From legal battles to relentless trolling on social media platforms, musicians in the West are facing challenges that extend far beyond their musical talents. We take a look at some of the recent cases:
Kanye West
A former employee has accused rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, of anti-Black racism in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday, and also claimed that he had witnessed West’s homophobic and antisemitic outbursts. According to Variety, the employee, Trevor Phillips, who is Black, alleged that West had berated him and humiliated him in front of others, and that several employees noted that West treated Black employees worse than white ones.
Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo
Singer Pharrell Williams and producer Chad Hugo, who together formed the songwriting duo The Neptunes, are now battling each other in a legal dispute over the group’s name. In the legal action, which was filed last week and first reported by Billboard on Monday, attorneys for Hugo accused Williams of “fraudulently” seeking sole control over the Neptunes’ trademarks, which they claim is in violation of their agreement to split everything equally. The duo have been friends and collaborators since childhood and were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2022.
Billie Eilish
Singer Billie Eilish recently clarified that she did not intend to criticise colleague Taylor Swift when she spoke out about wasteful vinyl packaging, saying: “I wasn’t singling anyone out, these are industry-wide systemic issues”. The 22-year-old singer-songwriter made headlines after calling out artists who release multiple versions of their albums in different packaging, saying the practice is environmentally harmful.
Jimmie Allen
The country singer is no longer the subject of a sexual assault lawsuit that was filed by one of his former managers last June. As per Variety, the accuser has now dropped the country singer from the suit as part of a settlement. In a statement, the woman’s attorneys confirmed that they have filed paperwork asking the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee to dismiss Allen from the claims in the lawsuit. However, the singer remains the subject of a second, unrelated sexual lawsuit also filed last June by a different person.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, the hip-hop mogul, is under scanner on charges of sex trafficking. Amid an ongoing sex-trafficking probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), an ex-FBI agent claimed that noose is tightening around the mogul. In fact, his properties located in Miami and Los Angeles were raided by Homeland Security recently.
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