The past few years have been quite tumultuous for Kanye West. Though many of those difficulties have involved his complicated split from The Kardashians star, Kim Kardashian, trying to co-parent their four children, and West’s feelings about Pete Davidson hanging out with their son, he’s now been hit with his third non-divorce related lawsuit in just a few weeks. West has now been slapped with a $7 million suit because of his cancelled Coachella performance.
Why Is Kanye West Being Sued Over His Cancelled Coachella Concert?
Earlier this year, Kanye West cancelled his Coachella performance after a bit of a dust-up between himself and one of his co-headliners, Billie Eilish. Now, according to The Blast, which got ahold of the court documents, he’s being sued by Phantom Labs, which claims it worked with him on several projects, notably his planned Coachella concert, but that the superstar hasn’t paid for the work they did.
The lawsuit notes that the company worked with West from June 2021 to March 2022, and collaborated with him on four events, including what would have been his Coachella set. The highly anticipated event was scheduled to begin on April 15, but West backed out just a few days before, and those at Phantom Labs want both the unpaid fees due from West, along with the $1.1 million dollars in cancelation fees they say they were charged when he decided to back out of the concert.
Phantom Labs is looking to be awarded $7,154,177.67, which is what they claim they are owed by West, with the filing noting that they are suing the Donda rapper for quantum meruit (meaning a reasonable amount for services rendered, when the amount due isn’t actually spelled out in a contract that can be legally enforced), breach of oral contract, promissory estoppel (West promised to pay a certain amount, but didn’t), and account stated.
Apparently, according to the suit, Phantom Labs and West were on very good terms at first, with the entertainer paying his bills as expected. However, when he backed out of Coachella, he didn’t get the estimated $9 million he would have received, which allegedly led to him not continuing to pay on the more than $6 million he still owed the company. Phantom Labs is also asking for “pre-judgment and post-judgment interest, comprising the approved budgeted and invoiced amounts,” and “other relief” that the court “deems just and proper.”
West has spent years now being very vocal on social media about a number of things, and in early February, when he was already set to headline Coachella with Eilish and Harry Styles, he publicly asked for Eilish to apologize to his fellow rapper, Travis Scott, for a perceived slight West thought she made during one of her concerts. Eilish denied ever making the comments that West said she made, and therefore didn’t apologize, so West held true to his word and dumped his Coachella time.
As noted before, Kanye West is also being sued right now for copyright infringement because of allegedly sampling a song for his new album, Donda 2, without permission, and TMZ reported that he’s also embroiled in a suit with a fashion archivist who claims West hasn’t paid for or returned over a dozen rare clothing items he rented in 2020, with that suit asking for nearly $417,000. Hopefully, West will be able to settle all of these lawsuits without prolonged legal action, so he can go back to putting himself and his kids first and spending some time drama-free and out of the spotlight.
