitic tirade in fall 2022 — which cost him his billionaire status and lucrative partnerships with Adidas and Gap — the Grammy winner has been fighting off an ever-growing list of lawsuits.
The 47-year-old, who changed his name to Ye, has been sued more than two dozen times by former Yeezy employees, teachers at his failed Donda Academy, musicians claiming sampling disputes and two models who alleged he sexually assaulted them.
Some suits — including from Donna Summer’s estate and his former manager — have been quickly and quietly settled. But at least a dozen lawsuits are still in active litigation, as West claimed that all the “negative media coverage” around him has led to “extreme hardship and difficulty retaining litigation counsel.”
Here are all the ongoing cases West is currently facing:
Sexual Assault Accusations
West’s former assistant Lauren Pisciotta claimed in a bombshell lawsuit against her former boss that she was drugged before West allegedly sexually assaulted her during a studio session hosted by Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Pisciotta claimed she had been working as a successful OnlyFans model before West convinced her to start working for him in 2021, paying her an annual salary of $1 million. Throughout her employment, Pisciotta alleged West would send her explicit messages, masturbate while on the phone with her, and once masturbated in front of her during a flight to Paris. Pisciotta claimed she was unfairly fired in October 2022, and although she agreed to a $3 million severance package, West never paid.
Attorneys for West responded to Pisciotta’s complaint in February, saying they had never received service of the lawsuit. Meanwhile, West has been making disparaging comments about Pisciotta on social media. A hearing is scheduled for March.
Former America’s Next Top Model contestant Jennifer An sued West in February under New York City’s Gender Motivated Violence Act. An claimed West choked her and shoved his fingers down her throat while filming a La Roux music video in 2010. Calling the act “pornographic gagging,” An claimed that West was trying to “emulate forced oral sex” and reportedly screamed, “This is art. This is fucking art. I am like Picasso.”
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She originally filed a version of the lawsuit last November before dismissing her complaint in January. The new complaint includes two new defendants, in addition to Universal Music Group. West has yet to respond to An’s allegation.
Antisemitism and Racial Discrimination Claims
Four people who worked for West claimed they were unfairly treated and discriminated against because of their race and/or religion.
A woman using a Jane Doe pseudonym sued West in February, claiming West targeted her because she’s Jewish and frequently referred to himself as Hitler and a Nazi. After working for West for six months, Doe claimed he suddenly went on an expletive-filled rant against her in June 2024. “Now what you gonna do,” West allegedly texted her. “Come ‘destroy me bitch.’ Hail Hitler.” Doe claimed she reported West’s offensive behavior to her manager and was fired the next day.
Yeezy project manager Murphy Aficionado claimed in a November lawsuit that West made discriminatory comments about his Filipino background, calling his cultural tattoos “ugly.” Aficionado claimed that West once wore a Swastika T-shirt around him, frequently made antisemitic comments, and called someone a “Jewish spy.” Aficionado also alleged he was once instructed to sit outside a room while West and his wife Bianca Censori had loud sex, making him feel extremely uncomfortable.
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Trevor Phillips filed a discrimination and retaliation lawsuit last April, claiming West gave preferential treatment to white employees. From the start of his nine-month employment in November 2022, Phillips, who is Black, says it was “immediately apparent” that West “treated the Black staff considerably worse than white employees” and would “scream and berate Black employees, while never even as much raising his tone at the white staff.”
Benjamin Deshon Provo, who is Black, filed a similar suit in October. Throughout his employment as a security guard for Donda Academy in 2021, Provo claimed West and his team subjected him “to less favorable treatment than [his] white counterparts” and “regularly expressed negative beliefs associated with prominent Black leaders.” Provo claimed he was fired because he refused West’s demand to cut off his dreadlocks, which had ties to his Muslim faith.
An attorney for West largely denied the allegations brought by Provo, Phillips and Aficionado as their cases move ahead in California court. Earlier this month, a judge sanctioned West for dragging his feet in responding to Phillips’ lawsuit.
Donda Academy Teachers
In 2022, West opened his own school, Donda Academy. The private Christian school seemed promising, with an all-star basketball team, a choir program that funneled into West’s Sunday Services and a forward-thinking curriculum that included parkour classes. But the school was secretive. A Rolling Stone investigation learned that Donda had no accreditation, its then-28-year-old principal had no formal background in education and families had been asked to sign nondisclosure agreements. After West went on a series of antisemitic rants in fall 2022, Donda became collateral damage with families pulling their children out and several teachers leaving.
