He appeared close to adding more Z’s to the Yeezy as he appeared at a trial on Friday testified about his former Malibu mansion.
Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom and yawned repeatedly, closed his eyes for long stretches and at times appeared to catch his head as if he was dozing on the witness stand. In a monotone voice, he responded, “I don’t remember that,” to dozens of questions about the architecturally significant Malibu home he bought for $57 million in 2021 and later sold at a significant loss.
The sleepy appearance drew stares from spectators in the courtroom. Ron Zambrano, plaintiff Tony Saxon’s attorney, even turned around at one point and mouthed the words “Is he sleeping?” for a colleague. The judge also seemed to notice and asked Zambrano to move things “a little faster” in the afternoon session.
Exhausted on the witness stand
After a particularly long pause with his eyes seemingly closed, Ye asked Zambrano to repeat a question. The court clerk read it: “When you hired Saxon, were you aware that you had hired Saxon to carry out your vision for the Ando House?”
“Please ask the question again,” Ye said. The scribe repeated her. “Yes,” replied Ye – visibly exhausted.
The muted statement came just over a month after he took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal apologizing for anti-Semitic remarks. “I am not asking for sympathy or a free pass, even as I strive to earn your forgiveness,” Ye wrote in the apology released Jan. 26. “I am writing today simply to ask for your patience and understanding as I find my way home.”
Lawsuit for renovation work
The trial, now in its second week in Los Angeles, centers on allegations that Ye hired Saxon as a construction project manager and around-the-clock security guard at the Ando House, but then misclassified him and treated him poorly. Saxon, 35, claims he was ordered to remove all plumbing, electrical, plumbing and toilets from the home, as well as demolishing a bricked-in concrete Jacuzzi and a massive fireplace with 30-foot stainless steel flues. Saxon says he suffered serious neck and back injuries and was later fired when he raised safety concerns.
According to Saxon, Ye knew he was not a licensed contractor and failed to obtain accident insurance. He is asking the jury to find Ye liable not only for unpaid wages, but also for damages related to his hospital costs, loss of income and emotional distress.
Ye’s lawyers, however, have argued that Saxon was an independent contractor who was hired to do “renovation prep work” but instead “destroyed the Ando house.” They claim no one asked Saxon to sleep in a makeshift cot in the house he posted on social media.
Employer or not?
During questioning on Friday, Ye was confronted with a statement he made in a deposition last August. “You don’t deny that you were his employer,” Zambrano asked him in the video shown to the jury. “No, I don’t deny that,” Ye replied. At that point, Zambrano referred to the music mogul as “Mr. Ye” in a follow-up question. “It’s just Ye, not Mr.” Ye corrected him. Zambrano apologized and said he did not mean to offend.
When asked about his plans for remodeling the Ando House, Ye said it was true that he wanted to remove all plumbing, demolish a fireplace and renovate the kitchen. He couldn’t remember whether he ordered the Jacuzzi to be removed.
“Do you remember telling Mr. Saxon to turn all the stairs into a slide?” Zambrano asked.
Just a staircase as a slide
“Not all stairs,” Ye replied. Just a flight of stairs, he corrected the lawyer. He said his overall plan was to “simplify” the house. He wanted to live there “sometimes” as a bachelor. “I was in the middle of a divorce,” he testified. As the questions turned to text messages and bank receipts, he sat with his eyes closed while Zambrano leafed through a folder inches away. Saxon sat at the plaintiff’s table, staring blankly at a screen.
“Like all of us, Tony is not perfect. Like all of us, he has flaws. But he is intensely loyal, intensely hardworking. He shows up and works hard. And he is bipolar. He experiences extreme highs and deep lows,” Zambrano told the jury in opening statements. In his most recent apology, Ye attributed his anti-Semitic behavior to untreated bipolar disorder, saying it was caused by a brain injury he suffered in a car accident in 2002.
Saxon’s lawsuit is the first in a wave of civil complaints filed over the past six years by former employees and collaborators that will now be heard by a jury. Ye, 48, has faced more than a dozen lawsuits since a social media tirade in October 2022 in which he tweeted his now infamous plan to achieve “death con 3 ON JEWISH PEOPLE.”
Wave of lawsuits against Ye
Weeks later, ROLLING STONE published an investigation into the alleged “toxic” work environment at his Yeezy label, where Ye allegedly told an employee that “skinheads and Nazis were his biggest inspiration.” Ye later apologized in an Instagram post written in Hebrew, but again promoted anti-Semitic ideology by wearing a T-shirt for Norwegian metal musician Burzum, who was fined for anti-Semitism.
Last year, Ye again posted provocative messages on X, formerly Twitter, writing “IM A NAZI” and “I LOVE HITLER.” A few days later, he aired a Super Bowl commercial promoting Yeezy.com, where he later sold shirts with swastikas. Last May, he released a single titled “Heil Hitler,” which was quickly removed from most digital streaming services.
Ye’s statement followed the appearance a day earlier of his wife Bianca Censori, who was questioned about text messages she exchanged with Saxon in late 2021. In one exchange, Saxon wrote: “My back is so fucked.” Censori replied: “Chill then for sure and come in tomorrow.”
Ye eventually sold the Ando home in September 2024 for $21 million. Buyer Steve “Bo” Belmont told the Los Angeles Times that he plans to restore the architectural monument “as if Kanye had never been there.”
