Rapper Ye – previously often known as Kanye West – has been accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit that alleges he strangled a mannequin on the set of a music video.
Warning: This story comprises particulars that readers could discover distressing
The mannequin who introduced the case – which was filed on Friday within the US District Court docket for the Southern District of New York – was a background actor for an additional musician’s music video that Ye was guest-starring in, NBC mentioned, citing the lawsuit.
She is in search of compensatory and punitive damages in opposition to the 47-year-old.
The New York Metropolis Police Division mentioned it took “sexual assault and rape cases extremely seriously, and urges anyone who has been a victim to file a police report so we can perform a comprehensive investigation, and offer support and services to survivors”.
The lawsuit alleges that a number of hours into the shoot, the rapper arrived on set, took over management and ordered “female background actors/models, including the claimant, to line up in the hallway”.
The rapper is then believed to have “evaluated their appearances, pointed to two of the women, and then commanded them to follow him”.
The lawsuit provides the claimant, who was mentioned to be sporting “revealing lingerie”, was uncomfortable however went with Ye to a collection which had a settee and a digital camera.
When within the room, Ye is alleged to have ordered the manufacturing group to start out taking part in the music, to which he didn’t know his lyrics and as a substitute rambled, “rawr, rawr, rawr”.
The lawsuit claims: “Defendant West then pulled two chairs near the camera, positioned them across from each other, and instructed the claimant to sit in the chair in front of the camera.”
Whereas stood over the mannequin, the lawsuit clams Ye strangled her with each fingers, in keeping with NBC.
It claims he went on to “emulate forced oral sex” together with his fingers, with the rapper allegedly screaming: “This is art. This is f****** art. I am like Picasso.”
Common Music Group can be named within the lawsuit as a defendant and is accused of failing to analyze the incident.
The company didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark by NBC.
Jesse S Weinstein, a lawyer representing the claimant, mentioned the girl “displayed great courage to speak out against some of the most powerful men and entities within the entertainment industry”.