By spring 2023, several educators and workers affiliated with the school began filing lawsuits against West. The first lawsuits came from former Donda teachers Cecilia Hailey and Chekarey Byers, who claimed students were “at least two years behind.” While the school was splurging $10,000 a week on sushi for students, they claimed teachers weren’t receiving their paychecks on time. They alleged they were unfairly fired after reporting their concerns to Donda leadership.
Assistant principal Isaiah Meadows and teacher Timanii Meeks also filed lawsuits that year. Their complaints offered more details into the chaotic inner workings of the school, including allegations that West banned crossword puzzles and coloring sheets, forbade the use of hard chairs, and insisted all classes be held on the first floor because he was “reportedly afraid of stairs.” They also claimed they were abruptly fired.
Their lawsuits are scheduled to go to trial in April, though West has largely been a no-show in the proceedings. A new attorney for West appeared in Meadows’ case in February, claiming all the “negative media coverage” around West has led to “extreme hardship and difficulty retaining litigation counsel.”
Overall shows the Donda Academy on Nordoff Pl. in Chatsworth, a private school founded by the artist formerly known as Kanye West.
Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
Former Yeezy Employees
Nearly a dozen people who worked for Yeezy have sued West over the past three years, alleging they were bullied, stiffed out of payments, endured a hostile work environment and observed West’s alleged “erratic behavior” during their employment.
A group of eight former staffers sued West in July over their work developing a streaming service app in the runup to the release of Vultures 2. During their employment, they claim they were called “slaves” and were routinely exposed to pornographic material, despite some of the workers being as young as 14. “No guardrails were put in place to prevent the underage YZYVSN workers from working on Yeezy Porn, or to prevent them from being exposed to and being forced to view pornography to perform their work,” their lawsuit claimed.
One former employee — who described himself as a “fixer” for West — claimed in an October lawsuit that he was asked to investigate the rapper’s Kardashian in-laws and hired private investigators to trail West’s wife, Bianca Censori.
West has denied their accusations.
Music Disputes
West is facing at least three different lawsuits in California, Louisiana and Tennessee over copyright infringement claims and sampling disputes.
Four Grammy-winning artists accused West of “stealing” work they created without proper payment or approval in a lawsuit filed last July. DJ Khalil, Sam Barsh, Dan Seeff and Josh Mease claim West tried to secure the clearances to works they created in 2018, but after they rejected his request, the rapper “decided to steal it and continue to use it without permission.” They claim their work is heavily featured in both “Hurricane” and “Moon” on Donda.
West’s attorney, Eduardo Martorell, generally denied the lawsuit’s claims and a jury trial is scheduled for April 2026.
Tennessee artists Criminal Manne and DJ Squeeky — real names Vanda Watkins and Hayward Ivy, respectively — sued West last November for at least $150,000 in damages after they claimed he downloaded their song “Drink a Yak (Part 2)” and incorporated it into “Fuk Sumn” on Vultures 1. Although West has not formally responded to the lawsuit, a trial date is set for the end of February.
In Louisiana, West was hit with a lawsuit from Trax Records in November 2022. Representing Chicago musician Marshall Jefferson, Trax Records claimed West’s song “Flowers” from Donda 2 uses an unauthorized sample from Jefferson’s song “Move Your Body” aka “The House Music Anthem” at least 22 times. West recently missed the deadline to respond to the complaint, prompting a default in the case in early February.
And up until last May, West was facing a fourth lawsuit from disco queen Donna Summer’s estate over his alleged “blatant theft” of “I Feel Love” for the Vultures 1 track “Good (Don’t Die).” West was accused of re-recording and using the “memorable portions” of the song after Summer’s estate declined the usage due to “West’s controversial history.” The parties eventually settled.
Non-Payment Claims
Composer Willie Alexander claimed he lost out on tens of thousands of dollars pertaining to writing, composing and helping score West’s opera Nebuchadnezzar in November 2019. Alexander claimed “he was being asked to assume the role of ‘creative director’ and write an entire operatic composition in three days for a performance scheduled in four days.” Alexander claimed he was also tapped to write for other opera projects that West was pursuing, but alleges he was convinced to accept much lower rates. West has not yet formally responded to his lawsuit.
Two people who worked at West’s since-abandoned $57 million Malibu property — Tony Saxon and Jonathan Monroe — claim they were never paid for their work. Both claim they were fired after mentioning the alleged non-payment and attempting to push back on some of West’s demands.
“He goes, ‘If you don’t do what I asked you to do, you’re a Clinton. You’re a Kardashian. You’re an enemy and I’m not going to be a friend anymore. I’m not going to provide you with an opportunity anymore. You’re only going to see me on TV,’” Saxon told Rolling Stone in September 2023. “I said to him, ‘I don’t watch TV’ and he said, ‘Get the fuck out.’ And that was it.”
Their cases are ongoing.
