Kanye West is being sued $7.1million (£6million) by an LA production company over claims of unpaid fees for a series of events.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed yesterday (July 14) at Los Angeles County’s Superior Court, West and his team owe Phantom Labs for fees on his ‘Donda 2’ livestream earlier this year, his cancelled Coachella 2022 appearance, last year’s ‘Free Larry Hoover’ concert with Drake, a number of his Sunday Services and the rapper’s studio spaces, reports Variety.
The company alleges that, as the unpaid bills began piling up from multiple projects, it was assured that everything would be paid up once the rapper now known as Ye, collected a reported $9million (£7.6million) fee for appearing at Coachella.
When West pulled out of that appearance with weeks to spare, the company said it was on the hook not just for the millions already owed for past collaborations but for money it had also paid other vendors for the cancelled festival appearance.
The rapper allegedly hired Phantom Labs in October 2021 to “run a renovation project” at a Los Angeles warehouse West was converting into an office and creative space. The rapper also allegedly hired the company to produce four consecutive Sunday Service events in November of that year. Phantom Labs claims that it has not been paid for either project.
The company was also reportedly involved in the production of West’s ‘Donda 2’ livestream party in Miami this year, for which it claims that it was owed $2.2million (£1.9million). Additionally, Phantom Labs claims it was hit with over $1million (£840,000) in cancellation fees after West pulled out of his headlining Coachella set in early April of this year.
“We are incredibly proud of the work that we did with Ye and are disappointed that such a fruitful relationship has come to this,” a spokesperson for Phantom Labs said in a statement, (via Variety). “A celebrity weaponising fame and reputation to take advantage of eager collaborators is simply unacceptable.”
NME has reached out to West’s publicist for comment.
The latest court case comes after the rapper was accused of failing to return several rare, archival pieces of fashion in a six-figure lawsuit earlier this month.
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