For the second time this year, a judge has ordered Ye to undergo a deposition in a lawsuit filed by a former employee of Donda Academy who alleges that the singer formerly known as Kanye West praised Adolf Hitler and called him an innovator.
Trevor Phillips says in his Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that when he objected to the alleged bigotry in his work environment, Ye harassed and humiliated him. Phillips said he was assigned to oversee projects related to growing cotton and other plants and that Ye treated Black employees more negatively than white workers.
On Tuesday, Judge Thomas D. Long directed Ye to appear for a deposition and pay $4,750 in sanctions to Phillips, all within 30 days. The judge had issued his first deposition order to Ye on Feb. 20, but Phillips’ attorneys maintained that the rapper refused for months to sit for the session unless they agreed to a “custom protective order” that included a $50,000 liquidated damages clause.
Phillips’ lawyers responded that they would agree to a standard protective order.
In the suit filed in April 2024, Phillips, who is Black like Ye, says that when he was hired in 2022 he was at first thrilled to be working for one of the most famous artists of his generation and saw the rapper not only as a boss but as an inspiration who represented the possibilities of what a Black man could accomplish in the U.S.
But just a few weeks prior to Phillips’ hiring, Kanye had gone with a flurry of assaults and threats to Jewish people, according to the suit, which further alleges that the plaintiff became a target when he resisted the singer’s repeated bigotry.
In a rant, Ye said, “Hitler was great. Hitler was an innovator. He invented so many things. He’s the reason we have cars,” according to the suit.
Phillips alleges Ye, 48, once told students at Donda Academy that he was going to put a jail at the school where they could be locked in cages and that the rapper frequently uttered hateful, antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+ statements that students could hear.
Phillips says Ye told him in a text in 2023 that he was fired. The suit also names as defendants Ye’s clothing line, Yeezy LLC, and the Donda Academy.