In a complaint filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, a former project manager and property manager for Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, claimed Ye fired him for refusing to pull down all of the windows with electricity from his Malibu home.
According to the lawsuit, which Tony Saxon’s legal team supplied to NBC News, Ye ordered him to “get the hell out” and warned him that he would be “considered an enemy if he did not comply” after he objected to Tony Saxon moving massive generators into the house.
“When Plaintiff refused to engage in illegal activity or activity that would further harm him physically, Mr. Ye retaliated by saying, “If you don’t do what I say, you’re not going to work for me, I’m not gonna be your friend anymore, and you’ll just see me on TV,” the lawsuit claims, adding that Saxon informed him he doesn’t watch TV.
On November 5, 2021, Ye fired Saxon, who was also employed by him at the property as a security guard and caretaker, for refusing to comply with his “dangerous” demands, according to the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Saxon, who worked for Ye for around two months, said that although Ye agreed to pay him $20,000 per week, he actually only made two payments: one to cover his weekly compensation and the other to cover the project’s budget.
Saxon, 32, claimed in an interview that he always had his best interests in mind as a friend and likened the circumstances that led to his firing to intervening to prevent a friend from getting behind the wheel after drinking.
“They get really angry at you because you crossed the line, but they could have been seriously hurt,” he said.
Legal information
Multiple labor code breaches are alleged in the case, including unsafe working conditions, underpaid wages, and unfair firing in retaliation.
In a statement explaining the claims in the case, Saxon’s attorney Ron Zambrano claimed Ye had demonstrated a reckless disdain for his employees and had broken the law in incredibly risky ways during this entire project at the Malibu property.
He keeps on his behavior of neglecting to pay his debts and abusing his employees. Ye exhibited no concern and only wanted the task done despite the risky and unsafe, not to mention illegal, acts he was trying to push the plaintiff to execute, Zambrano claimed. No employee should have to endure the kind of working conditions Mr. Saxon was made to undergo.
attorneys for When contacted for comment, Ye was slow to respond.
Constructing him a bat cave
Saxon claimed to be a master of all trades with experience in music, architecture, and building. He claimed to have been hired through a referral.
Saxon claimed that Ye’s plan for the Tadao Ando-designed beach house, which he is said to have purchased in September 2021 in an off-market transaction, was to turn it into “a bomb shelter from the 1910s” by tearing out the custom marble bathrooms, ripping out the custom windows, plumbing, and electricity, and installing slides in place of the stairs.
Saxon said: “We were going to begin gutting all of that and then sort of building him a Bat Cave” where he said he could “hide from the Clintons and the Kardashians in,” adding that at first, he thought Ye wanted to create an “art project” – not a place to live.
It’s becoming more and more obvious that “no, he wants to live in here,” he added.
Ye, though, “wanted no electricity. He was primarily interested in flora. He was just interested in candles. He was only interested in battery-operated lighting. And all he wanted was for things to be open and dark,” Saxon added.
Since you had no refrigerator left, you couldn’t keep food in that home, he stated. You lacked any windows. Seagulls were flying in.
Neither Ye wanted to be “accessible” to the government nor a “slave” to contemporary conveniences, according to Saxon.
He wants access to a private Wi-Fi network, according to Saxon. “He wants to have a different energy source. He only wants concrete, not any windows, doors, or other fixtures.
After filing complaints, fired
Saxon, who claimed to have lived and slept inside the house while he was working on it, called the conditions “miserable” and said Ye had been oblivious to his complaints.
In a team meeting where Saxon reportedly complained about a serious back injury, Ye allegedly instructed Saxon to turn off the electricity and the windows, according to the complaint. Three days later, Ye fired Saxon.
I physically couldn’t do anymore jobs like that, Saxon remarked, adding, “Hopefully we can bury the hatchet.” “My back and neck have been totally destroyed.”
The same lawyers who are suing Ye for claims related to his private Christian school, Donda Academy, along with its predecessor, Yeezy Christian Academy, also filed the case on Wednesday.
Two former Donda teachers claimed a long list of peculiar regulations, including bans on seats, wall art, mounting stairs, and outside food, in a lawsuit filed in April. Sushi was the sole offering on the school menu, according to the lawsuit.
In spite of a bullying issue, the teachers portrayed a school without a disciplinary structure. In a different lawsuit, the former assistant principal said that when the school first opened in August 2021, it lacked electricity and had glass in its windows. Instead, lessons were given using generators.
In April 2025, the teachers’ trial is expected to get underway. Lawyers representing the school and Ye have refuted the accusations, with one claiming that the instructors’ statements that “Donda Academy is a dystopian institution intended to satisfy Ye’s idiosyncrasies” were untrue.
After his songs were released on Instagram and X by unknown users, Ye filed a lawsuit last week. The leaks amount to theft of a trade secret, according to the complaint made by Ye’s attorneys and filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.