Attorneys for a former Donda Academy employee who alleges in a lawsuit that Ye often treated him in a disparate way have notified a judge that the rapper has not filed any opposition papers to multiple motions, including one asking that Ye sit for a deposition.
Benjamin Deshon Provo’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit also names as defendants Ye’s academy as well as his company, Yeezy LLC. In court papers filed Thursday with Judge Kerry Bensinger, Provo’s lawyers maintain that Ye, who has been representing himself since attorney Brian Brumfield withdrew from the case last August, has not indicated he intends to file oppositions to any of the motions and that therefore they should be deemed granted.
The other motions include demands for written responses to questions and the production of documents. A hearing on the motions is scheduled Wednesday.
According to the complaint filed last April 26, Provo was hired in August 2021 as a security guard at the academy founded by Ye, formerly known as Kanye West.
“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 Ye, 47, 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.
Provo was eventually fired for not following Ye’s hair edict, the suit alleges.
In addition, Ye, now 46, banned books about such famous Black civil rights figures as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, the suit states.
In previous court papers, Ye’s former attorney cited 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 the singer.
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.”