Kanye West Plays 'Negative Media' Card In Legal Battle With Ex-Caretaker Amid His Diddy Rants

Yahoo

11-02-2025

Kanye "Ye" West is playing the victim card in his ongoing lawsuit with a former employee, blaming his ruined image for a lack of legal representation.
The rapper, famous for his controversial views and antisemitic rants, recently filed a motion to postpone an upcoming hearing in the discrimination lawsuit. Ye's former caretaker sued him over his infamous "bomb shelter" Malibu pad in September 2023.
Although he initially had an attorney fighting the claims against him, Kanye "Ye" West's alleged uncooperative behavior sent the man running. However, the Yeezy founder sang a different tune in his new motion, arguing that the media's poor representation of his image had ruined his relationships with lawyers.
According to new legal documents filed by his lawyer, Manoj Shah, the "Carnival" rapper attempted to sway the court in his favor on Friday, February 7. He requested the postponement of his upcoming February 24 trial date to at least August or "the next available date thereafter."
Ye stressed that his initial legal rep, Brian Brumfield, had withdrawn from the case in July 2024, months after the discrimination lawsuit was filed. At the time, the attorney told the court:
"[Ye] terminated relationship on 6/21/2024. [Ye] also will not speak to counsel, and [Ye] refuses to pay counsel as well."
However, in his motion for a new trial date, Ye shared a different story. Instead of owning up to his controversial social media rants that got him banned and repeatedly trashed online, the entertainer played the media for portraying him as a villain. His argument, per In Touch, read:
"[Defendants] faced extreme hardship and difficulty retaining litigation counsel due to exceedingly negative media coverage of Defendants."
According to his new legal rep, Ye desperately tried to retain another attorney to no avail after the first lawyer left the picture. He allegedly interviewed 8-10 national, regional, and local defense litigation firms for representation in the discrimination lawsuit and other active cases.
Ye eventually retained Shah and recently hired another lawyer named Eduardo Martorell, who has since become lead counsel in several pending cases against him. On that note, the rapper pleaded with the court for time to allow his new lead lawyer to prepare for the case.
Shah noted Martorell was willing to take the discrimination case "only if this court is able to continue to the trial date, and all related deadlines and cut-off dates."
If the trial gets postponed, the new rep shall represent Ye and his wife, Bianca Censori, who was dragged into the legal drama last week as a potential witness.
In the discrimination lawsuit, Ye's former employee, Tony Saxon, sued him over his working experience from September to November 2021. He was the caretaker for the rapper's former Malibu property and oversaw the alleged dangerous renovations to transform the home into an old-school bomb shelter.
"We were going to be gutting all of that out and sort of building him a Bat Cave," the former employee claimed, per The Blast, stressing that Ye wanted a place to "hide from the Clintons and the Kardashians."
However, the entertainer's vision for the home left it gutted without good electricity and plumbing. Saxon's allegations continued:
"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.'"
Besides getting hit with a discrimination lawsuit, Ye was forced to sell his gutted Malibu home at a $32 million loss. He initially listed the destroyed Tadao Ando-designed beachside home for $53 million but had to make multiple price cuts to attract buyers.
The deteriorated property was sold for $21 million late last year to Belwood Investments, a "real estate crowdfunding firm" based in California. The company's CEO, Bo Belmont, noted they would splurge more money to fix the damages Ye made in his attempt to build a bomb shelter.
Belmont estimated the firm would spend an additional $5 million on repairs and hopefully return the home to Ando's original design. Ye purchased the eye-catching 4,000 square feet home with its stunning ocean view for $57 million in 2021.
Following his motion for a new trial date, Ye went on his infamous social media spiral, spewing antisemitic tweets on X. The Blast shared that he shockingly identified himself as a Nazi and dropped multiple misogynistic and racist remarks before uploading adult content.
The NSFW posts caught Elon Musk's attention, and he assured X users they would no longer be able to view Ye's unsolicited content.
Surprisingly, the rapper willingly chose to leave the platform and thanked the billionaire for allowing him to share his views before quitting. Ye's controversial comments came amid his continued support for the incarcerated Diddy.
He doubled down on his plea to release the disgraced music mogul, labeling him his "twin" and also imploring President Donald Trump to release the latter from the notorious Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
What will Kanye "Ye" West do next?