Kanye West Faces New Lawsuit Alleging Unpaid Production Work

Kanye West is facing yet another lawsuit accusing him of mistreating a musician who worked with him, this time from a freelance producer suing anonymously as a John Doe. The producer alleges that West, who now goes by Ye, brought him on for emergency work to help finish the album "Vultures 2" and later enlisted him for additional contributions to "Bully," only to withhold payment for either project.

According to the lawsuit, the producer says he answered an urgent request for help from Ye and his Yeezy label, but despite nearly two years of repeated demands for payment, the defendants have refused to compensate him for his work, failed to provide the written contracts required by law, and declined to credit him on digital streaming platforms for his creative contributions to the music.

The complaint states that Ye brought the producer on board on August 1, 2024, just two days before "Vultures 2" hit streaming services. The producer claims he performed extensive vocal production work under extreme time pressure during that brief window, ultimately creating at least 13 custom AI voice models and more than 400 individual vocal generations, some built using source material recorded in his own voice. He alleges that his contributions appear on at least five tracks from the album.

The producer says his involvement didn't end there. He alleges he began working on "Bully" the following October, again producing AI-generated vocal work and even co-writing on two tracks with other artists that were later released commercially. Across both projects, the lawsuit claims, his creative input helped shape songs that reached a wide audience without him receiving proper credit or pay.

Notably, the complaint alleges that Ye and Yeezy did not deny the producer's involvement, and in fact acknowledged his work at one point, telling him that streaming platforms would be updated to reflect his contributions. The defendants later offered him what the lawsuit describes as a master buyout, though the complaint, filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, suggests that offer did not resolve the underlying payment dispute.

The lawsuit brings claims for breach of contract and unjust enrichment, along with alleged violations of state and local laws designed to protect freelance workers, as well as California's Unfair Competition Law. The producer is seeking at least $110,000 in compensatory damages tied to seven commercially released tracks, and is also pursuing double damages under the Los Angeles Freelance Worker Protections Ordinance.

This is far from the first time Ye has faced accusations of mistreating a collaborator. Just this past May, he lost a copyright trial connected to an uncleared sample used in his Grammy-winning song "Hurricane." In that case, a jury determined that Ye had infringed on the copyright by using an unreleased sample in an early version of the track, which was played for roughly 40,000 fans at a sold-out Donda listening event before the song's official release.

Beyond that, Ye has been named in more than a dozen separate copyright infringement lawsuits over the years and faced a wave of legal action from former staffers following his October 2022 social media outburst, during which he posted a widely condemned message threatening Jewish people. Just last month, he reached a settlement with former assistant Lauren Pisciotta, who had accused him of sexual assault, sex trafficking, and wrongful termination.

During his recent testimony in the "Hurricane" copyright trial, Ye told jurors he considers himself especially generous toward the people he works with, saying he takes pride in making sure people get what they deserve.