Ye is asking that judgment be entered in his favor in a lawsuit brought by a former Donda Academy employee who alleges the rapper often treated him in a disparate way because he is Black, causing him severe emotional distress.
Benjamin Deshon Provo’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit also names as defendants the academy and Ye’s company, Yeezy LLC. On Friday, Ye’s attorney filed court papers with Judge Kerry Bensinger, citing multiple defenses on behalf of the entertainer while asking that the plaintiff “take nothing by his complaint” and instead pay attorneys’ fees and costs to Ye.
Ye’s defenses include a violation of the statute of limitations, that the three defendants were “justified in doing any and/or all of the acts alleged in the complaint” and that the defendants did not “direct or ratify any alleged wrongful conduct.”
According to the complaint filed April 26, Provo was hired in August 2021 as a security guard at the academy.
“Kanye and members of his management team subjected Provo and other Black employees to less favorable treatment than their white counterparts,” according to the suit, which further alleges that Ye often screamed at the plaintiff.
Provo alleges West, 46, also chided him for styling his hair according to the plaintiff’s Muslim religion, forcing Provo to wrestle with maintaining his self-identity in the face of financial rise, the suit states.
Provo was eventually fired for not following Ye’s hair edict, the suit alleges.
In addition, Ye, now 46, banned books about such towering Black figures as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, the suit states.
A case management conference is scheduled Aug. 29.