{"id":448094,"date":"2026-02-27T07:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T07:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/448094\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T07:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T07:24:13","slug":"kanye-west-allegedly-told-man-you-cant-leave-and-ordered-him-to-live-in-beach-house-during-demolition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/448094\/","title":{"rendered":"Kanye West allegedly told man “you can’t leave” and ordered him to live in beach house during demolition"},"content":{"rendered":"

The man suing Kanye West\u00a0<\/a>over injuries he allegedly sustained during the demolition of the rapper\u2019s Malibu beach house testified in court yesterday (Wednesday February 25), claiming Ye told him that he wasn\u2019t allowed to leave the property.<\/p>\n

Tony Saxon, who is an ex-employee of Ye, took legal action against the star in 2023<\/a>. He claimed that he was owed $1million (\u00a3800,000) in unpaid wages and loss of earnings after working as a project manager, full-time security, and live-in caretaker at the mansion.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:\u00a0\u2018Donda 2\u2019: Kanye West\u2019s ego is scuppering these half-baked, dashed-off sounding songs<\/a><\/p>\n

The lawsuit filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court alleged that the \u2018Donda\u2019<\/a> artist unlawfully fired Saxon after he refused to comply with Ye\u2019s \u201cdangerous\u201d demands.<\/p>\n

Per the complaint, Saxon also severely injured his back while working for West. However, his requests for time off were allegedly ignored by the rapper.<\/p>\n

As Rolling Stone<\/a> reports, Saxon\u2019s testimony yesterday included the claim that Ye had ordered him to live at the house full-time. He was allegedly told by West: \u201cYou can\u2019t leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

When discussing one particular evening, Saxon recalled West looking over him while he was in bed in the early hours. \u201cHe stood over me and asked, \u2018Why are you not working?\u2019\u201d said Saxon. \u201cIt was like three or four in the morning. I said, \u2018I have to sleep sometime\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he didn\u2019t know how to respond to Ye\u2019s question, adding that the rapper had \u201cchuckled\u201d at his reply.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old testified that he had developed a friendly back-and-forth with West, and had worked for him for six weeks from September 2021. Ye is said to have bought the property for $57.3million earlier that same year.<\/p>\n

Jurors were shown screenshots of text messages between West and Saxon, in which they called each other \u201cbrother\u201d and responded with heart emojis. The court reportedly saw an image of Saxon\u2019s bed set-up at the house, too. This was said to consist of just a small mattress on a concrete floor.<\/p>\n

\"KanyeKanye West. CREDIT: DUTCH\/Bauer-Griffin\/GC Images\/Getty<\/p>\n

West allegedly demanded photo updates of the work, and reportedly hit out at Saxon for wearing blue clothes instead of the all-black uniform Ye preferred.<\/p>\n

Saxon went through numerous pages of text messages in court, including photos, updates and a budget he\u2019d put together. He reiterated that the rapper had hired him as a project manager on the demolition.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to turn the home into an open-concept, off-the-grid bunker, with privatised Wi-Fi and renewable energy,\u201d Saxon reportedly told the jury. \u201cHe didn\u2019t want to be connected to the city\u2019s power grid or water grid.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Saxon, the star asked for all wiring and plumbing to be removed, as well as a jacuzzi, chimney, a black-marble bathroom and more. He remembered one \u201cexperimental\u201d part of the job, involving the removal of all glass and windows.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole house needed to be open, very bare, minimalistic,\u201d Saxon said.<\/p>\n

When testifying about another occasion, he remembered arriving at the mansion to learn that the night watchman had been fired. Ye then asked Saxon to take on security duties, the latter claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince you\u2019re going to be there so much, running shifts, you should be the security,\u201d Ye allegedly told Saxon. He is said to have demanded: \u201cStay here now. You can\u2019t leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

West also allegedly told Saxon that the work should be done on the quiet, as the rapper didn\u2019t have any permits.<\/p>\n

West\u2019s lawyers alleged during their opening statements on Tuesday (February 24) that Saxon was working as an independent contractor, rather than an employee. They claimed that their evidence would prove that Saxon was an unlicensed contractor who \u201cdestroyed\u201d the \u201carchitectural gem\u201d.<\/p>\n

Attorney Andrew Cherkasky argued that it was Saxon who wanted to keep the project \u201cunder the radar and low-key\u201d so inspectors wouldn\u2019t discover he was unlicensed and \u201cshut down\u201d the job.<\/p>\n

One text exchange showed Saxon telling West: \u201cWe should probably chill for a bit on major noise outside until Monday, not to draw attention.\u201d He claimed that he sent the message after Ye expressed concern.<\/p>\n

Ye also raised concerns over \u201chow loud\u201d a generator would be, with another message from Saxon reading: \u201cJust got another huge load of trash discreetly out of here too.\u201d In response, West said: \u201cAwesome, keep sending updates.\u201d He included a heart emoji, as well.<\/p>\n

As for the back injury he suffered on the job, Saxon told the court that this occurred when he was taking down two chimney stacks: \u201cThe full force of the spire going down yanked my body and whiplashed me.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Cherkasky told the court on Tuesday that there was \u201cnot a single medical record\u201d showing Saxon was injured when he was working for West.<\/p>\n

Saxon\u2019s lawyer, Ron Zambrano, claimed that this was because his client did not immediately seek treatment: \u201cHe\u2019s not somebody who does what most people with health insurance who don\u2019t get fired by celebrities do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the rapper\u2019s alleged behaviour in the suit, Saxon claimed that Ye could be kind-natured at times. When West noticed that Saxon hadn\u2019t showered for days, he took him to Malibu\u2019s Nobu Hotel in Kim Kardashian\u2019s Lamborghini.<\/p>\n

Saxon is scheduled to return to court later today (Thursday February 26). The trial is expected to last another two weeks. Ye is due to testify, as is his wife Bianca Censori.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The man suing Kanye West\u00a0over injuries he allegedly sustained during the demolition of the rapper\u2019s Malibu beach house…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,677,128,678,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-448094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-hip-hop","tag-music","tag-rap","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}