Ye testifies he doesn't recall much about aggrieved handyman

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Ye, the rapper, designer and entrepreneur formerly known as Kanye West, took the stand Friday in a court case brought by a handyman who claims $1 million in unpaid wages and expenses for work he did on a beachfront residence in Malibu.

Questioned by Ron Zambrano — the lawyer representing handyman plaintiff Tony Saxon — Ye mostly kept his answers to “yes,” “no,” “I’m not sure” and “I don’t recall” as he was asked about his dealings with Saxon in 2021.

Wearing a long, black leather coat over a gray double-breasted suit and a black T-shirt, Ye at times appeared to nod off in the small courtroom in downtown Los Angeles as Zambrano quizzed him.

The attorney went through bank records and text exchanges, hoping to jolt Ye’s memory about having hired Saxon to work on the house designed by renowned Japanese architect Tadao Ando, which Ye bought for $57 million in 2021.

Throughout the exchange, Zambrano repeatedly addressed him as Mr. Ye.

“It’s just Ye,” the artist said at one point.

In one of his more elaborate responses, Ye said the Ando House would have had plumbing.

“It was going to be a different system,” he told the jury.

At one point, LA County Superior Court Judge Brock Hammond implored Zambrano to ask simple and direct questions as his more convoluted inquiries failed to illicit helpful responses.

Saxon claims he was employed by Ye to help turn the minimalist mansion into an even more minimalist and off-the-grid residence, which was planned have its own sources of electricity and water independent of municipal utilities. He is suing Ye for lost wages including unpaid overtime, as well as medical expenses from what he says was a painful workplace injury to his back and neck.

Ye’s attorneys have argued Saxon was never a full-time employee and that Saxon was in effect working as a contractor without a license. Under California law, that would mean Saxon is not entitled to compensation and can’t sue over unpaid wages.

Ye’s wife, Bianca Censori, testified earlier this week that Saxon pretended he was a contractor.

“When I stopped working at the house, I said, ‘Do you have a contractor’s license?’ And he said he did,” Censori told the jury.

She explained that Saxon had “interjected” himself into the center of the ambitious and ever-morphing project. She said it wasn’t uncommon for people in Ye’s circle to oversell themselves.

Saxon has a different story. He told the jury about how he went to Home Depot with Ye in the hip-hop artist’s Lamborghini to shop for power tools late one Saturday night after he had reluctantly agreed to help overhaul the architectural masterpiece.

When he first met with Ye at the Ando House, Saxon said that as they walked through the house, Ye told him that he wasn’t happy with work done by architects under the direction of Censori. Ye wanted him to take over the project, Saxton told jurors.

“I told him I was just a guy with a minivan — not a licensed contractor,” Saxon testified.

According to Saxon, though, Ye wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“Don’t tell me you can’t,” Saxon said Ye told him. “You can.”

Ye testified he didn’t recall who hired Saxon or how much he was supposed to get paid. He also said he didn’t remember going to the hardware store with him.

When asked by Zambrano whether he recalled telling Saxon he had bad body odor, Ye acknowledged that he did remember that. However, he said he didn’t remember taking the handyman to his hotel to bathe, as Saxon had recounted.

Ye’s vision for the Ando House never was realized. He has since sold the property.

After Zambrano finished his direct examination of Ye, the artist’s attorney Andrew Cherkasky declined to cross-examine his client.

Zambrano told the judge that the plaintiff rested his case — and Cherkasky said the defense wouldn’t call any witnesses. That means the case will go to the jury as soon as Monday.

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