LOS ANGELES – A judge Tuesday spared three companies owned by Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, from possible default judgments when a new attorney showed up in court to represent the rapper and the entities in a lawsuit alleging that Ye owes $7.1 million in unpaid fees to a production company.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Christopher Lui also ordered the parties, who agreed to participate in mediation, to complete that effort by April 2024.
The plaintiff, Phantom Labs Inc., brought the case last July 14 against Ye and the firms Very Good Touring Inc., Yeezy Apparel LLC and Yeezy LLC. Phantom alleges that it performed its obligations to Ye, but was not paid as required under the parties’ contract.
The new defense attorney is Gregory Nelson, who replaces lawyers Nina Boyajian and Alana Srour of the law firm Greenberg Traurig LLP. On Dec. 6, Lui granted a motion by Boyajian and Srour to withdraw their representation. The pair did not elaborate on what they called a breakdown in communications between them and their 45-year-old celebrity client, saying only that Ye had made it “unreasonably difficult” for them to continue representing him.
Lui raised the possibility of a default judgment against the companies during the December hearing because they were not represented by a licensed attorney at the time.
According to the suit, just weeks after promising to make Phantom whole from the reported $9 million payment the rapper was to receive for his Coachella appearance, Ye without warning decided not to appear at the concert, allegedly reneging on promises to pay Phantom’s multimillion-dollar balance and leaving the plaintiff with an additional $1.1 million in Coachella-related cancellation fees and other expenses, the suit states.
Ye was expected to headline the closing night of each weekend on April 17 and April 24.
Phantom also worked on Ye and Drake’s “Free Larry Hoover” concert at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, according to the suit.
