Kanye West wanted to turn house into ‘bomb shelter from the 1910s’ to hide from Kardashians, says ex-employee

Kanye West wanted to remove the windows and electricity supply from his house to turn it into a “bomb shelter from the 1910s” where he could “hide from the Kardashians”.

The rapper — who has changed his name to Ye — is being sued by his former project manager and property caretaker Tony Saxon after he refused to make the requested changes and move large generators into the Malibu property in November 2021, where he was sleeping on the floor.

The complaint was given to NBC News and claimed Kanye ordered his employee to “get the hell out” and told him he would be “considered an enemy if he did not comply”.

The lawsuit continued: “When Plaintiff refused to engage in unlawful conduct or to engage in activity that would further cause him physical injury, Mr Ye responded, ‘If you don’t do what I say, you’re not going to work for me, I’m not gonna be your friend anymore and you’ll just see me on TV.'”

Tony worked for the 46-year-old rapper — who has four children with ex-wife Kim Kardashian — for around two months and though he claimed Kanye promised to pay him US$20,000 (S$27,000) a week, he received just two payments, one for his weekly salary and another for the project’s budget.

The man explained Kanye’s vision for the beach house, which he bought in September 2021, involved demolishing the custom marble bathrooms, taking out the custom windows, plumbing and electricity, and replacing the stairs with slides.

He told NBC News: “We were going to be gutting all of that out and sort of building him a Bat Cave [where he said he could] hide from the Clintons in and the Kardashians in.”

Tony initially believed the vision was conceived as an “art project”, not a place to live, much to his bemusement.

He said: “As we progressed, it’s becoming clear that, no, he wants to live in here.

“He wanted no electricity. He only wanted plants. He only wanted candles. He only wanted battery lights. And he just wanted to have everything open and dark.

“You can’t keep food in that house, because you had no refrigerator left. You had no windows. I had seagulls flying in.”

The rapper told his then-employee he didn’t want to be “accessible” to the government or to be a “slave” to modern conveniences.

He added: “He wants to be on a privatised Wi-Fi network. He wants to have an alternate source of energy. He wants to have no doors, no windows, no fixtures, just concrete.”

The lawsuit has accused the star of violating several labour codes, including dangerous working conditions, unpaid wages and wrongful retaliatory termination.