Photo Credit: Peter Hutchins / CC by 2.0
A wild and ‘profanity-laced’ deposition by Kanye West could now result in sanctions from a California federal court — and a damning verdict in favor of plaintiff MyChannel.
On the plus side, Kanye West did show up for his virtual deposition against plaintiff MyChannel. But after the Zoom call kicked off, things quickly slid downhill.
Digital Music News first broke the news last year of MyChannel’s $10 million-plus lawsuit against West. In a nutshell, MyChannel claims that Kanye partnered with the “pioneering video and e-commerce technology company” before ripping off its technology. Naming both Kanye West and Yeezy Apparel as defendants, MyChannel – which claims to have created AI tech that can “seamlessly marry video content to e-commerce” – maintains that Kanye West violated the terms of an “oral joint venture partnership” while it helped to develop the Yeezy online store.
Like many court battles, the COVID-19 pandemic is still slowing proceedings and forcing lots of Zoom calls. That includes the latest deposition by West, which was apparently filled with profanities, outlandish insults, and the donning of a mask bearing the image of Jesus. In court documents filed last week and shared with Digital Music News, MyChannel attorneys noted that Kanye repeatedly called the opposing attorney Michael Popok “boy” while sneeringly declaring that Popok was merely “in a movie of West’s creation.”
But that was just the beginning.
According to MyChannel’s account, Kanye also reminded Popok that he was the “richest black man in America and a black Trump supporter and that he couldn’t be bothered with the deposition because he had lives to change.” Kanye’s exact net worth is disputed, though he’s clearly a multi-billionaire.
West also asked Popok if he was “f—king stupid” while refusing to stop using his phone.
And just when you thought this couldn’t get worse — or better, depending on your perspective — Kanye put on a mask with an image of Jesus on it. That quickly muffled Kanye’s voice, making it difficult to understand his concluding points. Shortly afterward, Kanye abruptly ended the call.
“West’s bad faith efforts to sabotage the deposition will be viewed by the Court as one of the most outrageous and inappropriate deposition performances it has observed as well,” MyChannel’s filing declared.
Sounds pretty Kanye-esque, though in fairness, Kanye is a rapper. And court depositions are sort of like rap battles, which are loaded with insults. The only problem is that the presiding judge may not agree with that assessment, especially when reviewing MyChannel’s request to impose $62,725 in penalties.