Kanye West’s former business manager has sued the troubled rapper for $4.5 million.
Thomas St. John, the head of the TSJ international accounting firm, said that West wouldn’t pay 18 months’ worth of fees. West hired St. John as his business manager in March, and according to The Blast, St. John said that West wouldn’t pay the fees.
St. John said that when he asked West about the $300,000-per-month retainer fee, the rapper got “heated and aggressive” and started swearing at him.
The lawsuit states: ‘He screamed at Mr. St. John and made clear he no longer wanted to work with (St. John.)
‘When confronted by the 18-month commitment that had just been made, Mr. West stated words to the effect of ‘The 18-month term was bulls***’ and ‘You’re insane for even thinking I would stick to it.”
West’s lawyers at Greenberg Traurig, one of the biggest law firms in the world, said they would stop working with him because of the new lawsuit.
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, St. John got West to sign an 18-month contract as an “assurance that the defendants would not just walk away from the business relationship.”
But West did that, the accountant says, even though he only paid for the first three months of service.
The lawsuit says that West owed $900,000 as of October and will owe another $3.6 million by November 2023, when the 18-month contract was supposed to end.
TSJ said that it was excited to work with the rapper at first and had to turn down two other potential clients to work with Yeezy.
When DailyMail.com asked TSJ for a comment, they didn’t answer right away.
The break in business comes as West’s empire continues to fall apart because of his anti-Semitic comments. According to the Financial Times, Greenberg is about to drop West as a client.
‘We are taking steps in response to the reported remarks in accordance with ethical obligations and court rules,’ the Florida-based firm, which was founded by three Jewish men, said in a statement. ‘We condemn anti-Semitism and all hate speech or bigotry, which is repugnant to the core values we believe in and live.’
The Greenberg lawyers are currently defending West and his businesses in a civil suit brought by Ultra International Music Publishing in New York and a federal suit brought by performers from California who were hired to work on his 2019 Nebuchadnezzar opera.
In the New York suit, the publishing company says that West’s “Flowers” track on his 2022 album Donda 2, which samples a song written by Marshall Jefferson in 1986, violates their copyright.
In the California case, the performers said they didn’t get the minimum wage, overtime pay, or enough breaks when they worked on the opera at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles.
The future of West’s Donda Academy is still unknown after an email was sent to parents of students at the private Christian school just before midnight on Wednesday. The email said that the school would be “coming back with a vengeance.”
It was a big change from the message they had gotten from school officials just hours before.
On Wednesday, Academy Principal Jason Angell sent an email to parents telling them that the 45-year-old West had decided to close the school “immediately,” meaning that classes would stop on Thursday.
TMZ got a copy of an internal email from “Parents of Donda” that told a very different story.
‘Join us tomorrow morning in worship for the return of Donda Academy,’ the email read. With the help of our parents and community, we are back and returning with a vengeance!’
‘The children of Donda are going to change the world,’ the message added.’ Apologies for the late email! See you bright and early!’
It’s not clear if the school is reopening officially or if parents and teachers are continuing to teach their children on their own.
Reports say that teachers have quit their jobs at the school to get away from the troubled rapper.
Just two months after it opened in August, Donda Academy shut down and then suddenly opened again. Sources asked the school for a comment, but they didn’t answer.
The private pre-K through 12 school is named after West’s mother, Donda. It is in Simi Valley, just north of Los Angeles, and has a secret location. Each student pays $15,000 to go there. The Post says that about half of all students get financial aid or scholarships.
About 100 students go to this school, and 16 teachers work there. Parents sign an agreement not to tell anyone where the school is or anything else about it.
There are rumors that some famous people’s kids go to this school, like R&B singer Keyshia Cole’s son Daniel. The school is also known for its strong basketball team. Robert Dillingham, who is 17, plays for the school, and NBA players like Jaylen Brown of the Boston Celtics have visited the school.
Yesterday, the rapper was escorted out of Skechers’ headquarters because he showed up unannounced to promote his Yeezy brand. This was just one day after Adidas dropped him and Peloton banned his songs.
A statement from the company on Wednesday afternoon said that Ye was fired by two “executives.”
In a statement, Skechers said, “Because Ye was filming without permission, two Skechers executives walked him and his group out of the building after a short conversation.” Skechers is not interested in working with West and has no plans to do so.
‘We condemn his recent divisive remarks and do not tolerate anti-Semitism or any other form of hate speech. The Company would like to again stress that West showed up unannounced and uninvited to Skechers corporate offices.’
If West had met with Jewish Skechers executives Robert Greenberg, the CEO, and Michael Greenberg, the current President, he might have faced more opposition.
The rapper was kicked out of the shoe brand’s office just hours after Adidas said it would still sell Yeezy shoes without the rapper’s name on them.
Analysts say that management said they would sell the items under their own brand at the start of 2023.
Adidas ended its deal with rapper and designer Ye on Tuesday after fans complained about his recent anti-Semitic comments.
It put an end to the profitable partnership, which included royalties and other fees.
‘I can say anti-Semitic things and Adidas can’t drop me,’ Ye had previously stated.
Ye has lost a number of high-profile partnerships since making similar comments on social media, such as a tweet that said he would go “death con 3 on Jewish people.”
A few days ago, shoe store Foot Locker said, “We will not be supporting any future Yeezy product drops, and we have told our store employees to remove any existing Yeezy products from our shelves and digital sites.”
Even Christie’s, which was in charge of the private sale of a rare Nike Air Yeezy 1 prototype that West wore to the Grammys in 2008, has stopped the sale.
West was also dropped by Balenciaga, Creative Artists Agency, TJ Maxx, and Gap.
Forbes says that the end of Ye’s deal with Adidas has taken him out of the billionaire club.
Forbes estimates that Ye is now worth only $400 million. This comes from real estate, cash, his music catalog, and a 5 percent stake in Kim Kardashian’s shapewear company, Skims.
But as businesses all over the world cut ties with Ye, the music streaming service Spotify said it wouldn’t get rid of the rapper’s music unless his label asked it to.
Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify, said that the rapper’s recent anti-Semitic comments are “just awful” and that if they had been on a podcast or recording, they would have been grounds for removing the artist from Spotify for breaking its rules.
But the music of the artist now known as Ye doesn’t break any anti-hate rules, and you can’t find any anti-Semitic comments he’s made on the music streaming service.
‘It’s really just his music, and his music doesn’t violate our policy,’ said Ek, adding, ‘It’s up to his label, if they want to take action or not.’
Universal Music’s Def Jam label, which owned the rights to West’s recordings from 2002 to 2016 and kept putting them out until last year, condemned Ye’s comments. It said: ‘There is no place for anti-Semitism in our society’.
But the label hasn’t asked for Ye’s recordings to be taken down, even though many of them are well-liked by critics.
