Why Kanye West’s Former Project Manager Has Dragged Him To Court
The former project manager of Kanye West’s $57 million home in Malibu is suing him for, among other things, not meeting some of his demands.
According to NBC News, 32-year-old Tony Saxon sued Ye on September 13 after being let go because he wouldn’t take down all of his property’s wiring and windows.
After working for him for around two months, Ye allegedly fired Saxon on November 5, 2021, for refusing to comply with his “dangerous” demands. Saxon, who was also the property’s security guard, reportedly received a “get the hell out” command from Kanye West after refusing to bring heavy generators inside the house.
The suit read: “When Plaintiff refused to engage in unlawful conduct or to engage in activity that would further cause him physical injury, Mr. Ye responded: ‘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 complaint said he also told him he would be “considered an enemy if he did not comply.” Saxon claimed Kanye West promised to give him $20,000 per week in payments, but he only got them twice to cover his wage and the project’s expenses.
“I always had his best interest in mind as a friend,” Saxon said, comparing his refusal to stopping a friend from drunk driving. “They get really mad at you that you overstepped your boundaries, but still, they could have gotten really hurt.”
The lawsuit alleged violations of labor codes, including dangerous working conditions, unpaid wages and wrongful retaliatory termination.
Saxon said Kanye’s plan for the property was to make it like “a bomb shelter from the 1910s” by removing the custom marble bathrooms, custom windows, plumbing, and electricity, as well as replacing the stairs with slides.
“We were going to be gutting all of that out and sort of building him a Bat Cave” where he said he could “hide from the Clintons in and the Kardashians in,” Saxon said, believing the property was just an art project. “As we progress, it’s becoming clear that, no, he wants to live in here.”
Saxon said Ye “wanted no electricity. He only wanted plants. He only wanted candles. He only wanted battery lights. And he just wanted to have everything open and dark. You can’t keep food in that house, because you had no refrigerator left. You had no windows. I had seagulls flying in.”
Kanye West apparently didn’t want to be a “slave” to modern conveniences or be “accessible” to the government.
“He wants to be on a privatized Wi-Fi network,” Saxon said. “He wants to have an alternate source of energy. He wants to have no doors, no windows, no fixtures, just concrete.”
The living and sleeping circumstances were “miserable,” according to Saxon, who also claimed that Ye was inattentive to his complaints. He allegedly got the boot three days after complaining about a bad back in a meeting where the rap mogul told him to turn off the lights and open the windows.
