Poltics
Rapper Ye – previously identified as Kanye West – has been accused of sexual assault in a civil lawsuit that alleges he strangled a model on the set of a music video.
Warning: This story contains little print that readers might perhaps perhaps additionally find distressing
The lawsuit alleges the musician shoved his fingers in the claimant’s mouth at the Chelsea Resort in New York Metropolis in 2010, in what it refers to as “pornographic gagging”, Sky News’ US partner community NBC News reported.
The model who introduced the case – which used to be filed on Friday in the US District Court docket for the Southern District of New York – used to be a background actor for one more musician’s music video that Ye used to be visitor-starring in, NBC mentioned, citing the lawsuit.
She is seeking compensatory and punitive damages against the 47-12 months-mature.
A consultant for Ye used to be approached for commentary by NBC News on Saturday.
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 just a few hours into the shoot, the rapper arrived on set, took over control and ordered “female background actors/models, including the claimant, to line up in the hallway”.
The rapper is then believed to maintain “evaluated their appearances, pointed to two of the women, and then commanded them to follow him”.
The lawsuit provides the claimant, who used to be mentioned to be wearing “revealing lingerie”, used to be sad however went with Ye to a suite which had a sofa and a camera.
When in the room, Ye is declared to maintain ordered the production team to originate playing the music, to which he did no longer know his lyrics and instead 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.”
While stood over the model, the lawsuit clams Ye strangled her with both fingers, according to NBC.
It claims he went on to “emulate forced oral sex” along with his fingers, with the rapper allegedly screaming: “This is art. This is f****** art. I am like Picasso.”
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Universal Music Community is additionally named in the lawsuit as a defendant and is accused of failing to investigate the incident.
The corporation did no longer instantly respond to a examine for commentary by NBC.
Jesse S Weinstein, a attorney representing the claimant, mentioned the woman “displayed great courage to speak out against some of the most powerful men and entities within the entertainment industry”.